Gentoo Archives: gentoo-hardened

From: Md Mooktakim Ahmed <Mooktakim@×××××××.com>
To: gentoo-hardened@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-hardened] Hardened for a small home network?
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 18:34:08
Message-Id: 60686.130.88.96.65.1086287642.squirrel@130.88.96.65
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-hardened] Hardened for a small home network? by Brandon Hale
1 > On Thu, 2004-06-03 at 18:25 +0300, Andrei Maxim wrote:
2 >> Hi,
3 >
4 > Hi!
5 >
6 >> In the last 3 weeks I have discovered a lot about Gentoo and its ease of
7 >> use made me try using my Gentoo Linux box as a web server.
8 >> After this first successful experience, I have configured Postfix and
9 >> Squirrelmail and even made some accounts for my friends.
10 >>
11 >> Right now my #1 concern is related to the security of my computer: it
12 >> has a static IP address and it gets scanned a couple of hundred times
13 >> per day (and I'm not kidding!). Having a mail server at hand might be
14 >> just asking for trouble and I really don't want to spread spam without
15 >> knowing.
16 >
17 > Two major items:
18 > First, make sure all hosts that are exposed to the network are properly
19 > firewalled. You might have a router with a built in firewall, I'd
20 > research iptables and run it on the server anyway (call me paranoid).
21 > Second, if you run an open relay on your mail server, we will break your
22 > legs. Make sure you arent by limiting connections to the mail server
23 > either to local subnets only, or setting up authentication to use the
24 > server (preferably with SSL). Lots of howtos on the web for both
25 > iptables and SMTP auth/SSl with Postfix.
26 >
27 >> I have a really small network of 3 computers (two of them being laptops)
28 >> and the so-called server is also my personal computer which I use on a
29 >> daily basis.
30 >> I was wandering if I should switch to Hardened Gentoo on my server (and
31 >> I am already planning to switch the laptops from Debian to Gentoo) as I
32 >> know it will make things more secure, but also it might be quite an
33 >> overkill for such a small network.
34 >
35 > At the moment we choose not to support Hardened Gentoo on "desktop"
36 > machines, which is essentially what we are talking about here. Alot of
37 > desktop apps, Xfree, mplayer, xine, all misbehave. They have a bad
38 > security track record, and really dont get along with our toolchain
39 > modifications either. If at all possible, I'd recommend getting yourself
40 > a cheap dedicated server to play with, and run only server-type apps.
41 > This also limits the number of exploitable apps on a single box.
42
43 I run a server on a Virtual Hosted (UML) company and was wondering is gentoo hardened a
44 good idea for hosting web and setting up an email server?
45
46 Currently i use gentoo, and ofcourse all the security installed, no open relay :)
47
48 But for extra security i was wondering is hardened a good idea?
49 I use MySQL, PHP and CGI stuff. Also use postfix, courier, and other email apps. NO X or
50 any desktop app installed.
51 I just wanted to know if hardened is the best option since be too secure, in a sense
52 that i wont be able to run anything ;)
53
54 >
55 >> Switching to Hardened Gentoo might mean that I will lose a rather big
56 >> amount of time to reconfigure everything on my computer, so I really
57 >> don't want to switch unless it's absolutely necessary.
58 >
59 > Nothing here is necessary, we just deliver the best security and
60 > hardening options we can find.
61 >
62 >> I want to run (as a server) Apache, Postfix/Qmail, mailman (or ezmlm?),
63 >> Squirrelmail and SSH.
64 >
65 > Fair enough.
66 >
67 >> Thanks,
68 >> Andrei
69 >>
70 >> --
71 >> gentoo-hardened@g.o mailing list
72 >
73 >
74 > --
75 > gentoo-hardened@g.o mailing list
76 >
77 >
78
79
80 --
81 Website: http://www.mooktakim.com
82 email: Mooktakim@×××××××.com
83
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