Questions tagged [hardening]
the process of tightening security on a system.
0
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1answer
88 views
Can I use a virtual machine to connect to a public WIFI to use Internet by totally isolating the host from it?
I want to use my laptop to connect to a public WiFi in a library but...
I have strong security in my Windows host machine (comodo firewall using a public network settings and rules, protocols ...
5
votes
1answer
148 views
What are some examples of viruses/exploits with benevolent purposes?
A comment from another user had me thinking. What are some well-known (or perhaps not quite so) examples of in-the-wild "malicious" software that do nothing actually malicious, but instead takes ...
1
vote
1answer
57 views
Steps to Harden Ancient Gaming Server
I am somewhat administering an old Windows Server 2008 server that is used to host a older Video Game.
It's in such a state that it has tons of custom code on it that run the server and hasn't really ...
2
votes
1answer
166 views
Is zeroing out values on the stack and arguments overkill?
I generally zero out memory the moment it's served its usefulness, but only with heap-allocated chunks. Is it a sin (or overkill) to do the same with arguments and stack values? Thanks in advance.
...
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0answers
11 views
How to export gpo rules on Windows 10 Pro? [migrated]
I want to export the GPO rules of different sessions to reproduce them on another windows machine. Is this possible?
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0answers
29 views
How to protect certain macOS user directory from unauthorized access?
I have several directories on my Mac, two most popular examples are:
~/.aws
~/.ssh
They can be read by any script file or third-party app in system.
I do not see a way to protect them in macOS (...
2
votes
1answer
153 views
CIS hardening of alpine based docker container
I've got a service running inside a docker container. I've built my own image based on nginx:stable-alpine docker image.
I am trying to ascertain whether the concept of CIS hardening applies to the ...
1
vote
1answer
49 views
Is it a security risk to run master process of nginx as root?
I'm using nginx (Port 8888) as a reverse proxy for my web server running over 8080. In the traditional way, nginx master process runs as root and spawns the child processes with user www-data. Is it ...
1
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1answer
45 views
Shareable encrypted data in a web application
This is a follow up on my previous question about Storing sensitive, sharable data for a company where several of the employees have access to the server.
This solution has worked well for our ...
1
vote
1answer
131 views
WIN 10 hardening: Importance of “Allow system to be shut down without having to log on” policy
I am enforcing a hardening policy on my organization's work stations.
One of the policies I removed, under Shutdown, is called "Allow system to be shut own without having to log on".
Users started to ...
1
vote
2answers
61 views
How to protect your anti virus program or logging agent?
its a very simple question but might not be too trivial. Imagine an attacker has access to your device and gained SYSTEM privilege. Your company has installed a logging agent on your device to capture ...
0
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2answers
87 views
How to hide device files on linux?
I want to hide /dev files on Linux because some files can be dumped and used for reverse engineering/attack purposes.
My primary goal is to avoid users able to see those files from a shell: lurking ...
1
vote
2answers
516 views
Where to find the security hardened docker images
Is there any service that provides certified, security hardened Docker images for common platforms like Python, PHP, Node, Java, etc. with 0 major/critical CVEs.
Currently, we are using the ones from ...
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1answer
41 views
How to restrict plugins/tools like Netcraft and Builtwith to detect server side technologies?
My organization wants to restrict all the plugins/tools like Netcraft and Builtwith to detect all the server side technologies for security reason like platform, operating system name and version, web ...
0
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2answers
127 views
Best Source of Security Configuration Guidance
Over the years I have used a number of different sources of security configuration guidance for a spectrum of systems including for example:
https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks/
https://www....
1
vote
0answers
42 views
Hardening evaluation of shared objects files
In order to evaluate if security mechanisms are applied on binary files during compilation I usually use the checksec tool.
My question is: if I want to check an .so file, which checksec's fields ...
1
vote
1answer
83 views
How to mitigate the risks of using new, third party imported electronic accessories?
As someone who is naturally good at recognizing risk and who are striving to maintain a wholistic view on security, I’m wondering how to evaluate and reduce the risks of hardware accessories (I.e. ...
12
votes
2answers
753 views
Securing a Laptop from a Foreign Intelligence Agency
What would be the best practices for securing a single-purpose Windows laptop against a determined foreign intelligence agency from tampering with data on the machine? The machine would be used ...
2
votes
1answer
147 views
the state of ASLR, PIE, SSP on Debian in 2018?
As far as I remember,
most Debian Wheezy packages were not compiled with those useful security flags (ASLR, PIE, SSP, and more).
Did the situation improve with Debian Squeeze or the upcoming Debian ...
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0answers
17 views
Hyper-V keep enhanced session while blocking redirected drives
I'm creating a nested vm user desktop inside Windows 10 Enterprise. I'm using the hyper-v console, not mstsc.exe. The user desktop vm needs to use a headset and microphone which requires Enhanced ...
0
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1answer
79 views
Is it ok to delete SSH configuration files? [closed]
From what I read, SSH is mainly used for remotely accessing a machine. If I don't want anyone remotely accessing my machine, nor myself included, is it ok to delete these configuration files from my ...
0
votes
1answer
4k views
Filter TLS in Wireshark or other monitoring tool
As part of the new best practices in hardening server communications I need to deny TLS 1.0 on the web server, before doing so I wish to identify the amount of clients whom connect with this level of ...
1
vote
3answers
195 views
When hardening a LINUX system what command line tools would you remove first in order to make an attackers life really difficult? [closed]
When hardening a LINUX system what command line tools would you remove first in order to make an attackers life really difficult?
1
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1answer
51 views
Remove sync user to harden the system
I read a book about linux hardening (Hardening Linux by James Turnbull, 2005). The book suggests to remove the sync user. If I remove the sync user I am not able to call commands like ls and shutdown, ...
2
votes
1answer
848 views
How can I set a password for single user mode?
During a Lynis audit I found this on a system that uses Fedora 28:
Checking Linux single user mode authentication WARNING
And under results I got:
No password set for single mode [AUTH-...
3
votes
1answer
229 views
protection from Backdoor hacks from disgruntled developer/ employee
I created a ecommerce site with a developer. He completed almost all his work but in the end we had some financial disagreements so our partnership ended in a bitter dispute. That developer threatened ...
0
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1answer
526 views
Modify Win OS banner to avoid OS detection
I would like to modify Win OS banner to defeat OS detection from scanning tools like Nmap for example. Although, I know that Nmap does not take into account just the banner to do OS detection.
5
votes
2answers
357 views
securing Ubuntu bootloader using TPM
I am currently working with Ubuntu 16.04 , with an Intel CPU that supports TPM2 module.
I am trying to harden my boot-loader, i tried using trustedgrub2 fork that supports TPM2 , i understand that ...
0
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0answers
38 views
Electron app generating one-time access codes vs server generated codes
I'm designing a kiosk to use one-time SMS codes as a method of authentication. The method I'm using to generate codes happens inside of an Electron application running on a locked down kiosk, hardened ...
1
vote
1answer
425 views
what are the disadvantages of running SSH daemon without root?
Is there any risk in running ssh daemon with no root privilege using this method: how-can-i-make-this-daemon-init-run-as-a-non-root-user?
Debian Developer's Best Practices for OS Security says the ...
28
votes
4answers
8k views
What are the toughest SSH daemon settings in terms of encryption, handshake, or other cryptographic settings? [duplicate]
I work heavily with SSH and SFTP, to be specific between two machines, both of which have their SSH port open on a public IP address.
What are the toughest SSH daemon settings in terms of encryption, ...
3
votes
1answer
202 views
How to set basic defense on Nginx-CMS?
As an Information Security amateur I did all in my might to protect my Ubuntu-Nginx-CMS (WordPress) environment from BFAs, MITMs, and database injections.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot -...
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2answers
563 views
How to secure a fresh Ubuntu 16.04 install [closed]
I have a service that's spinning up fresh Ubuntu 16.04 instances onto a VPS (on behalf of users) and would really like to do what I can in terms of putting good privacy and security practices in by ...
0
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1answer
196 views
Is this some sort of hacker attack?
I'm using a tool on my website that detects any error and sends me an email when a code error happens. Recently, I've received some requests not allowed on my IP - not url - where only GET is allowed.
...
-2
votes
1answer
181 views
making a site DDoS proof without the use of CloudFlare? [closed]
So just a random thought as were doing the Info Sec unit on my college course, how would you make a website DDoS proof without cloud-flare? Would it just be case of logging IP address, MAC address and ...
0
votes
2answers
852 views
hundreds of users creating mail.ru and projectgold.ru accounts on my application db
I am working on Ubuntu Server with mysql installed, I have a forum application vbulletin 5 installed and there are hundreds of mail.ru and projectgold.ru created on my application, it looks like this:
...
1
vote
1answer
170 views
Limit information disclosed in AD Anonymous Bind
What I am trying to do
For reasons I may not go into, we must allow Anonymous Bind in AD on a private network. I am fully aware of the risks associated with this. I have found a myriad of ...
0
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3answers
245 views
Pitfalls of using SELinux for LAMP servers
I'm considering the usage of SELinux for several lamp (linux+apache+mysql+php) servers. I have tested SELinux in a virtual machine and have configured some basic rules (allow PHP, email, etc.) and for ...
1
vote
1answer
80 views
Is it possible to ensure that only two specific services are allowed to talk to each other?
So last semester I studied a bit about network hardening and one of the things that we did was write IP table rules to ensure that only a whitelisted set of services are able to talk to each other ...
1
vote
1answer
166 views
Handling toxic data in a microservice architecture
I'm trying to apply the principle that data is toxic asset in a system with many services through which this toxic asset must flow.
The system can be abstracted to 3 actors: clients, intermediaries, ...
4
votes
1answer
339 views
Storing UK bank account and sort code in MongoDB database
The company I work for has to send monthly payments to 20 to 50 users at a time. These users can change from month to month. Generally, each user will receive money from us for 2-3 months.
The users ...
6
votes
1answer
840 views
Security essentials for a embedded Linux device
We are prototyping a security camera product using Raspberry Pi 3 as the hardware platform. The camera has capability to connect to the cloud over internet as well as offline processing when the ...
5
votes
1answer
914 views
Why does checksec.sh highlight rpath and runpath as security issues?
The tool checksec.sh is used to examine compile time hardening options such as NX, RELRO, PIE and so on.
It also reports if the binary has RPATH or RUNPATH set, using the following logic:
These are ...
5
votes
1answer
505 views
Hardening/Security considerations for torrent clients
I am running Synology's DSM torrent client on a NAS. As I have to (?) open and forward one UDP port for DHT and another one (UDP/TCP) for data transmission I am exposing myself to threats originating ...
1
vote
1answer
571 views
Difference between Lynis and Nessus and yet another hardening tool
I am writing an open source python tool aimed at inventoring/auditing and hardening of a system. When I started off with the project, I did some research around it and figured out that there were not ...
5
votes
0answers
150 views
Using instruction set architecture (ISA) to stop stack overflows
I have been learning about using stack overflows to get arbitrary code execution, one of the tricks used is overwriting the return address to make control flow go the way you want it. Assuming our ...
0
votes
1answer
117 views
Are Optimization Flags Harmful?
There seems to be a consensus, that
-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -O1
is a hardening measure that should be applied as compiler option. This was also a recommendation in the Dovecot Pentest Report.
What I'm ...
4
votes
2answers
237 views
What should I do with the hidden/disabled Administrator account?
In Windows 10, there is the Administrator account that is disabled by default. What should I do with it, with regards to hardening Windows?
I have heard of adding a password to it, but is that ...
1
vote
1answer
120 views
Limiting a standard user on Windows
I'm setting up a limited user account. I would like it as limited as possible, while retaining the capabilities of: running a handful of programs, and saving files into one folder.
Can I use ACL ...
8
votes
2answers
6k views
Hardening SSH security on a Debian 9 server
I am running the following version of GNU/Linux Debian:
cat /etc/issue
says:
Debian GNU/Linux 9
Using the following kernel:
uname -r
says:
4.9.0-2-amd64
And running the following version of ...
