Entry

What are the basic steps to secure my box with a cable modem?

May 15th, 2000 09:58
Nathan Wallace, Rod Smith

1) Disable (and preferably remove from the computer) all unused servers.
   How many you've got I cannot know. Many (but not all) can be disabled
   by removing or commenting out their entries in /etc/inetd.conf.

2) If you want to run servers for your local network, replace inetd
   with xinetd; xinetd lets you bind a service to just one port, which 
   is more effective than using TCP Wrappers to block by IP address.

3) Set up an ipchains-based firewall. Check
       http://linux-firewall-tools.com/linux/
   and/or read the ipchains and IP masquerading HOWTOs for more info.

4) Read (and implement the suggestions in) at least one book on network
   security. _Maximum Linux Security_ is pretty good, as is _Practical
   Unix & Internet Security_. (I've got links to both of these on my web
   site, http://www.rodsbooks.com/books/books-network.html.) I've also
   heard good things about _Hacking Exposed_, but have yet to look into
   it, aside from flipping through the table of contents. It doesn't
   seem to be very Linux-specific; it's more like _Maximum Security_ in 
   the breadth of its coverage.