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Home > Security > Cybersecurity > Mastering Linux Security and Hardening
Mastering Linux Security and Hardening
Mastering Linux Security and Hardening

Mastering Linux Security and Hardening: Secure your Linux server and protect it from intruders, malware attacks, and other external threats

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Mastering Linux Security and Hardening

Securing User Accounts

Managing users is one of the more challenging aspects of IT administration. You need to make sure that users can always access their stuff and that they can perform the required tasks to do their jobs. You also need to ensure that users' stuff is always secure from unauthorized users and that users can't perform any tasks that don't fit their job description. It's a tall order, but we aim to show that it's doable.

In this chapter, we'll cover the following topics:

  • The dangers of logging in as the root user
  • The advantages of using sudo
  • How to set up sudo privileges for full administrative users and for users with only certain delegated privileges
  • Advanced tips and tricks to use sudo
  • Locking down users' home directories
  • Enforcing strong password criteria
  • Setting and enforcing password and account expiration
  • Preventing brute...

The dangers of logging in as the root user

A huge advantage that Unix and Linux operating systems have over Windows is that Unix and Linux do a much better job of keeping privileged administrative accounts separated from normal user accounts. Indeed, one reason that older versions of Windows were so susceptible to security issues, such as drive-by virus infections, was the common practice of setting up user accounts with administrative privileges, without having the protection of the User Access Control that's in newer versions of Windows. (Even with User Access Control, Windows systems still do get infected, just not quite as often.)  With Unix and Linux, it's a lot harder to infect a properly configured system.

You likely already know that the all-powerful administrator account on a Unix or Linux system is the root account. If you're logged in as the root...

The advantages of using sudo

Used properly, the sudo utility can greatly enhance the security of your systems, and it can make an administrator's job much easier. With sudo, you can do the following:

  • Assign certain users full administrative privileges, while assigning other users only the privileges they need to perform tasks that are directly related to their respective jobs.
  • Allow users to perform administrative tasks by entering their own normal user passwords so that you don't have to distribute the root password to everybody and his brother.
  • Make it harder for intruders to break into your systems. If you implement sudo and disable the root user account, would-be intruders won't know which account to attack because they won't know which one has admin privileges.
  • Create sudo policies that you can deploy across an entire enterprise network even if that network...

Setting up sudo privileges for full administrative users

Before we look at how to limit what users can do, let's first look at how to allow a user to do everything, including logging into the root command prompt. There are a couple of methods for doing that.

Method 1 – adding users to a predefined admin group

The first method, which is the simplest, is to add users to a predefined administrators group and then, if it hasn't already been done, to configure the sudo policy to allow that group to do its job. It's simple enough to do except that different Linux distro families use different admin groups. 

On Unix, BSD, and most Linux systems, you would add users to the wheel group. (Members of the Red...

Setting up sudo for users with only certain delegated privileges

A basic tenet of IT security philosophy is to give network users enough privileges so that they can get their jobs done, but no privileges beyond that. So, you'll want as few people as possible to have full sudo privileges. (If you have the root user account enabled, you'll want even fewer people to know the root password.) You'll also want a way to delegate privileges to people according to what their specific jobs are. Backup admins will need to be able to perform backup tasks, help desk personnel will need to perform user management tasks, and so on. With sudo, you can delegate these privileges and disallow users from doing any other administrative jobs that don't fit their job description.

The best way to explain this is to have you open visudo on your CentOS virtual machine. So, go ahead...

Advanced tips and tricks for using sudo

Now that we've looked at the basics of setting up a good sudo configuration, we're confronted with a bit of a paradox. That is, even though sudo is a security tool, certain things that you can do with it can make your system even more insecure than it was. Let's see how to avoid that.

The sudo timer

By default, the sudo timer is set for 5 minutes. This means that once a user performs one sudo command and enters a password, he or she can perform another sudo command within 5 minutes without having to enter the password again. Although this is obviously handy, it can also be problematic if users were to walk away from their desks with a command terminal still open. If the...

Locking down users' home directories the Red Hat or CentOS way

This is another area where different Linux distro families do business differently from each other. As we shall see, each distro family comes with different default security settings. A security administrator who oversees a mixed environment of different Linux distros will need to take this into account.

One beautiful thing about Red Hat Enterprise Linux and all of its offspring, such as CentOS, is that they have better out-of-the-box security than any other Linux distro. This makes it quicker and easier to harden Red Hat-type systems because much of the work has already been done. One thing that's already been done for us is locking down users' home directories:

[donnie@localhost home]$ sudo useradd charlie
[sudo] password for donnie:
[donnie@localhost home]$

[donnie@localhost home]$ ls -l
total 0
drwx-...

Locking down users' home directories the Debian/Ubuntu way

Debian and its offspring, such as Ubuntu, have two user creation utilities:

  • useradd on Debian/Ubuntu

  • adduser on Debian/Ubuntu

useradd on Debian/Ubuntu

The useradd utility is there, but Debian and Ubuntu don't come with the handy preconfigured defaults as Red Hat and CentOS do. If you were to just do sudo useradd frank on a default Debian/Ubuntu machine, Frank would have no home directory and would be assigned the wrong default shell. So, to create a user account with useradd on a Debian or Ubuntu system, the command would look something like:

sudo useradd -m -d /home/frank -s /bin/bash frank

In this command:

  • -m creates the home directory.
  • -d specifies...

The dangers of logging in as the root user

A huge advantage that Unix and Linux operating systems have over Windows is that Unix and Linux do a much better job of keeping privileged administrative accounts separated from normal user accounts. Indeed, one reason that older versions of Windows were so susceptible to security issues, such as drive-by virus infections, was the common practice of setting up user accounts with administrative privileges, without having the protection of the User Access Control that's in newer versions of Windows. (Even with User Access Control, Windows systems still do get infected, just not quite as often.)  With Unix and Linux, it's a lot harder to infect a properly configured system.

You likely already know that the all-powerful administrator account on a Unix or Linux system is the root account. If you're logged in as the root user, you can do anything you want to do to that system. So you may think, "Yeah, that's handy, so that's what I'll do." However, always...

The advantages of using sudo

Used properly, the sudo utility can greatly enhance the security of your systems, and it can make an administrator's job much easier. With sudo, you can do the following:

  • Assign certain users full administrative privileges, while assigning other users only the privileges they need to perform tasks that are directly related to their respective jobs.
  • Allow users to perform administrative tasks by entering their own normal user passwords so that you don't have to distribute the root password to everybody and his brother.
  • Make it harder for intruders to break into your systems. If you implement sudo and disable the root user account, would-be intruders won't know which account to attack because they won't know which one has admin privileges.
  • Create sudo policies that you can deploy across an entire enterprise network even if that network has a mix of Unix, BSD, and Linux machines.
  • Improve your auditing capabilities because you'll be able to see what users are doing with...

Setting up sudo privileges for full administrative users

Before we look at how to limit what users can do, let's first look at how to allow a user to do everything, including logging into the root command prompt. There are a couple of methods for doing that.

Method 1 – adding users to a predefined admin group

The first method, which is the simplest, is to add users to a predefined administrators group and then, if it hasn't already been done, to configure the sudo policy to allow that group to do its job. It's simple enough to do except that different Linux distro families use different admin groups. 

On Unix, BSD, and most Linux systems, you would add users to the wheel group. (Members of the Red Hat family, including CentOS, fall into this category.) When I do the groups command on my CentOS machine, I get this:

[donnie@localhost ~]$ groups
donnie wheel
[donnie@localhost ~]$

This shows that I'm a member of the wheel group. By doing sudo visudo, I'll open the sudo policy file. Scrolling down...

Setting up sudo for users with only certain delegated privileges

A basic tenet of IT security philosophy is to give network users enough privileges so that they can get their jobs done, but no privileges beyond that. So, you'll want as few people as possible to have full sudo privileges. (If you have the root user account enabled, you'll want even fewer people to know the root password.) You'll also want a way to delegate privileges to people according to what their specific jobs are. Backup admins will need to be able to perform backup tasks, help desk personnel will need to perform user management tasks, and so on. With sudo, you can delegate these privileges and disallow users from doing any other administrative jobs that don't fit their job description.

The best way to explain this is to have you open visudo on your CentOS virtual machine. So, go ahead and start the CentOS VM and enter the following command:

sudo visudo

Unlike Ubuntu, CentOS has a fully commented and well-documented sudoers...

Advanced tips and tricks for using sudo

Now that we've looked at the basics of setting up a good sudo configuration, we're confronted with a bit of a paradox. That is, even though sudo is a security tool, certain things that you can do with it can make your system even more insecure than it was. Let's see how to avoid that.

The sudo timer

By default, the sudo timer is set for 5 minutes. This means that once a user performs one sudo command and enters a password, he or she can perform another sudo command within 5 minutes without having to enter the password again. Although this is obviously handy, it can also be problematic if users were to walk away from their desks with a command terminal still open. If the 5 minute timer hasn't yet expired, someone else could come along and perform some root-level task. If your security needs require it, you can easily disable this timer by adding a line to the Defaults section of the sudoers file. This way, users will have to enter their passwords every...

Locking down users' home directories the Red Hat or CentOS way

This is another area where different Linux distro families do business differently from each other. As we shall see, each distro family comes with different default security settings. A security administrator who oversees a mixed environment of different Linux distros will need to take this into account.

One beautiful thing about Red Hat Enterprise Linux and all of its offspring, such as CentOS, is that they have better out-of-the-box security than any other Linux distro. This makes it quicker and easier to harden Red Hat-type systems because much of the work has already been done. One thing that's already been done for us is locking down users' home directories:

[donnie@localhost home]$ sudo useradd charlie
[sudo] password for donnie:
[donnie@localhost home]$

[donnie@localhost home]$ ls -l
total 0
drwx------. 2 charlie charlie 59 Oct 1 15:25 charlie
drwx------. 2 donnie donnie 79 Sep 27 00:24 donnie
drwx------. 2 frank frank...
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Key benefits

  • Leverage this guide to confidently deliver a system that reduces the risk of being hacked
  • Perform a number of advanced Linux security techniques such as network service detection, user authentication, controlling special permissions, encrypting file systems, and much more
  • Master the art of securing a Linux environment with this end-to-end practical guide

Description

This book has extensive coverage of techniques that will help prevent attackers from breaching your system, by building a much more secure Linux environment. You will learn various security techniques such as SSH hardening, network service detection, setting up firewalls, encrypting file systems, protecting user accounts, authentication processes, and so on. Moving forward, you will also develop hands-on skills with advanced Linux permissions, access control, special modes, and more. Lastly, this book will also cover best practices and troubleshooting techniques to get your work done efficiently. By the end of this book, you will be confident in delivering a system that will be much harder to compromise.

Who is this book for?

If you are a systems administrator or a network engineer interested in making your Linux environment more secure, then this book is for you. Security consultants wanting to enhance their Linux security skills will also benefit from this book. Prior knowledge of Linux is mandatory.

What you will learn

  • • Use various techniques to prevent intruders from accessing sensitive data
  • • Prevent intruders from planting malware, and detect whether malware has been planted
  • • Prevent insiders from accessing data that they aren't authorized to access
  • • Do quick checks to see whether a computer is running network services that it doesn't need to run
  • • Learn security techniques that are common to all Linux distros, and some that are distro-specific
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Publication date : Jan 11, 2018
Length: 376 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788620307
Category :
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Concepts :
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Publication date : Jan 11, 2018
Length: 376 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788620307
Category :
Security
Concepts :
Cybersecurity
Tools :
Linux

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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
Running Linux in a Virtual Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Running Linux in a Virtual Environment
The threat landscape
Keeping up with security news
Introduction to VirtualBox and Cygwin
Using Cygwin to connect to your virtual machines
Summary
Securing User Accounts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing User Accounts
The dangers of logging in as the root user
The advantages of using sudo
Setting up sudo privileges for full administrative users
Setting up sudo for users with only certain delegated privileges
Advanced tips and tricks for using sudo
Locking down users' home directories the Red Hat or CentOS way
Locking down users' home directories the Debian/Ubuntu way
Enforcing strong password criteria
Setting and enforcing password and account expiration
Preventing brute-force password attacks
Locking user accounts
Setting up security banners
Summary
Securing Your Server with a Firewall Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing Your Server with a Firewall
An overview of iptables
Uncomplicated Firewall for Ubuntu systems
firewalld for Red Hat systems
nftables – a more universal type of firewall system
Summary
Encrypting and SSH Hardening Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Encrypting and SSH Hardening
GNU Privacy Guard
Encrypting partitions with Linux Unified Key Setup – LUKS
Encrypting directories with eCryptfs
Using VeraCrypt for cross-platform sharing of encrypted containers
Ensuring that SSH protocol 1 is disabled
Creating and managing keys for password-less logins
Disabling root user login
Disabling username/password logins
Setting up a chroot environment for SFTP users
Summary
Mastering Discretionary Access Control Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Mastering Discretionary Access Control
Using chown to change ownership of files and directories
Using chmod to set permissions values on files and directories
Using SUID and SGID on regular files
The security implications of the SUID and SGID permissions
Using extended file attributes to protect sensitive files
Summary
Access Control Lists and Shared Directory Management Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Access Control Lists and Shared Directory Management
Creating an access control list for either a user or a group
Creating an inherited access control list for a directory
Removing a specific permission by using an ACL mask
Using the tar --acls option to prevent the loss of ACLs during a backup
Creating a user group and adding members to it
Creating a shared directory
Setting the SGID bit and the sticky bit on the shared directory
Using ACLs to access files in the shared directory
Summary
Implementing Mandatory Access Control with SELinux and AppArmor Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Implementing Mandatory Access Control with SELinux and AppArmor
How SELinux can benefit a systems administrator
Setting security contexts for files and directories
Troubleshooting with setroubleshoot
Working with SELinux policies
How AppArmor can benefit a systems administrator
Looking at AppArmor profiles
Working with AppArmor command-line utilities
Troubleshooting AppArmor problems
Summary
Scanning, Auditing, and Hardening Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Scanning, Auditing, and Hardening
Installing and updating ClamAV and maldet
Scanning with ClamAV and maldet
SELinux considerations
Scanning for rootkits with Rootkit Hunter
Controlling the auditd daemon
Creating audit rules
Using ausearch and aureport
Applying OpenSCAP policies with oscap
Using SCAP Workbench
More about OpenSCAP profiles
Applying an OpenSCAP profile during system installation
Summary
Vulnerability Scanning and Intrusion Detection Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Vulnerability Scanning and Intrusion Detection
Looking at Snort and Security Onion
Scanning and hardening with Lynis
Finding vulnerabilities with OpenVAS
Web server scanning with Nikto
Summary
Security Tips and Tricks for the Busy Bee Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Security Tips and Tricks for the Busy Bee
Auditing system services
Password-protecting the GRUB 2 bootloader
Securely configuring BIOS/UEFI
Using a security checklist for system setup
Summary
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Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.9
(7 Ratings)
5 star 42.9%
4 star 14.3%
3 star 28.6%
2 star 14.3%
1 star 0%
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R. G. Apr 04, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Very good overview of a broad spectrum of tools, tips, and techniques without getting bogged into too heavy details. It's very good for Linux sysadmins to read through to pick up items they may not have realized existed or even know to search for. I just read through beginning to end as a training course and then marked sections where I wanted to dig into and search for more info like OpenSCAP and Security Onion.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer May 06, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a great book about how Linux works in general, the security aspect puts it in the 5 star category. Comprehensive, informative and fun to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Linux Security..
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Van Mar 20, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a great tool for beginner and experienced Linux administrators alike. The author does an excellent job explaining the concepts, methods and the logic behind everything. Very easy to grasp and packed with useful information. Highly recommended
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Ham Mar 10, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Lots of practical information and hints and tips. Very helpful book. Lots of things to try out. Worth reading and referencing.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Alex Aug 19, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
I was expecting this book to be like an updated version of Hardening Linux by James Turnbull, but was a bit disappointed. The technical level of the book is superficial. Although it certainly touches upon valid security-relevant points, there is little fleshed-out instruction or insightful content beyond what one can easily find on the web, which is where the reader is left to go anyway to build a more comprehensive understanding of the issues brushed in the book.Moreover, since computer security is really about knowing what you are doing, and preferably knowing as much as any potential attacker, I take issue with the many inaccurate simplifications in the book. E.g., in the section on firewalls (specifically on using iptables) one comes across a statement like “The -p indicates the protocol that this rule affects. This rule affects the TCP protocol, of which Secure Shell is a part.”. So the SSH protocol is part of the TCP protocol? Really...? No, of course not. And in the context of firewalls, it actually makes sense to understand this and to know your protocols.If you’re looking for a thorough and admin-practical introduction into Linux system security, I would recommend leaving this book for what it is, and starting with Turnbull instead. Although the latter shows its age, it provides for a better foundation.
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Cybersecurity – Attack and Defense Strategies, 3rd edition
Cybersecurity – Attack and Defense Strategies, 3rd edition
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Sep 2022 570 pages
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Mastering Windows Security and Hardening
Mastering Windows Security and Hardening
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Aug 2022 816 pages
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Digital Forensics and Incident Response
Digital Forensics and Incident Response
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Dec 2022 532 pages
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Learn Computer Forensics – 2nd edition
Learn Computer Forensics – 2nd edition
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Jul 2022 434 pages
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About the author

Profile icon Donald A. Tevault
Donald A. Tevault
Donald A. Tevault - but you can call him Donnie - got involved with Linux way back in 2006, and has been working with it ever since. He holds the Linux Professional Institute Level 3-Security certification, and the GIAC Incident Handler certification. Donnie is a professional Linux trainer, and thanks to the magic of the internet, teaches Linux classes literally the world over from the comfort of his living room. He's also a Linux security researcher for an IoT security company.
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Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela