Re: Issues with web/ADSL installation

From: Anders Pettersson (anders.pettersson@avitec.se)
Date: 08/13/02 

To: "Federico Corridore" <federicopodista@libero.it>
From: Anders Pettersson <anders.pettersson@avitec.se>
Date: 13 Aug 2002 18:04:04 +0200

"Federico Corridore" <federicopodista@libero.it> writes:

> Hello everybody, I'm pretty new with security in general, and
> since we have just activated our web server using an ADSL line, we
> are wondering if we could run into troubles with that. We are using a
> Linux RedHat 7.3 box, with an Apache server installed.

Get on the security mailinglists for RedHat and Apache now if you have
not already done so. Install and use the "up2date" feature of RedHat
since it will help you install security patches and updates for your
system as RedHat release them.

> Do you know of any specific issues related to DSL connection that
> can affect my box? Is a DSL connection more secure than a
> classical static-IP connection?

Not really, a DSL connection can have either static IP or dynamic IP
just like any other IP connection, but IP itself is not very secure
unless you take some measures yourself.

Install some firewall on the box, iptables or ipchains perhaps (they
come with RedHat Linux, and tune it to only allow the traffic you
want. Make sure you do not run any unnecessary services, red hat likes
to run rpc and sendmail and so on, the later versions are better in
this aspect but use a tool like nmap to scan the box and check that no
ports that should not be in use are responding.

Then it might be a good idea to install snort and tripwire or similar
to guard yourself from having binaries changed without you noticing
it.

Another good idea might be to have a backup server that you can switch
to in case of emergency while you investigate/reinstall the first one. 

-- 
Anders Pettersson   AVITEC AB   http://www.avitec.se/

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