On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Andreas von Heydwolff wrote: > [ Snip most details of computer setup and getting cracked ]
When you install a system, unless its absolutely necessary, install it from behind a firewall. Then, before you set up any sort of firewall on the machine, start disabling ports - most servers can be configured to listen to only the local loopback device or the internal network. Even without a firewall, your system should be secure. (Hint: 'listen', 'bind', 'allow from', 'interface', etc in config files to limit what device the server listens to, and xinetd to limit those services that traditionally start from inetd.) Your goal is to be able to scan your machine (via nmap), and find no unnecessary service listening to the outside interface. Then, build up your firewall scripts. Connect to the internet and do all the security updates. Finally, use a security scanner from outside your machine ( I believe that http://www.grc.com has one [about the only thing the site's good for, IMHO]). You don't want your security system to consist solely of your firewall - firewalls are supposed to supplement your defense! Just my $.02 ~ Jesse Meyer -- icq: 34583382 / msn: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / yim: tsunad "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut Jr : Mother Night
pgp00000.pgp
Description: PGP signature
