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Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Copycats on January 23, 2013, 03:16 am

Title: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: Copycats on January 23, 2013, 03:16 am
So here's another good question that would be hard for me to research on my own without some input from people with experience.
 What gnu/linux distro is the most secure, gives away the least amount of info or other good attributes.

I'm not talking a boot OS like Tails, what is the best hard disk OS to use?

However we should start a boot OS thread and elaborate more on that for the computer illiterate like myself. I understand the boot OS is a great way to stay completely anon and there are many ways to effectively use it and throw off any vulnerabilities inherent in Tor.

Again, most of this is just guessing so if i am wrong somewhere please feel free to come in and bash my head in with sack full of truth.
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: raynardine on January 23, 2013, 03:34 am
i'd suggest debian unless you are ultra-paranoid. in which case, you might try tinfoil hat linux.

i would still recommend you use debian (or linux mint debian edition) with tails in a virtual machine, such as virtualbox. you can save snapshots and pause/resume virtual machines.
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: Copycats on January 23, 2013, 03:55 am
thank you sir, I'll remember you're advice.

you know... people keep bitching about the newb section, it is nice to finally get some clear cut answers about IT security without having to worry about getting trolled
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: trippylizard on January 23, 2013, 03:58 am
A really big factor would be where you live. If you're unlucky enough to live in the UK, recent laws mean that you can be thrown in jail for refusing to supply your passwords/encryption keys. Your best bet would be to have an utterly innocuous and unencrypted machine, with a hidden Truecrypt volume containing a virtual machine that you can fire up as and when. (e.g. make a 20 gig Truecrypt volume, stuff a few hundred meg of perfectly legal porn in it "to hide it from the other half" using the duress password, and then create a 15 gig VM image in the hidden container that starts from the opposite end using the secret password) Oh, and make sure you have a few other innocuous virtual machine images knocking around too, in case the worst happens, and you start getting asked questions about why you have a VM client installed. Should have enough plausible deniability there.

If you're not in the UK, it's a lot easier. Debian/Ubuntu/whatever with full disk encryption, and an encrypted swap, will do the trick.
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: Mischke on January 23, 2013, 04:36 am
The US has similar laws forcing you to give up your password for encrypted volumes. And as discussed on the Truecrypt site and in other forums, having a hidden volume doesn't actually give you much peace of mind in these countries. If they suspect you of having a hidden volume, and you say you don't, they're not going to believe you and will throw you in jail for obstruction.

What do you have against boot OS's, though? You can always create a persistence volume to store files if you wish (I'm thinking Tails - I don't know about liberte or others). I personally rather have a boot OS and be able to sleep at night rather than install a 3GB distro that I have no clue what it's doing with my data...
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: Copycats on January 23, 2013, 05:00 am
 i don't have anything against boot OS's, re read I just wanted to know what everyone thought the best distro would be for me to use. i was going to make a thread about tails later but I'm seeing one in the security forums that i've been reading, I'll go ahead and make one, still have a lot of posts to go, re-read my top post....
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: raynardine on January 23, 2013, 05:11 am
Your best bet would be to have an utterly innocuous and unencrypted machine, with a hidden Truecrypt volume containing a virtual machine that you can fire up as and when.

He may not be competent enough at cryptography (yet) to understand how to do that.

He might be able to get away with simply using a 20 GB truecrypt partition and a virtual machine, and hide it in a file called "porn.avi" or something.

If you need help with truecrypt, feel free to ask me questions, and I'll answer them as quickly as I can.
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: DaveTheRave on March 18, 2013, 12:13 pm
Yeah Debian is pretty solid.
Xbuntu if you want a more updated distro without the bloat of Ubuntus windowing  system
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: josepepe on March 18, 2013, 04:32 pm
Use Tails (http://tails.boum.org) , is a linux distro integrated with TOR, truecrypt and other security software.
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: givememdma on March 18, 2013, 04:49 pm
I use Linux Mint and have never been arrested ;)
Title: Re: Best gnu/linux distro to use
Post by: Litescape on March 18, 2013, 05:19 pm
Depending on how technologically inept you are, Ubuntu might be good for you. Linux Mint is a very good, easy to use distro as well. The best for security would probably be Debian.

Don't be intimidated by linux -- I know it's confusing as fuck at first, but keep at it, Linux will reward you  ;)