From: Tony Williams 

True, if the call is to a DLL the information is more available, but I
understood that to be exactly what Geo was talking about since he mentioned
a bug that affected many apps.

Fixed by everybody and run by nobody? Well, no system is immune from a
clueless sysadmin. However, most of the mainstream distros have an
automated update tool which will alert admins to the existence of security
fixes.

I still think it comes down to the availability of a patch and open source
has the advantage there.

--
Tony

Paul Ranson wrote:
> "Tony Williams"  wrote in message
> news:3DE69ED6.1020209{at}blarg.net...
>
>>Disagree. There are enough tools out there (e.g. nm, which is available
>>on Windows) to find out which functions a binary is using that the
>>difference between closed and open is negligible from a hacker's POV.
>
>
> Only if you link against a DLL.
>
>
>>The difference is that the vendor of a closed source program is the only
>>one who can (legally) provide a fixed version, whereas if the app is
>>open-source it can be fixed by anybody.
>
>
> More likely fixed by everybody and installed and run by nobody.
>
> Paul
>

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