Security of Gentoo right out of install? (2.6.10 kernel)

[pikakilla]

Comming from windows, I have no idea about what makes a secure system, so I ask, how secure is Gentoo fresh out of install (latest patches 2.6 kernel).
Also, how might I secure my system fairly well for just a regular joe schmoe user. It appears that the documents on the gentoo site are geared for commercial administrators plus google doesnt give anything of substance. I dont want to hamper my ability to run anything, but I dont want to be vulnerable either. What is a good middle ground, and how might i achieve it?

[smindinvern]

With any GNU/Linux distro, you should be _much_ more than secure enough right out of the box, especially with gentoo. If you want extra security, check out some info on iptables.

[gwalters]

as root:

glsa-check -t all

^^ Will show you all Gereral Linux Security Advisories that effect your system. Running

emerge sync && emerge -u world

once a week should help too.

[loft306]

and just dont run as root online

[Stormblazer]

It alsos depends some on what use flags you enabled. For example, enabling kerberos.
How you set it up has some effect too.

If you have the time to learn how to setup the security permissions, There's an SELinux enabled version of Gentoo.

And of course, don't be stupid by running in root all the time.

[Flatline]

Like smindinvern said, check out some info on iptables so that you can firewall your machine. If I remember correctly, there are a couple of progs out there that help to automate firewall setup, but I haven't used any in a long time.