Linux Server Hardening and Security Best Practices

Most people assume Linux is secure, and that’s a false assumption. A thief would probably assume your username is “root” and your password is “toor” since that’s the default password on Kali and most people continue to use it. Allowing booting from unauthorized external devices can allow attackers to bypass linux hardening and security lessons the security of your system by booting the operating system from their external device. Using Linux iptables to keep a tab on incoming, outgoing, and forwarded practices can help you secure your servers. You can configure “allow” and “deny” rules to accept or send traffic from specific IP addresses.

• Alternatively, Androxgh0st may issue a POST request to the same URI with a POST variable named 0x[] containing certain data sent to the web server.
• If you are aware of SSH basics, you know that the SSH configuration files are located at /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
• You may use the below commands to remove legacy services like NIS, telnet, and rsh from your system.
• Traditional Windows EDRs also tend to have low detection rates of Linux threats.
• Make sure to change the default password of the admin page or disable it if it’s possible.

For this reason, SELinux has been adopted by multiple popular Linux distros including Fedora, Ubuntu and Debian, and typically enabled by default. Attackers now view Linux servers as a viable target that often provides a valuable return on investment. Here’s what you need to know to secure your Linux system against malware, rootkits and other dangerous attacks. In this short post, we covered many important configurations for Linux security. But, we’ve just scratched the surface of Linux hardening—there are a lot of complex, nitty-gritty configurations.

Install And Use Intrusion Detection System

Some of these the PHP runtime, Apache HTTP server, and the Nginx reverse proxy server. Secure your Apache server by adding the below lines in the configuration file. It is always a good idea to disable as many peripherals as possible. This makes your server secure against attackers who have gained direct access to the infrastructure.

When selecting a location, consider the potential for SSH key sprawl, in which individuals and organizations lack proper inventory. This is a huge problem because many maintain dozens or even hundreds of SSH key pairs per server. The FBI encourages organizations to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to their local FBI field office. With regards to specific information that appears in this CSA, indicators should always be evaluated in light of an organization’s complete security situation. The threat actor interacts with application programming interfaces (APIs) to gather information. The threat actor uses Androxgh0st to abuse simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) via scanning.

Linux Server Monitoring Tools

You can run the following command to disable this in systemd-based systems. Admins should make sure that users can’t log into their server after a certain number of failed attempts. This increases the overall security of the system by mitigating password attacks. You can use the Linux faillog command to see the failed login attempts. SELinux or Security Enhanced Linux is a security mechanism that implements various methods for access control at the kernel level.