File
system Security
There are certain files whose presence in the Linux
file system can
present a security risk and should be remedied as soon as possible.
When the SUID (set user ID) or SGID (set group ID) bits are set
on an executable, that program executes with the UID or GID of owner
of the file, as opposed to the user executing it. This means that
all
executables with SUID bit set and are owned by root are executed
with the UID of root. This situation is a security risk and should
be minimized
unless the program is designed for this risk.
To find all files on your file system that have the SUID or SGID
bit set, execute:
- # find / -path /proc –prune –o –type
f –perm
+6000 -ls
It is good practice to generate a list of SUID or SGID
files on your server as soon as possible, and re-run the above
command on
a regular
basis to ensure new
binaries with unsafe permissions are not being added to your server.
World-writable
files are a security risk as well. World-writable files and directories
are dangerous since it allows anyone to modify them. World-writable
directories
allow anyone to add or delete files.
To find all world-writable files and
directories, execute:
- # find / -path /proc –prune –o –perm
-2 ! –type 1 –ls
Another file permission issue are files
not owned by any user or group. While this is not technically a
security vulnerability,
an audited system
should
not contain any unowned files. This is to prevent the situation where
a new user
is assigned a previous user’s UID, so now the previous owner’s
files, if any, are all owned by the new user.
To find all files that
are not owned by any user or group, execute:
- # find / -path /proc –prune –o –nouser –o –nogroup
Network
Security
To get a list of listening network ports, run the following:
- # netstat –tulp
Disable any ports that are not necessary. To
do so, kill the PID shown by netstat. The only port that your server
must be listening
on is
SSH (22/tcp).
Other
ports that will need to be listening depend upon the specific
purpose of your dedicated
server. Note that by killing the PID of the process you are
not preventing your server from starting the same service again on
bootup. To disable
services, see
below.
In order to see what programs your server is launching on startup,
execute the following:
- # chkconfig –list |grep on (Red hat systems)
- # ls –l /etc/rc2.d/S*
| cut –d/ -f6 (Debian systems)
This command will show you which programs
are to be executed in which run levels. In Red hat, full multiuser mode
is 3. To disable a service permanently,
issue
the following:
- # chkconfig <service_name> off
To disable any service in Debian,
simply execute the following:
- # rm –f /etc/rc2.d/S*<service_name>
Please note that
the above commands do not actually disable the service, they simply
prevent the service from being executed
on startup.
User Security
The first thing you should take stock of are the users
with unlocked accounts. Users with unlocked accounts are allowed
to login if assigned
a valid shell,
and should be kept to a minimum.
To get a list of unlocked users,
execute the following:
- # egrep –v ‘.*:\*|:!' /etc/shadow|awk
-F: '{print $1}'
If you do not recognize any user returned by the
above command, check to see if that user owns any files by executing:
- #
find / -path /proc -prune -o -user <user_name> -ls
If the
user does not own any files, or files that will not hinder the
stability of your server, delete the user
by executing:
- # userdel –r <user_name>
TCP/IP Hardening
All of the following lines and values should be
added to the file /etc/sysctl.conf if you want to enable or
disable the
feature mentioned.
You will need
to restart your system for these changes to take
effect.
| TCP SYN Cookie Protection | net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1 |
| Disable IP Source Routing | net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 |
| Disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance | net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0 |
| IP Spoofing Protection | net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1 |
| Ignoring Broadcasts Request | net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=1 |
| Bad Error Message Protection | net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1 |
System Security
One of the most important
things you can do to protect your server is implementing very
basic
access control.
Access
control can
eliminate a majority of the
risk involved in running out of date services
on the Internet.
In order to implement an
effective access control policy on your dedicated server,
you will need
the following
pieces of
information:
- The IP address or addresses
of your Internet connection. For some, this may be one static
address, while for
others it is
a pool of
addresses. If you have
more than one Internet connection, please
be sure to get ALL the IP addresses you
could be assigned
at any
time.
You may
need to
contact your Internet
Service Provider for this information.
SSH
While we do not recommend anybody running
outdated software, especially something
as crucial as
SSH, a not insignificant
portion of the
risks involved in running
an outdated SSH server can be mitigated
by only allowing certain IP networks
to access
your SSH
server.
- # $IPTABLES –A INPUT –p
tcp –dport 22 –s X.X.X.X/NN –j
ACCEPT
The above line will allow TCP
packets destined for port 22 to be
accepted
if and only
if the source of the packets
are
within
the
network denoted
in X.X.X.X/NN.
If you have more than one Internet
connection, or
have multiple networks, simply add
another line, replacing
X.X.X.X/NN with
the proper values.
Control Panel Software
If your server is running a control
panel, you can also improve your
security by
implementing an access
control
policy on
the control panel administrative
port.
| Plesk: | $IPTABLES –A INPUT –p tcp –dport 8443 –s X.X.X.X/NN –j ACCEPT |
| Ensim: | $IPTABLES –A INPUT –p tcp –dport 19638 –s X.X.X.X/NN –j ACCEPT |
| Cpanel: | $IPTABLES –A INPUT –p tcp –dport 2082 –s X.X.X.X/NN –j ACCEPT |
FTP Server
Another service you may want to implement
an access control policy on is
FTP. If you, or
a small handful
of people
are the only
allowed users
to
FTP into
your dedicated server, then you
will certainly benefit.
- $IPTABLES –A INPUT –p tcp –s
X.X.X.X/NN –dport 20 –syn –j
ACCEPT
- $IPTABLES –A INPUT –p
tcp –s X.X.X.X/NN –dport
21 –syn –j
ACCEPT
Note that both of the above
lines must be executed for each
source
network.
For more information regarding the use of iptables on your
Linux based dedicated server, please look
over our iptables tutorial.
REFERENCE
http://www.servepath.com/support/debian-security-checklist.php
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