FREE SECURITY SUITE 2
Easy, Intuitive and Complete Free Security Suite with Web Browser Integration
Javier Corral-García, Carlos-Jorge del Arco González
José Luis González-Sánchez and José Luis Redondo García
Department of Computing and Telematic System Engineering, University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain
Keywords: Free software, Security, Suite, Privacy, Network threats, Web browser extension.
Abstract: Nowadays there are many security suites to protect a system against threats from the network. However,
users must purchase a license to use them. There is the possibility of installing some free-of-charge security
tools (often Free Software tools), without license payments and avoiding illegal use of software. The
disadvantages are that each tool focuses on monitoring only one security threat, leaving a loft of other
aspects unprotected. Moreover, in most cases these tools run on command line, involving difficult
configuration processes for non-expert users. We have developed a Free and easy to use suite that ensures
the security of the systems in which it is installed, and designed for users who don’t have enough time, nor
high knowledge about computer security, to protect their systems against threats from the network
adequately. In order to achieve our objectives, we made a thorough study of the latest free software tools,
with the aim of choosing the best for our suite, developing several easy and intuitive graphical interfaces for
the command line tools, even modifying the source code of one of them, and developing an extension to
integrate FSS-2 in the Mozilla Firefox browser.
1 INTRODUCTION
System and network security are fundamental
cornerstones that seek to ensure the protection of
information. Unfortunately they are not easy goals to
achieve (De-Silva et al., 2007). The Internet has
grown dramatically and evolved significantly over
the past 10 years (Arlitt & Williamson, 2007) and, as
the level of trade and commerce conducted over it
increases, so does the requirement that the Internet is
reliable and secure. Unfortunately, the quantity and
complexity of security threats to the Internet is also
increasing (Sandford et al., 2006). The Free Security
Suite 2 project, or FSS-2, appears with the need to
offer users a complete easy and intuitive tool to
protect their systems against increasing threats.
Nowadays there are many security suites to
protect a system. However, users must purchase a
license to use these Software products. This fact
means that, generally, the user decides to leave their
system unprotected or using this software illegally,
facing the consequences accordingly. There is the
possibility of installing some free-of-charge security
tools in order to solve the problems of the user,
without license payments and avoiding illegal use of
software. The disadvantages are that each tool
focuses on monitoring only one security threat,
leaving a lot of other aspects unprotected, in most
cases, involving difficult configuration processes
and a complex interface for non-expert users.
Our previous version, Free Security Suite
(Castuera et al., 2004), emerged to solve these
problems, by offering a free security suite that
integrated several easy and intuitive tools to control
various security aspects at the same time. FSS
became the only application with such features, and
nowadays it still has this singularity, due to the non-
existence of another Free Software security suite.
However, throughout these years, the application
has become obsolete. For this reason we have
developed FSS-2, a new version adapted to current
needs. The philosophy is the same one but with an
improved suite, returning to make a thorough study
of the latest free software tools, with the aim of
choosing the best for our suite, developing easy and
intuitive graphical interfaces, also modifying the
source code of one tool, and developing an extension
to integrate FSS-2 in the Mozilla Firefox browser
(Firefox, 2009), so that it can be used more
comfortably.
341
Corral-García J., del Arco González C., Luis González-Sánchez J. and Luis Redondo García J. (2009).
FREE SECURITY SUITE 2 - Easy, Intuitive and Complete Free Security Suite with Web Browser Integration.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Security and Cryptography, pages 341-344
DOI: 10.5220/0002231003410344
Copyright
c
 SciTePress

2 PREVIOUS ANALYSIS
We proposed to develop Free and easy to use tool,
that ensure the security of the systems in which it is
installed, and directs towards users who don’t have
enough time, nor high knowledge about computer
security, to adequately protect their systems. Thus,
FSS-2 is a tool with easy use and configuration
features, which controls the main aspects of security
that concerns common users. We wanted to develop
it as a Free Software tool, GPL licensed, among
other reasons, so that its use would not involve any
cost to any user. The source code is distributed with
the tool and can be modified without restrictions,
allowing anybody to improve its features or to adapt
it to other specific requirements.
2.1 Tools Analysis
With the goal of making FSS-2 to strengthen the
security of a system in as many aspects as possible,
we previously performed a thorough analysis of the
threats that presents nowadays a computer system,
analyzing in depth the latest protection tools, in
order to choose the most suitable to join FFS-2.
2.1.1 Anti-RootKit
FSS-2 includes Tripwire (2009), for to obtain and
compare fingerprints of programs, and Chkrootkit
(2009) and Rkhunter (2009), as a detection method if
it is suspected that the rookit is already present in
our system. These tools run on command line mode
so we have developed an interface for each of them
in order to make their use more intuitive to the user.
2.1.2 File Encryption
After analyzing many files encryption tools, we
finally opted for ScramDisk (2009), which has an
intuitive graphical interface that facilitates the task
to the user.
2.1.3 e-Mail Encryption
GnuGP (2009) allows encrypt communications and
data, with a key management system and access
modules for all types of public key directories. It
runs from the command line, so it was desirable to
incorporate a graphical user manager to enable him
to exploit all the opportunities offered by GnuPG.
So, we were analyzed different possibilities,
choosing GPA (2009) finally, due to its simplicity
and its more intuitive use.
2.1.4 AntiPhising
Mozilla Firefox (Firefox, 2009) browser
incorporates an antiphishing tool. It is GPL licensed,
being chosen as the anti-phishing tool for FSS-2.
2.1.5 Firewall
We decided to include two tools: Firestarter (2009)
is made for users who prefer an easy tool with good
results; GuardDog is the option for users with higher
knowledge and who wish to obtain a more advanced
configuration from their firewall.
2.1.6 Antivirus
We have selected ClamAV (2009), a GPL licensed
antivirus with support for Linux, simple updating
method, and versions released often by their
developers. ClamAV can be run on command line
mode or on various graphical environments. In our
suite, we have included the KlamAV environment
(2009), which we considered it has the best features,
providing exclusive options not included on others,
and making habitual tasks such as updating of the
Clam graphical environment easier.
2.1.7 Content Filter
FSS-2 includes the Dansguardian tool (2009), GPL
licensed, after analyzing various content filtering
tools. However, it runs on command line. So, we
have developed a graphical interface that replaces
command mode, developing modifications on the
source code of the application, with the objective of
improving it substantially.
2.1.8 Anti-Spam
Users are able to install Thunderbird (2009) with a
Bayesian filter incorporated, and also the installation
and configuration of the CRM114 (2009) system to
sort email messages using Kmail (2009) client. We
have enabled an option in our application to access
the Evolution (2009) mail client, because it presents
an integrated anti-spam filter. CRM114 was chosen
because it has obtained the best results according to
our preferences.
3 DEVELOPMENT
We developed graphical interfaces that allow users
to configure and run the tools explained above.
Besides this, we had to develop interfaces for
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execute script files and operating system commands,
to achieve applications that run specific command
line orders.
Our suite can be easily installed and configured
on any Linux system because our data model is
based on a collection of text files.
In addition, we made a modification in the
source code of the Dansguardian tool, in order to
obtain a configuration based on user groups, so that
each group can have a set of predefined filtering
options, because its initial configuration was too
complex.
3.1 Mozilla Firefox Extension
Although the application can be executed
differently, we developed an extension to include
FSS-2 as a tool in the Mozilla Firefox browser, so
that it can be used more comfortably.
3.2 Installation Scripts
The installation was performed through automated
scripts to avoid complex configurations task when
the user begins to run the suite.
3.3 Implementation
FSS-2 applications may be used separately,
independent of the suite. The implementation has
been carried out using C++ programming language
together with Shell Script language and operating
system GNU/Linux commands. The tools used have
been Anjuta IDE and Glade interface designer, in
addition to some official libraries.
4 FSS-2
The access to the application is done through Firefox
browser by opening the Tools menu and choosing
the FSS-2 option. The main window shows eight
tabs that allow access to the different tools, each one
indicating its basic functionality.
4.1 Anti-rootkit
The Anti-rookit tab provides access to rootkit
detection applications through the intuitive graphical
user interfaces that we developed. We carry out
several options for Chkrootkit for: to start the
rootkits analysis, to access the latest analysis results,
and to search for and install new updates
automatically. RKHunter add another option,
updating its database and saving the files analyzed
as authentic. With Tripwire we allow users to verify
the files integrity.
4.2 Antivirus
Using this tab, we include the KlamAV graphical
interface in order to use the ClamAV antivirus. Thus,
users can scan their systems (with the chance of
scheduling this task), update antivirus, configure e-
mails scanning, managing quarantine files, etc.
4.3 Antispam
The Antispam tab provides access to the email
clients included with FSS-2, in addition to the
CRM114 tool that we integrated with KMail, due to
the reasons set out in the tools analysis section,
where we also explain the reasons for this choice.
4.4 File Encryption
FSS-2 allows the user to create encrypted disk
partitions and volumes. Data is encrypted in a
container, and when the user has access to this data,
it is opened and automatically decrypted, through
the ScramDisk tool.
Figure 1: GPA encryption tab FSS-2.
4.5 e-Mail Encryption
We allow performing the encryption of text
messages for later e-mail data transmission. The tool
is used through GPA graphical environment, which
that allows user to get all the GnuPG features in an
easy and intuitive way. By means of the mentioned
tools, it allows encryption, decryption, signature and
document verification, besides import and export of
public key.
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Figure 2: Dansguardian main window FSS-2.
4.6 Content Filter
Dansguardian, allows the control of Internet
contents. We have developed a graphical
environment for FSS-2 that allows users to use the
tool in a comfortable and intuitive way. Also, we
have realized a modification which consists on a
configuration based on user groups, with the
objective that each one can have a set of predefined
filtering options, because its initial configuration
seemed to be too complex to non-expert user.
4.7 Firewall
We had included two tools: Firestarter, for users
who prefer an easy tool with good results, and
GuardDog for users with higher knowledge and who
wish to obtain a more advanced configuration.
4.8 Antiphising
The tool we offer is integrated into Mozilla Firefox
web browser, however, FSS-2 incorporates a tab to
enable/disable this protection in the browser.
4.9 General Preferences
Also, we have incorporated several options in order
to automate various tasks, such as the execution of
some tools or the whole suite at system start-up, or
of different scheduled analysis.
5 CONCLUSIONS
We have developed an easy to use and Free tool that
ensures the security of systems, and designed for
users who don’t have enough time, nor high
knowledge about computer security, to protect their
systems against threats in an easy and intuitive way.
Thus, FSS-2 is a tool with easy use and
configuration features, which controls the main
aspects of security that concerns common users.
Besides, as free tool, the source code is distributed
and can be modified without restrictions, allowing
everybody to improve its features.
We made a thorough study of the latest free
software tools, with the aim of choosing the best for
our suite, developing easy and intuitive graphical
interfaces for command line tools, even modifying
the source code of one of them.
We performed the installation of FSS-2 through
different automated scripts to avoid complex
configurations task when user begins to run the
suite, and although the application can be executed
differently, we developed an extension to include
FSS-2 as a tool in the Mozilla Firefox browser, so it
can be used more comfortably.
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Arlitt, M., Williamson, C., 2007. The extensive challenges
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Castuera Toro, M., Carmona-Murillo, J.D., González-
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Chkrootkit. Accessed 2009, http://www.chkrootkit.org/
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CRM114. Accessed 2009, http://crm114.sourceforge.net/
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KlamAV. Accessed 2009, http://klamav.sourceforge.net/
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