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

Monitoring user activity using acct


Acct is an open source application which helps in monitoring user activity on a Linux system. It runs in the background and tracks all the activities of the users, and also maintains a track of the resources being used.

Getting ready

To use the acctcommands, we first need to install the package on our Linux system by using this command:

apt-get install acct

In case the preceding method doesn't work properly, we can download the package manually by visiting this link:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/admin/acct

After downloading the package, we need to extract it into a directory somewhere, like we did on the desktop:

Then, move into the directory:

Next run the script to configure the package:

Once the configuration is complete, next we run the makecommand:

Then, run the make installcommand:

Once successfully done, it will install the package on your Linux system.

 

How to do it...

The acct package has different commands for monitoring process activities:

  1. Based on a...