I have been looking at hardening *nix servers for my lab and maybe carry some of that over to work. CIS benchmarks are something I like doing but that's barely scratching the surface. What do you do for your servers?
I have Lynis, systemd-analyze, Kernel self protection in mind but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Bonus points for the most paranoid setups!
8 Comments
Cyber@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 1y
Is this for internal facing servers? Not much more than CIS and the usual Best Practices (no root for SSH, etc)
For a DMZ node, minimal software (ie Arch) and automated defenses like fail2ban, key authentication, etc...
Firewalls with Geo-IP blocking also help, but that's not technically what you're asking for.
iii@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 1y
Port knocking is a cool technique
HorreC@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
I have used this with second port for handshake (with no info in heading and 20 second times) and then the final port opens with key exchanged from handshake.
Cyber@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 1y
Would you use that on internal LAN connections or only external internet facing connections? I'm not aware (not checked) if any firewalls support it... not sure why?
iii@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 1y
With knockd you can execute arbitrary commands upon a port knocking sequence. So any application that is configurable via terminal is eligible. Here's a tutorial of knockd+iptables (1). Alternativly there's (2) that achieves the same effect in a different way.
You can use it wherever, as part of security in depth. It's essentially a pre-shared secret.
It'll have it's largest effect on publicly facing interfaces. It does not replace having a proper ssh setup (disabling root, disabling password login, etc).
Cyber@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 1y
Thanks for the links, I'll take a look as I've never actually played with port knocking.
dotslashme@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 1y
I'm probably in minority here. My setup is simple, I chose a good OS like Debian or Alpine to run things on, make sure it's always patched, move sshd to a nonstandard port and harden it.
redfox@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 1y
If you want to go balls out, go get DISA stigg for Redhat.