Linux is generally referred to as a more secure operating system and it happens for a good reason: the number of hacks, malware, and vulnerabilities that can be used to compromise a Linux machine is substantially smaller than in the case of Windows, and it’s all thanks to security features that are baked into the OS.
But security researcher Chris Evans says that it’s easier than most of us think to break into a Linux system and all you need is a scriptless exploit.
How it works
First of all, some context. Evans says that his exploit attempts to use a memory corruption vulnerabilities in the GStreamer framework that’s available in the majority of Linux distributions – his demonstration, however, was made on Fedora.
The exploit bypasses two of the security systems that are integrated in Linux, namely address space layout randomization (ASLR) and da... (read more)