Devil-Linux is a distribution which boots and runs completely from CDROM. The configuration can be saved to a floppy diskette or a USB pen drive.

Devil Linux was originally intended to be a dedicated firewall/router but now Devil-Linux can also be used as a server for many applications. Attaching an optional hard drive is easy, and many network services are included in the distribution.

The system is designed to install without the use of a hard drive. It requires the use of a CDROM and a write-protected floppy.

The CDROM provides the operating system, and the floppy provides the configuration information, via a tarball that is unpacked into the /etc directory. In this way, the system is fully configurable, yet the running system has no writeable device.

Here are some key features of "Devil Linux":

· Boots from CD

· Traditionally Devil Linux boots from a CD-ROM which is read-only by nature. This means an intruder will not be able to install i.e. an "ordinary" root kit.

· Boots from USB pendrive

· As all movable parts in your computer, the CD-ROM is prone to failure. This is the reason why we provide a script to install the entire system on an USB pendrive. Note: You need a computer which is able to boot from USB harddisks, in order to use this feature.

· Configuration is saved on a floppy disc or on a USB Flash Media

· Due to the read-only nature of CD-ROMs, you need a place to save your configuration files. This can either traditionally be on a floppy disc or on a USB flash media (like a pendrive), to increase the reliability.

· Configuration can be burned on CD

· There are cases when you have to ensure that the configuration can't be modified. This is the reason why we provide the feature for loading the configuration archive from the (read-only) CD-ROM.

· No need for a harddisk although it can optionally be used for data storage

· Most distributions need a harddisk for data storage, with DL this is completely optional. Reasons for adding harddisk data storage would be, i.e. when you use DL as your mail server or for file sharing. DL uses dynamic disc configuration via the Logical Volume Manager, which makes adding and maintaining the harddisk storage easy (regardless if you have only 1 GB or 1 TB of data).

· Support for Intel 486 and higher

· Got some old boxes in your bone yard? For most internet connection an old computer is enough to play the role of your Firewall, this is the reason why we still support 486 CPUs. But we're not stuck with old technologies, we also provide you a version vor 686 CPUs with SMP support.

· IPTables/Netfilter Support

· State of-the-art firewall functionality is provided by IPTables/Netfilter, which includes features like connection tracking. Devil-Linux adds many more Netfilter modules then you find in your standard Linux Kernel.

· Create your own, customized version with our Build System

· Since everybody has different requirements, Devil-Linux provides you with an easy-to-use build system, which enables you to create your own customized version. You can i.e. only add the packages you need on your machine or even add features which are currently missing in the mainstream version.

· Directly supported by Firewall Builder

· Don't like writing your Firewall rules by hand? Get Firewall Builder and use a great GUI tool to create your ruleset. Firewall Builder supports writing the rules directly onto your configuration floppy.

· No graphical desktop

· Devil-Linux has not support for i.e. X-Server. This greatly reduces the requirements to run DL and also greatly increases security by reducing the number of running programs. (Try this on Windows...)

· Almost all binaries are compiled with the GCC Stack Smashing Protector

· Except of a very few exceptions, all binaries are compiled with the GCC Stack Smashing Protector. Applications written in C will be protected by the method that automatically inserts protection code into an application at compilation time. The protection is realized by buffer overflow detection and the variable reordering feature to avoid the corruption of pointers.

· Improved Kernel Security through GRSecurity

· GRSecurity adds several new features and protection mechanisms to the Linux Kernel itself. This includes Chroot restrictions (did you know that it is easy to break out of a non-protected chroot jail?), Address space modification protection (like PAX), Auditing features, Randomization features and much more.

· Easy to use chroot

· Devil-Linux has support for chroot jails which is easy to use. Just define what you need in a configuration file and our jail script will take care of the rest. Some pre-defined configurations are already available.

Requirements:

· PC 486 DX2/66-class or better
· 32MB RAM
· bootable ATAPI or SCSI CD-ROM drive or USB Device
· 1.44" floppy disk drive or USB Device
· any network interfaces like 10 and/or 100MBps network interface cards or external analog/ISDN-Modem.

What's New in This Release:

· updated netpbm to 10.26.46
· updated swig to 1.3.32
· updated syslinux to 3.53
· updated sysstat to 8.0.3
· updated curl to 7.17.1
· updated glib to 2.14.3
· updated l7-protocols to 2007-11-03
· updated lftp to 3.6.1
· updated libpng to 1.2.23
· updated nasm to 0.99.06
· updated netfilter-layer7 to v2.15
· updated ntp to 4.2.4p4
· updated postfix to 2.4.6
· updated psmisc to 22.6
· updated stunnel to 4.21
· updated sudo to 1.6.9p8
· disabled IPv6 routing in the default config
· updated net-snmp to 5.4.1
· save-config did not correctly handle errors
· updated pci and usb device id databases
· updated wireless_tools to 29
· updated lm_sensors to 2.10.5
· updated dspam to 3.8.0
· updated device-mapper 1.02.22
· updated attr to 2.4.39
· updated acl to 2.2.45
· updated sagator to 0.9.1
· updated xfsprogs 2.8.20
· updated usbutils to 0.73
· updated sysstat 8.0.2
· updated sudo to 1.6.9p7
· updated shorewall to 4.0.5
· upgrade-config now correctly merges new and old account and groups
· updated samba to 3.0.26a
· updated tar to 1.19
· updated cracklib to 2.8.12
· updated dar to 2.3.6
· updated db to 4.6.21
· updated freetype to 2.3.5
· updated glib to 2.14.2
· updated heartbeat to 2.1.2
· updated l7-protocols to 2007-10-10
· updated libpng to 1.2.22
· updated libxslt to 1.1.22
· updated mdadm to 2.6.4
· updated minicom-2.3 to rc1
· updated nasm to 0.99.05
· updated netfilter-layer7 to v2.14
· updated nfs-utils to 1.1.1
· updated php to 5.2.4
· updated sg3_utils to 1.25
· updated shorewall-common to 4.0.4
· updated shorewall-perl to 4.0.4
· updated shorewall-shell to 4.0.4
· updated squidGuard to 1.2.1
· updated sudo to 1.6.9p6
· updated syslinux to 3.52
· updated sysstat to 8.0.1
· updated vmware tools to vmware-server 1.04 version
· updated dnsmasq to 2.40
· updated grsecurity to 2.1.11-2.4.35.1-200708211800
· updated hostapd to 0.5.8
· updated httpd to 2.2.6
· updated jfsutils to 1.1.12
· updated lftp to 3.5.14
· updated linux to 2.4.35.2
· updated nasm to 0.99.02
· updated openssh to 4.7p1
· updated pcre to 7.3
· updated shorewall to 4.0.3
· updated sudo to 1.6.9p5
· disabled netfilter pptp-conntrack-nat (breaks nat)
· updated ucarp to 1.3
· updated shorewall to 4.0.2
· updated cdrtools to 2.01.01a27
· updated clamav to 0.91.2
· updated libpng to 1.2.19
· updated linux to 2.4.35.1
· updated mdadm to 2.6.3
· updated openldap to 2.3.38
· updated php to 5.2.3
· updated sudo to 1.6.9p4
· added TLS support to openldap
· updated openldap to 2.3.37
· updated Mail-SpamAssassin to 3.2.3
· updated clamav to 0.91.1
· updated curl to 7.16.4
· updated dovecot to 1.0.3
· updated 2fsprogs to 1.40.2
· updated ethtool to 6
· updated freetype to 2.3.5
· updated gd to 2.0.35
· updated glib to 2.12.13
· updated grsecurity to 2.1.11-2.4.35-200708101800
· updated gradm to 2.1.11-200708011700
· updated l7-protocols to 2007-07-27
· updated lftp to 3.5.12
· updated libpcap to 0.9.7
· updated linux to 2.4.35
· updated lm_sensors to 2.10.4
· updated memtest86 to 3.3
· updated motion to 3.2.8
· updated netfilter-layer7 to v2.13
· updated ntp to 4.2.4p3
· removed openswan
· updated patch-o-matic-ng to 20070806
· updated pcre to 7.2
· updated postfix to 2.4.5
· updated quota to 3.15
· updated shorewall to 3.4.5
· updated strace to 4.5.16
· added strongswan 2.8.6
· updated sudo to 1.6.9p3
· updated sysstat to 7.1.6
· updated tar to 1.18
· updated tcpdump to 3.9.7
· updated vobcopy to 1.0.2
· updated l7-filter to 2.12.1 (and disabled debug)
· updated iptables to 1.3.8 (sl)
· updated bind to 9.4.1-p1 (sl)
· fixed iptstate inittab process on servers without any firewall rules (bs)
· start postfix and dovecot after ntp
· updated Mail-SpamAssassin to 3.2.1
· updated bind to 9.4.1
· updated clamav to 0.90.3
· updated dcc to 1.3.57
· updated expat to 2.0.1
· updated file to 4.21
· updated libpng to 1.2.18
· updated mdadm to 2.6.2
· updated mktemp to 1.5
· updated mtools to 3.9.11
· updated nasm to 0.99.01
· updated ntop to 3.3
· updated ntp to 4.2.4p0
· updated nut to 2.0.5
· updated php to 4.4.7
· updated postfix to 2.4.3
· updated razor-agents to 2.84
· updated sg3_utils to 1.24
· updated syslinux-3.51
· updated tar to 1.17
· updated vtun to 3.0.1
· updated zisofs-tools to 1.0.8
· updated busybox to v1.5.1
· replaced kernel prism54 driver with old version from prism54.org, since it doesn't support hostapd
· updated quagga to 0.99.7 + as4 patch (sl)
· added broadcom tg3 module (sl)
· updated Mail-SpamAssassin to 3.2.0
· updated clamav to 0.90.2
· updated curl to 7.16.2
· updated dnsmasq to 2.39
· updated dovecot to 1.0.0
· updated fetchmail to 6.3.8
· updated freeradius to 1.1.6
· updated freetype to 2.3.4
· updated glib to 2.12.12
· updated gnugk to 2.2.6
· updated gnupg to 1.4.7
· updated gradm to 2.1.10-200702231759
· updated grsecurity to 2.1.10-2.4.34.1-200702201442
· updated iptstate to 2.2.1
· updated lftp to 3.5.11
· updated libpcap to 0.9.5
· updated linux to 2.4.34.4
· updated lm_sensors to 2.10.3
· updated mhash to 0.9.9
· updated mrtg to 2.15.2
· updated netacct-mysql to 0.78
· updated openldap to 2.3.35
· updated pciutils to 2.2.5
· updated pcre to 7.1
· updated pptpd to 1.3.4
· updated psmisc to 22.5
· updated rrdtool to 1.2.23
· updated sysstat to 7.1.4
· updated tcpdump to 3.9.5
· updated Python to 2.4.4
· updated bash to 3.2
· updated cdrtools to 2.01.01a25
· updated diffutils to 2.8.7
· updated file to 4.20
· updated findutils to 4.2.30
· updated gzip to 1.3.12
· updated less to 394
· updated ncftp to 3.2.0
· updated ncurses to 5.6
· updated netpbm to 10.26.42
· updated openvpn to 2.0.9
· updated postgresql to 8.2.4
· updated samba to 3.0.24
· updated ser to 0.9.6
· updated shorewall to 3.4.2
· updated syslinux to 3.36
· updated xfsprogs to 2.8.20-1
· new option in /etc/sysconfig/config to disable the auto start of MD and LVM
· moved file /usr/share/shorewall/modules to /etc/shorewall
· updated shorewall to 3.4.2
· updated wireless_tools to 28
· updated php to 4.4.6
· updated openssh to 4.6p1
· updated httpd to 2.2.4
· updated iproute2 to 2.6.16-060323
· updated hostapd to 0.5.7
· updated hostap-utils to 0.4.7
· updated hostap-driver to 0.4.9
· updated vmware modules and tools to latest version
· added missing iptables modules (this time for real)