Thanks Manuel
It is great to see a little more activity here... From my first look, it seemed somewhat dead... But I was wrong, it isn't! And more that that, the 1.3 just came out and it looks great!
I was looking at the changelog, and there is not a lot of updates! The 1.3 beta had a lot of activity, but it was in beta for like 3 years!!!
Compared to the 1.2X series, there are a lot of changes. You are right though, maybe not a lot near the end. Long beta maybe, but I'm glad because when I upgraded from the 1.2X release series to the 1.3 release there were no hiccups or problems. Everything worked right away and has been since the release a few days ago. A big relief for me since the future will be a lot of "upgrading" to the new version with hopefully little to no side-effects.
When there is a little thing like a security patch, is everything updated? I mean, is it an installable patch only? Or is it also available quickly on the cd-rom and other builds?
Because I want to use m0n0wall with a bootable cd and a usb drive or floppy for the configuration.
I think the best way to describe the security patches is really an entire release. Each release is the full version, so yes, everything is updated including any CD or other builds that carry the 1.2X or new 1.3 version numbers. That doesn't mean that each release has 100 security patches applied, only those that affect m0n0wall. M0n0wall, while yes technically an OS with a web based GUI, isn't really setup to be a machine where clients are going to web surf or play music off of the machine. So *usually* any security exploits would have to get past the login screen first. I don't worry myself about a worm/virus/hacker coming right into the system and taking over without at least having to clear the administrative login hurdle first. Of course, if my system password is 123 then I have bigger issues to worry about than exploits when the hacker can just guess my password in a few tries instead to get total control.
Don't get me wrong though, everything you've said is a very valid concern, especially in a business environment. The last thing we all want to read is a security bulletin with "m0n0wall rooted by silly exploit ABC". But the m0n0wall team is always on top of their game when it comes to serious security here.
Topic: FreeBSD local root access