Hardening Linux [Paperback]

John Terpstra (Author), Paul Love (Author), Ronald P. Reck (Author), Tim Scanlon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072254971 | ISBN-13: 978-0072254976 | Publication Date: May 11, 2004 | Edition: 1

Bulletproof your system before you are hacked! From the publisher of the international best-seller, Hacking Exposed, here is a brilliant new offering written with a passion for security that will help you make the necessary upgrades and take the essential steps to secure your Linux systems. The concise and consistent approach breaks down security into logical parts, giving you actions to take immediately, information on hardening your system from the top down, how to plan and maintain an interative security strategy and finally, how to navigate the "soft issues" of how to garner management and employee support for your security strategy. Features examples in the most frequently used enterprise Linux distributions, Red Hat Enterprise Server 3.0, SuSE SLES 8.1 and a sneak preview of SuSE SLES 9.0

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“The proactive attitude towards implementing security, combined with the authors’ time-tested methods, are sure to produce dramatic results!” --Dave Wreski, CEO, Guardian Digital & co-author of Linux Security HOWTO

Take a proactive approach to Enterprise Linux security by implementing preventive measures against attacks--before they occur. Written by a team of Linux security experts, this hands-on resource provides concrete steps you can take immediately as well as ongoing actions to ensure long-term security. Features include examples using Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3.0, and Novell’s SUSE Linux versions SLES8 and SLES9. Get complete details on how to systematically harden your network from the ground up, as well as strategies for getting company-wide support for your security plan.

Features a four-part hardening methodology:

• Do This Now!--Important steps to lockdown your system from further attack
• Take It From The Top--Systematic approach to hardening your enterprise from the top down, focusing on network access, software accessibility, data access, storage, and communications
• Once Is Never Enough!--Ongoing monitoring and assessment plan to keep your network secure, including patch management, auditing, and log file scanning
• How to Succeed at Hardening Your Linux Systems--Strategies for getting budget approval, management buy-in, and employee cooperation for your security program

John H. Terpstra is co-founder of the Samba Team and serves on the Linux Standards Base. He previously worked as VP of Technology for Caldera, and VP of Development for Turbolinux. Paul Love, CISSP, CISA, CISM, Security+, is technical editor for more than 10 best selling Linux and Unix books. He manages security at a large utilities service provider, and holds an MS in Network Security. Ronald P. Reck’s experience blends linguistics, NLP, and XML with UNIX systems. As a civilian contractor, he tackles large computational problems for distinguished clientele. Tim Scanlon recently worked on computer security for the 2004 Olympic Games. He has been a Common Criteria instructor, and has worked at MCI, TRW, Signal Corporation, and Inter.Net Global. He has worked in the public sector and with Mitre and Mitretek. Series Editor Roberta Bragg, CISSP, Security+, writes a column for the Security Watch newsletter, and is the author of Hardening Windows Systems and several other information security books.

About the Author

John H. Terpstra (Draper, Utah) is CEO/President or PrimaStasys, Inc., co-founder of the Samba-Team, former VP Technology with Caldera, VP of Development for TurboLinux, and he serves on the Linux Standards Base (the body that sets the specifications for Linux), as well as the Linux Professional Institute Academic Council, responsible for reviewing LPI Certification Exam Questions for accuracy, relevance, and method.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (May 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072254971
• ISBN-13: 978-0072254976
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,652,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul has been in the Information Security field for about 20 years, and has recently expanded his role into Business Continuity. Paul is passionate about understanding how Information Security and Business Continuity can help organizations achieve their goals. Paul's philosophy is that the best path to security and business continuity is the least complex and most business aligned approach.

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More detailed biography - http://www.securecomputer.org/about/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall a respectable security reference for Linux sysadmins, February 11, 2008

By 

sinbad (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hardening Linux (Paperback)

[I'm adding this review because as of this writing there are only two other reviews, and I am not sure either is particularly helpful.]

As someone else mentioned, some of the distro-specific implementation details in this book are indeed dated. But the key ideas are all here for one to build and implement a security plan, and that is what counts.

Covered are such basic concepts as: packet filtering, shutting off/removing unneeded services, disaster recovery, software management, and others. It's surprising to me how many folks I run into who don't understand these critical areas.

4 out of 5 stars: respectable Linux security beginner book with lots of (sometimes extraneous, occasionally outdated) information.

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, February 2, 2009

By 

Prabath R. Peiris "opensource" (Rochester NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hardening Linux (Paperback)

anybody who working with linux servers should read this book. It will give you may tools that already comes with linux and show you how to use it. The cool part of this is after I finish the book I knew so much command and it give me an opportunity to dig in to specific command rather googleing using general questions and get inundate with information.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hardening Linux, September 27, 2005

By 

Valdez Ladd "Networking Every Day" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hardening Linux (Paperback)

This book is badly dated.

Worse it shows configs for new to Linux administrators and leaves the harder configurations missing time after time. No SELinux just cron, SSH, password and file permissions utilities.

Fortunately I brought both the Linux Troubleshooting Bible and the Network Security Bible. I recommend both for those starting Linux security administration.


(...)
Center for Internet Security

Valdez Ladd
CCNA, CIW-SP, CCSA, CWNA, I-NET+