Don't most linux distro's now have an auto-update system? I don't bother with notifications, I simply have my server check that all it's services are up to date every day, and install any updates.

0.o

That sounds crazy because of dependencies... Maybe freebsd is different as far as that goes but Idk how I feel about daily auto-updates of services.

There's ways you can roll back the updates if they're a problem.

FreeBSD is different from Linux. It is not distributed in pre-compiled packages, but in full source. Updates have to be compiled. This has the advantage that you always have binaries which are optimally compiled for your working environment, but auto updating is problematic.

Well that sounds quaint.

Kudos to the hardcore, but I'm looking to the get job done. All these gui's and auto-updates let me work like a windows user. Mostly it works and I don't have to think.

And I forgot to add :).

wheel wrote:

Kudos to the hardcore, but I'm looking to the get job done. All these gui's and auto-updates let me work like a windows user. Mostly it works and I don't have to think.

This is actually sort of true in the Linux world now...CentOS and RHEL do a pretty good job of making sure that your auto-update process won't break things. They're usually many versions behind "latest" for any given software pkg, and they're not super speedy about getting security patches in...but they usually don't break your server.


digitsix asked:

I just want a simple way to keep on top of security issues that arise for my services (apache, proftpd, qmail, vpopmail, courier imap, assp, php, mysql, Freebsd system)

You'll never stay on top of 0-day vulnerabilities, by definition. But unless you're a bank or other high-value target, you won't get hit by 0-day exploits either. So what you really want to do is stay on top of security patches for the packages you use.

Some of the communities you list maintain security-only mailing lists and/or RSS feeds. That might be step 1.

More generally, you might be able to find a service (sourceforge?) that will notify you when a new version of a cared-about software package is released. You might have to check the release notes for security-related bugfixes and decide whether to update on a case-by-case basis. But it's a start.

If you're on FreeBSD, there are positives and negatives. Positive: you can update your ports tree via script to see if any packages you care about have rev'ed. Negative: ports sometimes lag official releases by a few days... but for big important stuff like you listed, you'll probably have good luck.

hat sounds crazy because of dependencies... Maybe freebsd is different as far as that goes but Idk how I feel about daily auto-updates of services.

Linux package managers, which handle installs and updates, take care of dependencies fairly well. It has been years since an update broke any system of mine, and that was an Ubuntu desktop - a Debian or RHEL server should be a lot more robust.