very stupid question about firewall

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by mantra, Mar 26, 2005.

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  1. mantra

    mantra Registered Member

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    Hi
    i'm using outpost like firewall
    but really what can happen if i don't run a firewall
    yeah somebody can enter in my pc and ?
    what can he/she do?
     
  2. gerardwil

    gerardwil Registered Member

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  3. CrazyM

    CrazyM Firewall Expert

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    Your system could crash/become unstable/unusable, files could be deleted, private information stolen, your system could be used in attacks against other systems/networks, it could be used to store files (warez, porn, etc), to name a few things.

    Regards,

    CrazyM
     
  4. headman

    headman Registered Member

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    Another possibility is that your computer's hard drive or motherboard may be destoyed totally ... meaning: beyond repair. I have seen about half a dozen computers lost this way over the past year or so.
     
  5. Diver

    Diver Registered Member

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    Actually, zombies will jump out of your pc and hold everyone in your house hostage. All the freon will leak out of your air conditioner. Your car will need a new battery and a brake job. You will stub your toe...

    Better keep that firewall.
     
  6. mantra

    mantra Registered Member

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    how? :doubt: :doubt: :doubt: :doubt: :doubt: :doubt:
     
  7. hollywoodpc

    hollywoodpc Registered Member

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    Mantra .
    Most definately , use a firewall . Much safer .
     
  8. Alec

    Alec Registered Member

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    Well, your PC won't just burst into flames, but it is a good idea to run a firewall otherwise you are left entirely at the mercy of the operating system and whatever vulnerabilities it exposes. There are and have been many varied exploits possible with exposed PC's, but these are diminishing somewhat as Microsoft begins to patch some of the issues and turn off by default unnecessary services. Still, it's a good idea to run a firewall because you never know what vulnerabilities remain or might be introduced by 3rd party apps.

    What are some of the things that can be done? There are network level Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that are designed to corrupt your network stack, consume resources, force a bluescreen, and/or force a reboot. These would include things like: WinNuke, Ping of Death, Teardrop, SYN Drop, Land attack, Boink, SYN Flood, UDP Bomb, etc. Then there are vulnerabilities associated with whatever services are actively listening for incoming packets. On Windows systems, this has included things like: NetBIOS, RPC, UPnP, P2P services, IM services, etc. With these vulnerable services the attacks can range from everything from DoS, to information gathering / reconnaissance, to actual code upload / execution. Code execution is the holy grail, of course, and isn't always possible but it definitely happens from time to time with the discovery of new vulnerabilities and exploits. And if the bad guys can get code to execute, then basically the game is over. They can and will find a way to make your machine do anything they want: keylogging, screen capture, DDoS zombie, email relay, worm/virus carrier, file deletion / data destruction, etc.

    Yes, it's theoretically possible, although quite rare, in some cases for them to trash your harddrive and/or motherboard. How? Well one way is that many motherboards make use of Electronically Eraseable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROMs) for storing the BIOS code. I believe that it is possible in some circumstances for malware code to initiate a flash of the BIOS and overwrite it with nonsense. If that were to happen, then your PC would basically become a paperweight until you could restore the proper BIOS image.
     
  9. no13

    no13 Retired Major Resident Nutcase

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    Wouldn't YOU like to know?
    Unfortunately... he's right :(
    :ninja:
     
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