Operating Systems: Services, Security Risks, and Comparative Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of operating systems, serving as an interface between computer hardware and users. It explores essential functions like memory, process, and file management, along with input/output handling and peripheral device control. The report delves into the services offered by Windows and Linux operating systems, including input/output operations, pipes and filters, access control, process management (threads, parallel processing, concurrency), scheduling, and memory management (stack, heap, shared memory, virtual memory, addressing, paging, swapping, buffers, and ring buffers). Furthermore, the report evaluates and compares Windows and Linux, highlighting security risks such as malware, viruses, and vulnerabilities like buffer overflows, along with security management strategies and access control mechanisms. The report concludes by emphasizing the critical role of operating systems in facilitating user-hardware interaction and enabling diverse computing activities.

Operating System
Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Part 1................................................................................................................................................1
Illustrate productive usage of operating system services.......................................................1
Part 2................................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of distinct operating systems along with security risks associated with them.....3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Operating system acts like a interface among computer hardware and user. This is liable
for performing basic tasks such as memory, process and file management along with handling
input & output as well as controlling peripheral devices like printers, disk drivers, etc. There are
different kinds of operating systems that are being used, they are Windows, Linux, OS/400, Mac,
AIX and many more that enables user to interaction with the system and conduct their operations
(Anwar and et. al, 2016). This report will provide an overview of windows and Linux operating
systems with reference to different aspects. Along with this, certain vulnerabilities and security
risks associated with the operating system will be depicted.
Part 1
Illustrate productive usage of operating system services
A Microsoft window is also known as Windows OS that supports graphical user
interface. It was released in the year 1985 and from then different versions has been brought
within the market. The services that are being rendered by windows are specified beneath:
Input & output: The I/O subsystem that involves I/O devices along with corresponding
software drivers. The drivers are liable for hiding peculiarities associated with particular
hardware devices from users. OS is responsible for managing communication among device
drivers and their users. The access is provided by operating system when it is needed. I/O
operations implies read and write functions with file or peculiar I/O device.
Pipes and filters: To redirect I/O to the file, the two different commands can be
connected through which output on one program will act as input for the other. The way in which
they can be connected is referred to as pipe and done by making use of vertical line among
commands. Furthermore, when program takes input from other program, conducts some sort of
operations on it and write results to standard output is defined as filter. The task that is
accountable for carrying out critical processing within series of unlike elements then this can be
reused (Hviid and Kjærgaard, 2018). Pipes and filters lead to enhance scalability, reusability and
performance by allowing different task elements to perform processing that can be deployed as
well as scaled independently.
1

Access control: The security feature that is liable for controlling who will access which
resources within the operating system are referred to as access control. Applications call the
access control functions for setting up access to peculiar resources that are furnished by
application. This is done to ensure the security aspects related with particular device or
resources.
Process concept, threads, parallel processing and concurrency: Process implies the
program that is in the execution and the progress is illustrated within sequential manner. It
illustrates entity that defines basic unit of work that have to be done by the system. Thread
denotes unit to which operating system allocates certain processor time. This can execute any
section of process code that includes parts of other program which is executed currently (Jeon
and et. al, 2018). Parallel processing is method where computing is done by breaking up complex
tasks and running them simultaneously on different CPUs so that processing time can be
reduced. Concurrency implies executing multiple sequence instruction at same instance of time
and this takes place when multiple threads are executed in parallel.
Scheduling: The activity of process manager that is liable for handling removal of
processes that are executing from CPU and selecting other process with respect to peculiar
strategy is defined as scheduling. Process scheduling is critical part within multiprogramming
operating system.
Memory management: The functionality of operating system that is managed or handled
via a primary memory as well as move processes back & forth among disk and main memory
while carrying out the execution is referred to as memory management. In OS, this service keeps
track of all the memory location in order to identify whether it is allocated or free.
 Stack: The memory usage mechanism that enables system memory for usage like
temporary data storage and behaves like first in last out buffer is defined as stack. Here,
temporary variables are stored within the memory that is created by function.
 Heap: It denotes memory that is utilised by programming languages for storing global
variables. By default the global variables are stored within the heap memory space and
are liable for supporting dynamic memory allocation.
 Shared memory: It denotes the memory that is simultaneously accessed via a multiple
programs with intent for rendering communication in between them as well as avoiding
2

redundant copies (Min and et. al, 2018). This acts like an efficient means to pass data
among different programs.
 Virtual memory: The computer system makes use of more memory in comparison to the
one that is physically installed within the system. The extra memory is defined as virtual
memory. This is section that is present on the hard disk and is set for emulating RAM of
computer.
 Addressing: There are two types of addressed, physical and logical. The physical address
space refers to size of main memory and identifies physical location of data present in
memory (Molnár and Végh, 2017). Logical address is generated via CPU when program
is executing. This does not exist physically rather it is virtual address.
 Paging: It is a memory management scheme through which computer stores as well as
retrieves data from secondary storage in main memory. The data of same sized blocks is
retrieved called pages.
 Swapping: This denotes mechanism where processes can be swapped out temporarily
from main memory to secondary storage so that memory can be made available for other
processes. This aids within executing multiple processes in parallel.
 Buffers: It refers to region within the physical memory storage that is utilised for
temporarily storing data while this moves from one place to other. Buffer is used while
moving data among processes in the computer.
 Ring buffer: This is first in first out data structure and is used for transmitting data
among asynchronous processes. This is circular software queue and is generally found
within embedded system.
Part 2
Evaluation of distinct operating systems along with security risks associated with them
Basis Windows Linux
Security risks It provides ease of use to single user
without any network connection and
do not have any in built security
features. It is more vulnerable to
It is multi user architecture which is
stable and more secured. It is open
source which allows developers to
have access to source code and this
3

malware attacks as well as viruses. makes it easy to deal with any kind
of vulnerabilities.
Security management strategies The patches takes months to release
so user only have the option to make
use of anti-malware and anti-
antivirus for preventing their
systems.
Community is formulated and they
monitor activities that are being
conducted
Options evaluation The security patches are released via
Windows update services for dealing
with security issues that prevails
(Seo and Lee, 2017).
There is a community that conducts
regular monitoring and in case any
problem occurs then this will be
resolved in few hours as well as
patch are also available quickly.
Malicious software MSRT (malicious software tool) is
provided by Microsoft that aids
window system to be free from any
prevalent malware. The software is
liable for identification and
eliminating threats as well as
reverses the alterations that are being
created by threats.
Lynis is a security auditing as well
as rootkit scanner. It is a free,
powerful, popular and open source
scanning and auditing tool. It scans
malware and vulnerability so that
integrity of files can be maintained
and also check the software that are
installed.
Buffer overflow This takes place when intruder can
enter more data within the buffer
that has been allocated for peculiar
program and thus leads area of
memory to be overwritten by extra
information. If attacker is able to
overwrite CPU’s counter program
then they can potentially implement
code instead of returning to the call
function.
Buffer overflow within Linux occurs
when code is executing within
unprotected memory in buffer is able
to overwrite memory that is present
within the adjacent location. This
takes place because of programming
errors like if memory boundary is
insufficient (Smith, 2020). In this
case, hacker can insert malicious
code in the memory and have
privileges for the particular process.
Access Control This denotes security feature with
reference to who can access what
resources in operating system. An
application makes use of calling AP
functions for setting up access to
Access control list is liable for
furnishing additional as well as more
flexible mechanism for different file
system. This is being formulated for
assisting UNIX file system.
4

peculiar resources that are rendered
via an application.
Security maintenance This involves integrity, availability,
authenticity and confidentiality. In
addition to this access control
mechanism is used in order to ensure
that how much or what services can
be accessed by whom so that any
third person do not have access to
confidential information as well as
cannot hamper integrity. In this case,
system and authorization guard is
being used for maintaining security
aspects.
For local security measures, the
username and password are needed
to log in within the system so that
basic user verification can be made.
Password shadowing techniques are
utilised for storing the password so
that it cannot be seen by any third
person. Furthermore, for file system
security, EXT2 file system is used
that is being held via system (Tarazi
and et. al, 2016).
Conclusion
From above report it can be concluded that a system cannot work without operating
system as this is medium through which user and hardware interact. This aid within carrying out
different activities that user might not be able to do. It is found that different operating systems
have distinct functionalities but they all work to furnish easiness to user through which they are
able to conduct their activities.
5

References
Books and Journals
Anwar, F. & et. al, (2016, November). Timeline: An operating system abstraction for time-aware
applications. In 2016 IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS) (pp. 191-202). IEEE.
Hviid, J., & Kjærgaard, M. B. (2018, October). Service Abstraction Layer for Building
Operating Systems: Enabling portable applications and improving system resilience.
In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing
Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Jeon, S. H. & et. al, (2018, October). Azalea-Unikernel: Unikernel into Multi-kernel Operating
System for Manycore Systems. In 2018 International Conference on Information and
Communication Technology Convergence (ICTC) (pp. 1096-1099). IEEE.
Min, C. & et. al, (2018, April). Solros: a data-centric operating system architecture for
heterogeneous computing. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference (pp. 1-
15).
Molnár, P., & Végh, J. (2017, May). Measuring performance of processor instructions and
operating system services in soft processor based systems. In 2017 18th International
Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC) (pp. 381-387). IEEE.
Seo, D., & Lee, K. (2017). Comparing security vulnerability by operating system
environment. International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 23(1-2),
154-164.
Smith, S. (2020). Linux Operating System Services. In Programming with 64-Bit ARM Assembly
Language (pp. 161-176). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Tarazi, C. & et. al, (2016). Operating System Security using SNMP.
6