What is Live CD?
According to the article ”The magic of Live CD” , a Live CD is a bootable CD/DVD containing any kind of an Operating System. The most amazing thing about the Live CD is that it can run a complete operating system on a computer lacking the hard drive, because the Live CD uses RAM.
There are many kind of the Live CDs and all of them are distinguished by propose. Ones serve as a complete desktop systems with hundreds installed softwares including games, text editors, programming environment and software for the Internet. Other Live CDs consist of software, which is intended for installing an operating system (OS) or its rescue, while another are very helpful with risen questions about the information security.
The example of the Live CD with complete desktop system is Slax Live CD, whose rating is the highest 2. The Windows Live CD is a great example of the CD, which is intended for the system rescue and system administration. Using the Windows Live CD we can check the hard driver for physical errors and file system's mistakes and fix all of them, moreover, we can reset or completely remove an administrator's password and/or check the system for existence of viruses. The BlackTrack Live CD differs from other CDs. While another Live CDs ,as mentioned above, are intended for OS installation and/or OS rescue, the BlackTrack is used for information security investigation and consist of over three hundred security and forensics tools.
While speaking about the Live CDs, their importance for information security should be mentioned. Needless to say that the Live CDs can be used not only for the OS rescue, but also for finding and deleting the viruses. Well known fact is that for the Live CD usually CD-R is used, it means that information on that disks cannot be altered, which is very useful while working with environment consisting of viruses or/and malicious software. Another benefit of using the Live CD is opportunity to run the complete operating system without a hard drive. As an example, users can start the Live CD on the computer and during or upon finishing their work save all processed documents/files on a USB stick or on a remote host by connecting to the server via virtual private network (VPN). Also, the Live CDs usually consist of many useful utilities for cracking different passwords. For instance, the Microsoft Live CD has a program for cracking an administrator's password and RAR and ZIP archives.
It is quite difficult to describe all kind of the Live CDs due to their diversity. Everyone picks up the disk suitable for him/her and which has the necessary software. Everyday the Live CDs are getting more and more popular. And if couple years ago they were used usually by only professional people, nowadays they are used also by users with low level knowledges.
Resources:
1.The Live CD List www.livecdlist.com2. “The magic of live CDs” www.freesoftwaremagazine.com
3.Remote-Exploite.org
4.forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=219866
5.livecdnews.com
6.ubuntu.com
No comments:
Post a Comment