Re: Linux Web Server Hardening (LAMP + Wiki)

[Tracy Reed <treed () ultraviolet org>]

On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 07:56:52AM PST, Michael Peppard spake thusly:
> You will need to get up to speed on selinux. ACLs, chroot jails and iptables
> alone don't cut it.

I second the use of SELinux. It is a while new security system and rather
complex but well worth learning. I think of it like firewalls for my
applications.

I have compiled the following list of resources for securing RHEL/CentOS:

http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-pamphlet-i731.pdf

http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-guide-i731.pdf

http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/files/hardening-rhel5.pdf 

http://benchmarks.cisecurity.org/tools2/linux/CIS_RHEL_5.0-5.1_Benchmark_v1.1.2.pdf 

http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/ncp/repository

Use something like puppet to automate implementation of this stuff
network-wide. That last NIST link even has an awesome puppet config for all of
this! I've been reading through the code for the puppet modules and learned
some neat things, including stuff I had no clue about previously such as how
augeas works and what it is good for.

> LAMP is well supported by the default selinux rules on every major Linux
> distro. You will have to learn how to tighten the security rules, such as
> type enforcement yourself though.

If using SELinux (which I recommend) be sure to know about the booleans related
to http. A simple flip of a setting from off to on can solve most http related
problems and avoid frustration or writing custom SELinux policy:

# /usr/sbin/getsebool -a | grep http
allow_httpd_anon_write --> off
allow_httpd_mod_auth_ntlm_winbind --> off
allow_httpd_mod_auth_pam --> off
allow_httpd_sys_script_anon_write --> off
httpd_builtin_scripting --> on
httpd_can_check_spam --> off
httpd_can_network_connect --> off
httpd_can_network_connect_cobbler --> off
httpd_can_network_connect_db --> off
httpd_can_network_memcache --> off
httpd_can_network_relay --> off
httpd_can_sendmail --> off
httpd_dbus_avahi --> on
httpd_enable_cgi --> on
httpd_enable_ftp_server --> off
httpd_enable_homedirs --> off
httpd_execmem --> off
httpd_manage_ipa --> off
httpd_read_user_content --> off
httpd_run_stickshift --> off
httpd_setrlimit --> off
httpd_ssi_exec --> off
httpd_tmp_exec --> off
httpd_tty_comm --> on
httpd_unified --> on
httpd_use_cifs --> off
httpd_use_gpg --> off
httpd_use_nfs --> off
httpd_use_openstack --> off
httpd_verify_dns --> off

-- 
Tracy Reed

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