Book Image

Practical Linux Security Cookbook - Second Edition

By : Tajinder Kalsi
Book Image

Practical Linux Security Cookbook - Second Edition

By: Tajinder Kalsi

Overview of this book

Over the last few years, system security has gained a lot of momentum and software professionals are focusing heavily on it. Linux is often treated as a highly secure operating system. However, the reality is that Linux has its share of security ?aws, and these security ?aws allow attackers to get into your system and modify or even destroy your important data. But there’s no need to panic, since there are various mechanisms by which these ?aws can be removed, and this book will help you learn about different types of Linux security to create a more secure Linux system. With a step-by-step recipe approach, the book starts by introducing you to various threats to Linux systems. Then, this book will walk you through customizing the Linux kernel and securing local files. Next, you will move on to managing user authentication both locally and remotely and mitigating network attacks. Later, you will learn about application security and kernel vulnerabilities. You will also learn about patching Bash vulnerability, packet filtering, handling incidents, and monitoring system logs. Finally, you will learn about auditing using system services and performing vulnerability scanning on Linux. By the end of this book, you will be able to secure your Linux systems and create a robust environment.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Contributors
Packt Upsell
Preface
Index

pfSense


As a network administrator, having a firewall and router in place is essential. When we talk about setting up a firewall, we have the option to either simply install a preconfigured firewall from any vendor or set up our own firewall system.

pfSense is one amazing software distribution, if you wish to set up your own firewall from scratch. It is an open source distribution based on FreeBSD and is specially designed to be used as a firewall that can be managed easily through a web interface.

Getting ready

  1. Download pfSense from this link: https://www.pfsense.org/download/mirror.php?section=downloads.
  2. Choose the correct computer architecture and platform as per your requirement.
  3. After downloading pfSense, burn the ISO file to CD/DVD media, or you can even create a live bootable USB media.
  4. We also need a system with two network interface cards to install and configure pfSense.

Note

This system will be dedicated to the firewall functionality and will not be usable for any other computing task...