Securing Linux: Is it Necessary Beyond Just Installing

[Searching_ _ _]

Apparently the answer is yes.

-{ Quote: "The /tmp, /var/tmp, /dev/shm directories are not secured. Anybody can run and execute scripts and especially an evil person that likes to play around." }-

Read more...itsolutionskb (http://www.itsolutionskb.com/2008/10/securing-tmp-vartmp-devshm-partitions/)

[sukarof]

Here's a couple of noob questions from someone new in the Linux world:

Could someone please define "Anybody"
Is anybody someone who finds an open port through the net and by so gets access to these folders?
Or is anybody another user on the computer?
How does this anybody get access to those folders so he can run all these scripts? Javascripts on the web?
Anybody doesnt have to know the sudo password?
The restricted account that you have as default is useless when it comes to those folders?

[Searching_ _ _]

I guess that is an operative scare word in articles that Mrkvonick mentions.

Would've been nice if he stated more about how permissions work for those folders.
As it is, he is telling us how to secure something without the why of it.

[Mrkvonic]

Searching, relax!

We're talking local access, local access = game over. Nothing special. You might as well blow torch the hard disk, no protection against it, eh?

And it's mrkvonic, no a no k at the end :) or just mrk or if you must mr K

Mrk

[Searching_ _ _]

-{ Quote: "And it's mrkvonic, no a no k at the end :) or just mrk or if you must mr K" }-
Yeah, bout that. Just a typo. In the process of deleting the K I got distracted. My bad.
-{ Quote: "We're talking local access, local access = game over." }-

Thanks for clarifying.

Have you tried working on the unsolved Sonoluminescence (http://www.physics.ucla.edu/Sonoluminescence/) problem.

[sukarof]

-{ Quote: "
We're talking local access, local access = game over. Nothing special. You might as well blow torch the hard disk, no protection against it, eh?
Mrk" }-

That is what I suspected. No need to do that paranoid howto in other words. For a second I thought -
"Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in!" (ie: soon there will be HIPS for linux) ;D

[Dogbiscuit]

-{ Quote: "We're talking local access, local access = game over. Nothing special. You might as well blow torch the hard disk, no protection against it, eh?" }-
Know where your users live. ;)

[Mrkvonic]

That howto is basically resetting your password in single mode. That's all. No different than using BartPE to reset Windows passwords. And just for reference, there's no network in runlevel 1.
Mrk

[bktII]

-{ Quote: "Quote:
The /tmp, /var/tmp, /dev/shm directories are not secured. Anybody can run and execute scripts and especially an evil person that likes to play around.
" }-

A fair number of posts regarding securing /tmp, /var/tmp, /dev/shm on the internet. They are targeted towards securing a linux/unix server.

As for the thread title, "Securing Linux: Is it Necessary Beyond Just Installing", it depends on the distro and what you do with it. There are many distros. After install, some distros drop you into a user account, others drop you into the root account. Some distros enable (or at least offer to enable) the setup of an iptables-based firewall during the install, but not all. If you have a hardware firewall (not everyone does) and it is properly configured, an iptables-based firewall is not necessary. Also lots of variability on services/ports running by default with various distros. This is mitigated with a properly configured software and/or hardware firewall.

Running a home linux server open to the internet at large requires more consideration than a home linux desktop.

Good practice to run 'sudo netstat -tap' from a terminal window after installing linux to check for open ports. Also good practice to run periodically as some services have been known to reopen ports after service-related packages are updated. If you are not behind a hardware firewall, good practice to run 'sudo iptables -L' from a terminal window after installing linux to check if an iptables-based firewall is up and running.

HIPS software does exist for linux, but are targeted for businesses running servers.

[lodore]

if your really paranoid use SElinux and crank it up until it wont let you do anything:P

[Pedro]

Or rsbac, grsecurity, etc. which a certain person should write about ::)
I must protest!

[Mrkvonic]

Eventually ... soon ... why don't you write about it and I'll feature it, a guest article?
Mrk

[Pedro]

I'm not exactly Mrkvonic or Alphalutra ;D