Local Area Security is a project that was started in 2002 to research information security related topics. During that time there was no real live-CD toolkit focused on information security. So Jascha, the project founder built one from a stripped down version of Knoppix called Model-K. Both of which were built from Debian Linux.

Up until version 0.4 L.A.S. Linux was command line only. Which made it limited to some of the tools it could contain since many require a GUI. Or at least for many it is preferable to have one. So FluxBox was added as the desktop since it is light weight and very feature filled. It was during this time that Jascha came up with the idea of keeping the size of L.A.S. as small as possible, which lead to a target maximum size of 180MBs. The size of the original mini-CDs that were available at the time. This forced the selection of tools and features to be weighed heavily since unlike other live-CDs that throw in everything including the kitchen sink. L.A.S. was designed from the ground up to be a ‘tool’ not a all-inclusive grab bag of applications.

It was around this time that L.A.S. began to catch on and get some media attention. As well as many advances for live-CDs came about, such as ‘to-ram’ that allows booting a live-CD into the physical RAM of a computer. Which by chance L.A.S. was perfectly cut out for. With as little as 256MB of RAM people could boot L.A.S. and then free up their CD-ROMs for burring etc. For forensics this was a big plus, along with many other uses. Plus L.A.S. ran very fast in RAM which helped with running Nessus, Nmap, or other tools. When compared to full size (700MB) CDs which would require 1GB of RAM to use the ‘to-ram’ option, it was really no contest.

L.A.S. has been mentioned in many articles in many languages since its inception. Most recently L.A.S. was mentioned in the new book Knoppix Hacks(see chapter .

With 2005 upon us we plan to release the new versions of L.A.S. Linux and continue to grow. One of our most exciting new inclusions is our daily information security related podcasts.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with development and donated to the project! With special thanks to Giuseppe (AKA Iceman81) for his tireless efforts in helping with L.A.S. Linux development.