pyth0n Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 I thought i would start a thread to discuss/share what techniques/software people use to protect their computers/their self in a linux environment to help myself learn as well as anyone else viewing the thread. Ideas such as port blocking, extra software firewalls installed etc... What do you recommend doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digininja Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Some quick answers: Only run services you actually need, ie turn off mysql if you don't need it. Of the ones that are left, check what IP they are bound to and make sure it is what you expect, ie if you only use mysql locally don't let it bind to 0.0.0.0 Use good passwords Disallow root login with ssh Don't run as root, use sudo Don't have networking starting automatically on a laptop, always know what the network is before you connect to it. If you want to mess with firewalls then I recommend fwbuilder, it is a great gui for generating iptables rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 (edited) Some quick answers: Only run services you actually need, ie turn off mysql if you don't need it. Of the ones that are left, check what IP they are bound to and make sure it is what you expect, ie if you only use mysql locally don't let it bind to 0.0.0.0 Use good passwords Disallow root login with ssh Don't run as root, use sudo Don't have networking starting automatically on a laptop, always know what the network is before you connect to it. If you want to mess with firewalls then I recommend fwbuilder, it is a great gui for generating iptables rules. Just adding a few more: 1) Keep your main OS and third party software up to date / patched. 2) If not using a network firewall appliance, use Comodo's Firewall 3) Do not open, attachments from unknown/insure sources 4) When setting a password, ensure it's long than 8 characters and it contains all the specials characters (1nN!!!@#$%%T^) 5) Use Virtual machines, to open attachments and programs from insecure sources. 6) Use Firefox and install NoScript, for added protection against malicious Javascript. 7) Use TrueCrypt to protect yourself against data theft. Edited July 9, 2012 by Infiltrator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwall Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 This could help on Linux, I have a simple implementation of it(private) for fireBwall, but I don't know of any other firewall for Windows that handles that. http://ballastsec.blogspot.com/2012/07/using-iptables-to-setup-port-traps.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihackforfun Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 In order to shut down/remove services you don't need, I have an article on my blog that shows how to do this for a fedora distro, it can easily be extended for other linux distros ... http://www.ihackforfun.eu/index.php?title=improve-security-by-removing-services Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyth0n Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 thanks for all the feedback guys, helped myself and im guessing anyone who is reading this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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