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Hardening the Linux server

An introduction to GNU/Linux server security

Jeffrey Orloff, Director of IT/Security, SafeWave, LLC

Jeffrey Orloff serves as the Director of IT and Security for SafeWave, LLC. He also works as the technology coordinator for the School District of Palm Beach County's Department of Alternative Education/DJJ.

Summary: Servers—whether used for testing or production—are primary targets for attackers. By taking the proper steps, you can turn a vulnerable box into a hardened server and help thwart outside attackers. Learn how to secure SSH sessions, configure firewall rules, and set up intrusion detection to alert you to any possible attacks on your GNU/Linux® server. Once you've gained a solid foundation in the basics of securing your server, you can build on this knowledge to further harden your systems.

Date: 17 Dec 2008
Level: Intermediate
PDF: A4 and Letter (333 KB | 16 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity: 55617 views
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Before you start

In this tutorial, you learn the basics of securing a GNU/Linux server and gain a solid foundation on which to build.

About this tutorial

This tutorial takes a basic approach to securing a server running the GNU/Linux operating system. Together with its companion tutorial, "Hardening the Linux desktop," they introduce you to basic security concepts and take you through step-by-step examples of how to protect both the desktop and server environments and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data they contain.

Objectives

In this tutorial, you learn about basic concepts in security administration, including how to secure Secure Shell (SSH) remote logins, create firewall rules, and watch logs for possible attacks.

Prerequisites

This tutorial is written for the beginning GNU/Linux user. You should have some familiarity with operating system installations and the command line. To fully understand the concepts in this tutorial, you should have gone through the companion tutorial, "Hardening the Linux desktop."

System requirements

To run the examples in this tutorial, you need to install Ubuntu Server Edition on a computer or a virtual machine, such as Sun VirtualBox. You also need an Internet connection to download specific software packages used in the tutorial.