======================================= |-----------:[INFO]:------------------| |-------------------------------------| | Title: "Linux Hardening & Security" | | Author: Krun!

x | QK | ======================================= Content: 1) Intruduction 2) cP/WHM Installation and cP/WHM Configuration 3) The server and it's services | PHP Installation, Optimization & Security 4) Kernel Hardening | Linux Kernel + Grsecurity Patch 5) SSH 6) Firewall | DDoS Protection 7) Mod_Security 8) Anti-Virus - ClamAV 9) Rootkit 10) The Rest of Shits =================== | 1) Intruduction | =================== I wrote a step by step paper how to secure linux server with cP/WHM and Apache installed. By default, linux is not secured enough but you have to understand there is no such thing as "totally secured server/system". The purpose of this paper is to understand how to at least provide some kind of security to the server. I prefer lsws web-server without any Control Panel at all but for this paper I have used CentOS 5 with cP/WHM and Apache web-server installed since a lot of hosting companies and individuals out there are using it. Let's start :) So, you bought the server with CentOS 5 installed. If you ordered cP/WHM together with the server you can skip 2.1 step ============================================ | 2) cP/WHM installation and configuration | ============================================ 2.1) cP/WHM Installation To begin your installation, use the following commands into SSH: root@server [~]# cd /home root@server [/home]# wget http://layer1.cpanel.net/latest root@server [/home]# ./latest ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------cd /home - Opens /home directory wget http://layer1.cpanel.net/latest - Fetches the latest installation file from the cPanel servers. ./latest - Opens and runs the installation files. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------cP/WHM should be installed now. You should be able to access cP via http://serverip:2082(SSL-2083) or http://serverip/cpanel and WHM via http://serverip:2086(SSL-2087) or http://serverip/whm. Let's configure it now. 2.2) cP/WHM Configuration Login to WHM using root username/passwd http://serverip:2086 or http://serverip/whm

WHM - Server setup - Tweak Security:

------------------------------------Enable open_basedir protection Disable Compilers for all accounts(except root) Enable Shell Bomb/memory Protection Enable cPHulk Brute Force Protection WHM - Account Functions: ------------------------Disable cPanel Demo Mode Disable shell access for all accounts(except root) WHM - Service Configuration - FTP Configuration: ------------------------------------------------Disable anonymous FTP access WHM - MySQL: ------------Set some MySQL password(Don't set the same password like for the root access) -If you didn't set MySQL password someone will be able to login into the DB with username "root" without password and delete/edit/download any db on the server. WHM - Service Configuration - Apache Configuration - PHP and SuExec Configuration -------------------Enable suEXEC - suEXEC = On When PHP runs as an Apache Module it executes as the user/group of the webserver which is usually "nobody" or "apache". suEXEC changes this so scripts are run as a CGI. Than means scripts are executed as the user that created them. With suEXEC script permissions can't be set to 777(read/write/execute at user/group/world level) =============================================================================== | 3) The server and it's services | PHP Installation, Optimization & Security | =============================================================================== 3.1) Keep all services and scripts up to date and make sure that you running the latest secured version. On CentOS type this into SSH to upgrade/update services on the server. [root@server ~]# yum upgrade or [root@server ~]# yum update 3.2) PHP installation/update, configuration and optimization + Suhosin patch First download what you need, type the following into SSH: root@server [~]# cd /root root@server [~]# wget http://www.php.net/get/php-5.2.9.tar.bz2/from/this/mirror root@server [~]# wget http://download.suhosin.org/suhosin-patch-5.2.8-0.9.6.3.patch.gz root@server [~]# wget http://download.suhosin.org/suhosin-0.9.27.tgz Untar PHP: root@server [~]# tar xvjf php-5.2.9.tar.bz2 Patch the source: root@server [~]# gunzip < suhosin-patch-5.2.8-0.9.6.3.patch.gz | patch -p0 Configure the source. If you want to use the same config as you used for the last php build it's not a problem but you will have to add: enable-suhosin to old config. To get an old config type this into SSH: root@server [~]# php -i | grep ./configure root@server [~]# cd php-5.2.9 root@server [~/php-5.2.9]# ./configure --enable-suhosin + old config(add old config you got from "php -i | grep ./configure" here) root@server [~/php-5.2.9]# make root@server [~/php-5.2.9]# make install Note: If you get an error like make: command not found or patch: Command not found, you will have to install "make" and "patch". It can be done

easly. Just type this into SSH: root@server [~]# yum install make root@server [~]# yum install patch Now check is everything as you want. Upload php script like this on the server: <?php phpinfo(); ?> And open it via your browser and you will see your PHP configuration there. 3.3) Suhosin We will install Suhosin now, it's an advanced protection system for PHP. root@server [~]# tar zxvf suhosin-0.9.27.tgz root@server [~]# cd suhosin-0.9.27 root@server [~/suhosin-0.9.27]# phpize root@server [~/suhosin-0.9.27]# ./configure root@server [~/suhosin-0.9.27]# make root@server [~/suhosin-0.9.27]# make install After you installed suhosin you will get something like this: It's installed to /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/ Now edit your php.ini. If you don't know where php.ini located is, type this into SSH. root@server [~]# php -i | grep php.ini Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /usr/local/lib Loaded Configuration File => /usr/local/lib/php.ini It means you have to edit /usr/local/lib/php.ini Type into SHH: root@server [~]# nano /usr/local/lib/php.ini If you get an error, nano: Command not found, then: root@server [~]# yum install nano Find "extension_dir =" and add: extension_dir = /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/ To save it, CTRL + O and press the enter button on your keyboard. 3.4) Zend Optimizer: Download Zend Optimizer from http://www.zend.com/store/products/zend-optimizer.php root@server [~]# tar -zxvf ZendOptimizer-3.3.3-linux-glibc23-i386.tar.gz root@server [~]# cd ZendOptimizer-3.3.3-linux-glibc23-i386 root@server [~/ZendOptimizer-3.3.3-linux-glibc23-i386]# ./install.sh Welcome to Zend Optimizer installation..... - Press Enter button Zend licence agreement... - Press Enter button Do you accept the terms of this licence... - Yes, press Enter button Location of Zend Optimizer... - /usr/local/Zend, press Enter button Confirm the location of your php.ini file...- /usr/local/lib, press Enter button Are you using Apache web-server.. - Yes, press Enter button Specify the full path to the Apache control utility(apachectl).../usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl, press Enter button The installation has completed seccessfully...- Press Enter button Now restart apache, type this into SSH: root@server [~]# service httpd restart 3.5) php.ini & disabled functions Edit php.ini like this: root@server [~]# nano /usr/local/lib/php.ini -----------------------------------------------------------safe_mode = On expose_php = Off Enable_dl= Off magic_quotes = On register_globals = off display errors = off disable_functions = system, show_source, symlink, exec, dl, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, escapeshellarg,escapeshellcmd

------------------------------------------------------------root@server [~]# service httpd restart Or you can edit php.ini via WHM: WHM - Service Configuration - PHP Configuration Editor ========================================================= | 4) Kernel Hardening | Linux Kernel + Grsecurity Patch | ========================================================= Description : grsecurity is an innovative approach to security utilizing a multi-layered detection, prevention, and containment model. It is licensed under the GPL. It offers among many other features: -An intelligent and robust Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) system that can generate least privilege policies for your entire system with no configuration -Change root (chroot) hardening -/tmp race prevention -Extensive auditing -Prevention of arbitrary code execution, regardless of the technique used (stack smashing, heap corruption, etc) -Prevention of arbitrary code execution in the kernel -Randomization of the stack, library, and heap bases -Kernel stack base randomization -Protection against exploitable null-pointer dereference bugs in the kernel -Reduction of the risk of sensitive information being leaked by arbitrary-read kernel bugs -A restriction that allows a user to only view his/her processes -Security alerts and audits that contain the IP address of the person causing the alert Downloading and patching kernel with grsecurity root@server [~]# cd /root root@server [~]# wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.26.5.tar.gz root@server [~]# wget http://www.grsecurity.com/test/grsecurity-2.1.12-2.6.26.5200809141715.patch root@server [~]# tar xzvf linux-2.6.26.5.tar.gz root@server [~]# patch -p0 < grsecurity-2.1.12-2.6.26.5-200809141715.patch root@server [~]# mv linux-2.6.26.5 linux-2.6.26.5-grsec root@server [~]# ln -s linux-2.6.26.5-grsec/ linux root@server [~/linux]# cd linux root@server [~/linux]# cp /boot/config-`uname -r` .config root@server [~/linux]# make oldconfig Compile the root@server root@server root@server root@server Kernel: [~/linux]# [~/linux]# [~/linux]# [~/linux]#

make make make make

bzImage modules modules_install install

Check your grub loader config, and make sure default is 0 root@server [~/linux]# nano /boot/grub/grub.conf Reboot the server root@server [~/linux]# reboot

========== | 5) SSH | ========== In order to change SSH port and protocol you will have to edit sshd_config root@server [~]# nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Change Protocol 2,1 to Protocol 2 Change #Port 22 to some other port and uncomment it Like, Port 1337 There is a lot of script kiddiez with brute forcers and they will try to crack our ssh pass because they know username is root, port is 22 But we were smarter, we have changed SSH port :) Also, their "brute forcing" can increase server load, which means our sites(hosted on that server) will be slower. SSH Legal Message edit /etc/motd, write in motd something like this: "ALERT! That is a secured area. Your IP is logged. Administrator has been notified" When someone logins into SSH he will see that message: ALERT! That is a secured area. Your IP is logged. Administrator has been notified If you want to recieve an email every time when someone logins into SSH as root, edit .bash_profile(It's located in /root directory) and put this at the end of file: echo 'ALERT - Root Shell Access on:' `date` `who` | mail -s "Alert: Root Access from `who | awk '{print $6}'`" mail@something.com And at the end restart SSH, type "service sshd restart" into SSH ================================= | 6) Firewall | DDoS Protection | ================================= 6.1) Firewall, CSF Installation root@server [~]# wget http://www.configserver.com/free/csf.tgz root@server [~]# tar -xzf csf.tgz root@server [~]# cd csf In order to install csf your server needs to have some ipt modules enabled. csftest is a perl script and it comes with csf. You can check those mudules with it. root@server [~/csf]# ./csftest.pl The output should be like this: root@server [~/csf]# ./csftest.pl Testing ip_tables/iptable_filter...OK Testing ipt_LOG...OK Testing ipt_multiport/xt_multiport...OK Testing ipt_REJECT...OK Testing ipt_state/xt_state...OK Testing ipt_limit/xt_limit...OK Testing ipt_recent...OK Testing ipt_owner...OK Testing iptable_nat/ipt_REDIRECT...OK Don't worry if you don't have all those mudules enabled, csf will work if you didn't get any FATAL errors at the end of the output. Now, get to installation root@server [~/csf]# ./install.sh You will have to edit csf.conf file. It's located here: /etc/csf/csf.conf You need to edit it like this: Testing = "0" And you need to configure open ports in csf.conf or you won't be able to access these ports. In most cases it should be configured like this if you are using cP/WHM. If you are running something on some other port you will have to enable it here. If you changed SSH port you will have to add a new port here:

# Allow incoming TCP ports TCP_IN = "20,21,22,25,53,80,110,143,443,465,587,993,995,2077,2078,2082,2083,2086,2087,2095,2096" # Allow outgoing TCP ports TCP_OUT = "20,21,22,25,37,43,53,80,110,113,443,587,873,2087,2089,2703" 6.2) CSF Connection Limit There is in csf.conf CT option, configure it like this CT_LIMIT = "200" It means every IP with more than 200 connections is going to be blocked. CT_PERMANENT = "1" IP will blocked permanenty CT_BLOCK_TIME = "1800" IP will be blocked 1800 secs(1800 secs = 30 mins) CT_INTERVAL = "60" Set this to the the number of seconds between connection tracking scans. After csf.conf editing you need to restart csf root@server [~# service csf restart 6.3) SYN Cookies Edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following line in order to enable SYN cookies protection: ----------------------------------# Enable TCP SYN Cookie Protection net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1 ----------------------------------root@server [~/]# service network restart 6.4) CSF as security testing tool CSF has an option "Server Security Check". Go to WHM - Plugins - CSF Test Server Security. You will see additional steps how to secure the server even more. I'm writing only about most important things here and I covered most of them in the paper but if you want you can follow steps provided by CSF to get the server even more secured. 6.5) Mod_Evasive ModEvasive module for apache offers protection against DDoS (denial of service attacks) on your server. To install it login into SSH and type: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------root@server [~]# cd /root/ root@server [~]# wget http://www.zdziarski.com/projects/mod_evasive/mod_evasive_1.10.1.tar.gz root@server [~]# tar zxf mode_evasive-1.10.1.tar.gz root@server [~]# cd mod_evasive then type... root@server [~/mod_evasive]# /usr/sbin/apxs -cia mod_evasive20.c --------------------------------------------------------------------------------When mod_evasive is installed, place the following lines in your httpd.conf (/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf) -------------------------------<IfModule mod_evasive20.c> DOSHashTableSize 3097 DOSPageCount 2 DOSSiteCount 50 DOSPageInterval 1 DOSSiteInterval 1 DOSBlockingPeriod 10 </IfModule> --------------------------------

6.6) Random things: csf -d IP - Block an IP with CSF csf -dr IP - Unblock an IP with CSF csf -s - Start firewall rules csf -f - Flush/stop firewall rules csf -r - Restart firewall rules csf -x - Disable CSF csf -e - Enable CSF csf -c - Check for updates csf -h - Show help screen -Block an IP via iptables iptables -A INPUT -s IP -j DROP -Unblock an IP via iptables iptables -A INPUT -s IP -j ACCEPT -See how many IP addresses are connected to the server and how many connections has each of them. netstat -ntu | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n =================== | 7) Mod_Security | =================== Mod_Security is a web application firewall and he can help us to secure our sites against RFI, LFI, XSS, SQL Injection etc If you use cP/WHM you can easly enable Mod_security in WHM - Plugins - Enable Mod_Security and save Now I will explain how to install Mod_security from source. You can't install Mod_Security if you don't have libxml2 and http-devel libraries. Also, you need to enable mod_unique_id in apache modules, but don't worry, I will explain how to do it :) Login into SSH and type... root@server [~]# yum install libxml2 libxml2-devel httpd-devel libxml2 libxml2-devel httpd-devel should be installed now then you need to edit httpd.conf file, you can find it here: root@server [~]# nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf You need to add this in your httpd.conf file LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so Now download the latest version of mod_security for apache2 from http://www.modsecurity.org login into SSH and type... root@server [~]# cd /root/ root@server [~]# wget http://www.modsecurity.org/download/modsecurityapache_2.5.6.tar.gz root@server [~]# tar zxf modsecurity-apache_2.5.6.tar.gz root@server [~]# cd modsecurity-apache_2.5.6 root@server [~/modsecurity-apache_2.5.6]# cd apache2 then type: root@server [~/modsecurity-apache_2.5.6/apache2]# ./configure root@server [~/modsecurity-apache_2.5.6/apache2]# make root@server [~/modsecurity-apache_2.5.6/apache2]# make install Go at the end of httpd.conf and place an include for our config/rules file...

Include /etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.conf --------------------------------------------------------# /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so LoadFile /usr/lib/libxml2.so LoadModule security2_module modules/mod_security2.so Include /etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.conf --------------------------------------------------------You need to find a good rules for Mod_Security. You can find them at official Mod_Security site. Also, give a try to gotroot.com rules. When you find a good rules, just put them in /etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.conf And restart httpd at the end, type "service httpd restart" into SSH. ========================== | 8) Anti-Virus - ClamAV | ========================== You need AV protection to protect the server against worms and trojans invading your mailbox and files! Just install clamav (a free open source antivirus software for linux). More information can be found on clamav. website - http://www.clamav.net In order to install CLamAV login into SSH and type root@server [~]# yum install clamav Once you have installed clamav for your CentOS, here are some basic commands you will need: Update the antivirus database root@server [~]# freshclam Run antivirus root@server [~]# clamscan -r /home Running as Cron Daily Job To run antivirus as a cron job (automatically scan daily) just run crontab -e from your command line. Then add the following line and save the file. @daily root clamscan -R /home It means clamav will be scanning /home directory every day. You can change the folder to whatever you want to scan.

============== | 9) Rootkit | ============== Rootkit scanner is scanning tool to ensure you for about 99.9%* you're clean of nasty tools. This tool scans for rootkits, backdoors and local exploits by running tests like: -MD5 hash compare -Look for default files used by rootkits -Wrong file permissions for binaries -Look for suspected strings in LKM and KLD modules -Look for hidden files -Optional scan within plaintext and binary files Instalation: Login into SSH and type

root@server root@server root@server root@server root@server

[~]# cd /root/ [~]# wget http://downloads.rootkit.nl/rkhunter-1.2.7.tar.gz [~]# tar -zxvf rkhunter-1.2.7.tar.gz [~]# cd rkhunter [~rkhunter]# ./installer.sh

Scan the server with rkhunter root@server [~]# rkhunter -c ========================= | 10) The Rest of Shits | ========================= 10.1) Random suggestions If you use bind DNS server then we need to edit named.conf file named.conf is located here: /etc/named.conf and add recursion no; under Options ---------------------------Options{ recursion no; ---------------------------Now restart bind, type into SSH root@server [~]# service named restart This will prevent lookups from dnstools.com and similar services and reduce server load In order to prevent IP spoofing, you need to edit host.conf file like this: This file is located here: /etc/host.conf Add that in host.conf -----------------order bind,hosts nospoof on -----------------Hide the Apache version number: edit httpd.conf (/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf) ----------------------ServerSignature Off ----------------------10.2) Passwords Don't use the same password you are using for the server on some other places. When the Datacenter contacts you via e-mail or phone, always request more informations. Remember, someone alse could contact you to get some information or even root passwords. 10.3) Random thoughts No matter what you need to secure the server, don't think you are safe only because you are not personally involved in any shits with "hackers". When you are hosting hacking/warez related sites you are the target. There is no such thing as totally secured server. Most important things are backups, make sure you will always have an "up-to-date" offsite backups ^^ Anyhow, this is the end of my paper, I hope it will help you to get some kind of security to your server. -Krun!x