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

Remotely connecting from Windows desktops

I know, all of us Penguinistas would like to use Linux, and nothing but Linux. But, in an enterprise environment, things just don’t always work that way. There, you’ll most likely have to administer your Linux servers from a Windows 10/11 desktop machine that’s sitting on your cubicle desk. In Chapter 1, Running Linux in a Virtual Environment, I showed you how to use either Cygwin or the new Windows 10/11 shell to remotely connect to your Linux VMs. You can also use these techniques to connect to actual Linux servers.

But, some shops require that admins use a terminal program, rather than a full-blown Bash shell such as Cygwin. Normally, these shops will require that you use PuTTY on your Windows machine.

PuTTY is a free program that you can download from here: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

Installation is simple. Just double-click the installer file and follow through...