Ubuntu Security
Greetings all i recently installed Ubuntu on my older computer in my room….no much to speak of about 700Mhz Processor 300 some MB of ram dont really know the video card….but i would like to know About if any…a good linux Firewall or Security Measures i could take to keep this little Box safe….i mean i dont do much on this Machine but i still wanna be secure….thanks for any tips peace everyone….
cis_slayer wrote: i would like to know About if any…a good linux Firewall or Security Measures
Well, first, Ubuntu is good for beginners since, as it is, you're logged in as a normal user. All of your root activities are initiated through sudo, so that takes one step out of the way.
As for a good Linux firewall, I've found that Firestarter is good for people just starting out in Linux. As you progress, you will want to graduate to IPTables (which I believe is the backbone of Firestarter).
Other than that, just be smart about what you download to that system… also, look at disabling non-essential services that are installed by default. Use a strong password, of course. Use Google as your source of how to accurately apply permissions to your default directories… for this, you need to have a decent knowledge of the "chmod" command. Also, you will need to research getting your daemons to run as a user other than root; you want as little as possible running as root, since processes that run as root are natural targets for BoFs and such.
A good firewall is a start. After that, decide what you want to do with the system, and start removing things that are non-essential. Synaptic is good for this.
cis_slayer wrote: Sweet….i Used to have fedora on this Box but i got tired of it But now i decided to use Ubuntu. Thanks for the Tips. They are Greatly appreciated….
No problem. For the record, Fedora is no less capable than Ubuntu… Ubuntu is just a better starter OS for people looking to (mostly) single-boot. I've found Fedora to be a better learning platform, though. Also, I'm sure that, as you start to get acquainted with Ubuntu, you will wish you had Fedora on that system… after Dapper Drake, Ubuntu started changing too much. I'm a fan of the more "traditional" Linux structure.
<<<Gentoo User>>>
hmmmmmm….. well you'll probably already all know my opinions about ubuntu….
honestly, it's horrible.
But yeah, secure it up a bit, ideally your security in the firewall sense should be seperate to teh actual box, i run some minimal IPtables rules on my server, but by and large all my security is achieved by one of my 3 routers.
Change OS soon if you can, ubuntu will teach you some ugly habits that you really don'y want to keep….
-Richo
PCLinuxOS FTW!!!
richohealey wrote: hmmmmmm….. well you'll probably already all know my opinions about ubuntu…. honestly, it's horrible.
But yeah, secure it up a bit, ideally your security in the firewall sense should be seperate to teh actual box, i run some minimal IPtables rules on my server, but by and large all my security is achieved by one of my 3 routers.
Change OS soon if you can, ubuntu will teach you some ugly habits that you really don'y want to keep….
-Richo
Of course, network hardware solutions are infinitely better than relying on software solutions. That fact is irrespective of the OS you're running.
I also agree with the bad habits bit… but, if you're going to give Ubuntu a shot, the most recent one that's most similar to other *nix's would have to be Dapper Drake. In later versions, they started changing around certain system config files and directories, which I was not a fan of at all.
Once you're ready to graduate from Ubuntu, look into Debian. You'll still get your apt-get functionality, and you'll be moving to a more well-rounded OS.