Book Image

Mastering Linux Security and Hardening - Third Edition

By : Donald A. Tevault
3.7 (7)
Book Image

Mastering Linux Security and Hardening - Third Edition

3.7 (7)
By: Donald A. Tevault

Overview of this book

The third edition of Mastering Linux Security and Hardening is an updated, comprehensive introduction to implementing the latest Linux security measures, using the latest versions of Ubuntu and AlmaLinux. In this new edition, you will learn how to set up a practice lab, create user accounts with appropriate privilege levels, protect sensitive data with permissions settings and encryption, and configure a firewall with the newest firewall technologies. You’ll also explore how to use sudo to set up administrative accounts with only the privileges required to do a specific job, and you’ll get a peek at the new sudo features that have been added over the past couple of years. You’ll also see updated information on how to set up a local certificate authority for both Ubuntu and AlmaLinux, as well as how to automate system auditing. Other important skills that you’ll learn include how to automatically harden systems with OpenSCAP, audit systems with auditd, harden the Linux kernel configuration, protect your systems from malware, and perform vulnerability scans of your systems. As a bonus, you’ll see how to use Security Onion to set up an Intrusion Detection System. By the end of this new edition, you will confidently be able to set up a Linux server that will be secure and harder for malicious actors to compromise.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Section 1: Setting up a Secure Linux System
9
Section 2: Mastering File and Directory Access Control (DAC)
12
Section 3: Advanced System Hardening Techniques
20
Other Books You May Enjoy
21
Index

Understanding centralized user management

In an enterprise setting, you’ll often have hundreds or thousands of users and computers that you need to manage. So, logging in to each network server or each user’s workstation to perform the procedures that we’ve just outlined would be quite unworkable. (But do bear in mind that you still need those skills.) What we need is a way to manage computers and users from one central location. Space doesn’t permit me to give the complete details about the various methods for doing this. So for now, we’ll just have to settle for a high-level overview.

Microsoft Active Directory

I’m not exactly a huge fan of either Windows or Microsoft. But when it comes to Active Directory, I’ll have to give credit where it’s due. It’s a pretty slick product that vastly simplifies the management of very large enterprise networks. And yes, it is possible to add Unix/Linux computers and their users...