[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#403863: initscripts: Stray file /lib/init/rw/.ramfs not in package list

[Sam Kuper]

I'm relatively new to system administration. I picked Debian over FreeBSD,
Ubuntu, Fedora and a few other systems for a number of reasons, one of these
being its reputation for internal consistency. This issue is making me
question that reputation.

The opportunity to avoid having to monkeypatch things is one of Debian's
great attractions, but it's failing in this case. Rootkits aren't to be
trifled with. Sysadmins' time shouldn't be trifled with either.

Also, given that the first thing a security-conscious newbie sysadmin is
going to do is to learn how to use a distro's security tools, including its
rootkit detection packages. It's very hard for a new user to tell, on
seeing, say, chkrootkit throw an error about /lib/init/rw/.ramfs , whether
it's a false positive or not. That's not good for the learning curve, which
in turn isn't good for Debian adoption.

Please could the initscripts maintainers do the decent thing and:

*stop using hidden files that look like trojans,
* OR, failing that, amend the Debian documentation to explicitly allow such
files to be used in the ways reported in this bug, and co-ordinate a patch
with the chkrootkit maintainers?

Debian users will thank you for solving this problem :)

Let me be the first: many thanks in advance,

Sam
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