[102113] in RedHat Linux List
Re: questions and concerns
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Jinks)
Tue Dec 1 13:31:22 1998
Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 18:29:49 +0000
From: Michael Jinks <michael@twopoint.com>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Tom wrote:
>
> Is there a source of
> information out there that is written with a newbie in mind that will
> tell me how to secure RH5.1?
Might I recommend something more general? In many cases, you won't need
_all_ the updated rpm's if you know a little more about what's going on
with your system. Not all the upgrades fix vital bugs, and not all of
the rpm's are (just guessing here) running on your system.
If you are willing to buy books, Go To O'Reilly. I wish there were free
online docs as good as their books, but they are an almost-as-good
alternative. They have one book called "UNIX system security" which is
sort of a phone book, but will answer a LOT of your questions. Their
book "Building Internet Firewalls" is not exactly what you're looking
for, but it is a lot smaller than the UNIX security book and does also
cover many important security issues. It also has a nice appendix at
the back which is sort of like "all the info about TCP/IP that will fit
in a pamphlet," almost worth the price of the book by itself.
The Linux Network Administrator's Guide (available online from the UDP,
http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html) offers a nice intro to UNIX
networking with a Linux slant, and does address security issues. It
isn't everything but it is a nice starting point if you're looking for
something seminal.
> I rarely log in as anything but root. I see where problems would arise,
> but I run into permission problems a lot when trying to do relatively
> mundane tasks.
My quick fix for this is to log in as myself (a lowly user) and use a
shell and "su -" when I need to be root, then exit as soon as the root
part is done.
Don't be surprised if you su a lot, especially at first when you're
doing all this setup stuff. But (my own opinion) it's better to make a
point out of becoming root temporarily (even if you do it all the time)
rather than logging in that way from scratch.
su -. Your friend and boon companion.
--
Michael Jinks
mailto:michael@twopoint.com http://www.twopoint.com
Systems Administrator, Two Point Conversions, Inc.
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