Securing _ Hardening RHEL

Securing and Hardening Red Hat Linux Production Systems
A Practical Guide to Basic Linux Security in Production Enterprise Environments

Contents
* General
* Removing Unnecessary Software Packages (RPMs)
* Patching Linux Systems
* Detecting Listening Network Ports
* Closing Network Ports and Disabling Runlevel System Services
* Closing Network Ports and Disabling Xinetd Services
* Reviewing Inittab and Boot Scripts
* Restricting System Access from Servers and Networks
* Securing SSH
* Securing Postfix
* Securing Sendmail
* Securing NFS
* Copying Files Using SSH Without Providing Login Prompts
* Kernel Tunable Security Parameters
* Checking File Permissions and Ownership
* Checking Accounts
* Enabling Password Aging
* Enforcing Stronger Passwords
* Restricting Use of Previous Passwords
* Locking User Accounts After Too Many Login Failures
* Restricting Direct Login Access for System and Shared Accounts
* Restricting su Access to System and Shared Accounts
* Preventing Accidental Denial of Service
* Displaying Login Banners
* Miscellaneous
* Bibliography and References
General
Physical Security
Physical security should be of the utmost concern. Linux production servers should be in locked
datacenters where only people with passed security checks have access. But physical security is
out of scope for this article. Depending on the environment and circumstances, you may want to
consider boot loader passwords.
Verifying Security Action Items
It is strongly recommended to have scripts available which verify that all security action items
have been executed. Even the best sysadmins can make mistakes and miss steps. If you have a
larger Linux environment, it would be a good investment to write scripts for checking Linux
security action items.
Retiring Linux Servers with Sensitive Data
To retire servers with sensitive data, it is important to ensure that data cannot be recovered from
the hard disks. To ensure that all traces of data are removed, the DiskSanitizer tool can be
used. This tool can be operated from a floppy disk and it removes data according with the U.S.
Department of Defense (DoD) standards. DiskSanitizer is available at
http://freshmeat.net/projects/disksanitizer.
Backups
If your system gets compromised, your backups become invaluable. But also in cases like bugs,
accidents etc. backups can be used to compare you current system against your backed-up
system. For production systems it is very important to take some Backups offsite for cases like
disasters.
For legal reasons, some firms and organizations must be careful about backing up too much
information and holding it too long. If your environment has a policy regarding the destruction of
old paper files, you might have to extend this policy to Linux backup tapes as well.
Disk Partitions
Servers should have separate partitions for at least /, /boot, /usr, /var, /tmp, and /home. You
don't want that e.g. logging and temporary space under /var and /tmp fill up the root partition.
Third party applications should be on separate filesystems as well, e.g. under /opt.
Firewall (iptables)
I will not cover iptables in this paper. Most companies use hardware based firewalls to protect
their servers in a production network, which is strongly recommended for such environments. If
you are interested in a Linux Stateful Firewall using iptables, check out my HOWTO for
Stateful Firewall and Masquerading on Linux. For lots of iptables tutorials and examples, see
http://www.linuxguruz.com/iptables/.
Kernel Security Features
Kernel Tunable Security Parameters:

For more information, see Kernel Tunable Security Parameters.
Virtual Address Space Randomization:
Starting with the 2.6.x kernel releases Linux now uses address-space randomization technique to
mitigate buffer overflows. For more information, see Linux virtual address randomization and
impacting buffer overflows and Address space randomization in 2.6.
SELinux
SELinux is an advanced technology for securing Linux systems. Hardening Linux using
SELinux technology, on its own, warrants it's own security HOWTO and is out of scope for this
guide. I highly recommend the book SELinux: NSA's Open Source Security Enhanced Linux.
FTP, telnet, and rlogin (rsh)
FTP, telnet, and rlogin (rsh) are vulnerable to eavesdropping, which is one of the reasons why
SSH/SCP/SFTP should be used instead. It is highly recommended not to run these services. Due
to the high risk, this guide does not cover these services. It would also be a good idea not to have
FTP and Telnet server RPMs installed on the system.
Removing Unnecessary Software Packages (RPMs)

A very important step in securing a Linux system is to determine the primary function or role of
the Linux server. You should have a detailed knowledge of what is on your system. Otherwise
you will have a difficult time to understand what needs to be secured and hence securing your
Linux systems proactively won't be that effective. Therefore, it is very critical to look at the
default list of software packages and remove unneeded packages or packages that don't comply
with your security policy. If you do that you will have less packages to update and to maintain
when security alerts and patches are released. For example, you should not have Apache or
Samba installed on your system if you don't use them. Also, it is a good practice not to have
development packages, desktop software packages (e.g. X Server) etc. installed on production
servers. Other packages like FTP and Telnet daemons should not be installed as well unless there
is a justified business reason for it (SSH/SCP/SFTP should be used instead).
One of the first action items should be to create a Linux image that only contains RPMs needed
by the applications, and needed for maintenance and troubleshooting purposes. A good
approach is to start with a minimum list of RPMs and then add packages as needed. It may be
time-consuming but worth the efforts.
To get a list of all installed RPMs you can use the following command:
rpm -qa
If you want to know more about a particular RPM, run:
rpm -qi <package_name>
To check for and report potential conflicts and dependencies for deleting a RPM, run:
rpm -e --test <package_name>
For information on performing Kickstart installations and how to build an image, see Kickstart
Installations for more information.
Patching Linux Systems
Building an infrastructure for patch management is another very important step to proactively
secure Linux production environments. It is recommended to have a written security policy and
procedure to handle Linux security updates and issues.
For example, a security policy should detail the timeframe for assessment, testing, and rollout of
patches. Network related security vulnerabilities should get the highest priority and should be
addressed immediately within a short timeframe.
For example, a security procedure should detail the process for assesment, testing, and rollout of
patches. The assessment phase should occur within a testing lab, and initial rollout should occur
on development systems first.
A separate security log should detail what Linux security notices have been received, when
patches have been researched and assessed, when patches have been applied etc.
For Red Hat systems I recommend Red Hat Network (RHN) for patch management. In fact, for
secure environments you may have to consider Red Hat's Satellite solution. For more
information, see Red Hat Network Architectural Overview.
Detecting Listening Network Ports

One of the most important tasks is to detect and close network ports that are not needed.
To get a list of listening network ports (TCP and UDP sockets), you can run the following
command:
# netstat -tulp
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address
State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 *:auth *:*
LISTEN 2328/xinetd
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:smtp *:*
LISTEN 2360/sendmail: acce
tcp 0 0 *:ssh *:*
LISTEN 2317/sshd
From the output you can see that xinetd, sendmail, and sshd are listening.
On all newer Red Hat Linux distributions sendmail is configured to listen for local connections
only. Sendmail should not listen for incoming network connections unless the server is a mail or
relay server. Running a port scan from another server will confirm that (make sure that you have
permissions to probe a machine):
# nmap -sTU <remote_host>
Starting nmap 3.70 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2004-12-10 22:51 CST

Interesting ports on jupitor (172.16.0.1):
(The 3131 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed)
PORT STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open ssh
113/tcp open auth
Nmap run completed -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 221.669 seconds

#
Note that the above nmap command can take a while. If you remove the UDP port scan (without
the option "-U"), then nmap will finish the port scan immediately. If you run it on the local
machine it will also complete very fast. Also note that nmap might not show all listening network
sockets if a firewall is being used to block ports.
From the output above you can see that the xinetd daemon is listening on port auth (port 113)
for IDENT (for more information on this service, see below). You can also see that sendmail is
not listening for remote incoming network connections, see also Securing Sendmail.
Another method to list all of the TCP and UDP sockets to which programs are listening is lsof:
# lsof -i -n | egrep 'COMMAND|LISTEN|UDP'
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
sshd 2317 root 3u IPv6 6579 TCP *:ssh (LISTEN)
xinetd 2328 root 5u IPv4 6698 TCP *:auth (LISTEN)
sendmail 2360 root 3u IPv4 6729 TCP 127.0.0.1:smtp (LISTEN)
#
Closing Network Ports and Disabling Runlevel System

Services
One of the most important tasks is to remove any network services from the system startup
process that are not needed.
On Red Hat systems you can list all services which are started at bootup using the following
command:
chkconfig --list |grep on
You will notice that there are quite a lot of services enabled on your system. But many runlevel
services (Stand-Alone Services) are not network related services like kudzu which is responsible
for detecting and configuring new and/or changed hardware on your system. This service is only
run during the boot process. Ensure not to disable runlevel services that are needed by the system
to run smoothly.
Here are examples of Red Hat Runlevel System Services which you may or may not want to
enable:
gpm needed if you want to use the mouse at the console
kudzu important for detecting new hardware
syslog important for syslog services
netfs needed only if there are NFS shares that should be mounted at
boot time
network important for starting network interfaces (e.g. eth0, eth1,
bonding,...)
random used for the system entropy pool
atd needed if the at(1) service is used instead of cron
apmd Advanced Power Management (APM) daemon is used for laptops and
some desktops
isdn needed if ISDN is being used
iptables needed if Netfilter (iptables) Firewall is being used
ip6tables needed if ip6tables Firewall is being used
pcmcia not needed on servers - needed for laptops
irqbalance important for distributing interrupts across all CPUs
sendmail needed if Sendmail is used - Procmail should be used which is
more secure
autofs needed if automounter is used - production applications should
not be dependent on automounter
sshd important for logins via SSH
portmap needed if e.g. NFS is being used
nfslock needed if NFS shares are mounted
nfs needed if server runs the NFS server
mdmonitor needed only if software RAID is being used
crond important for running cron jobs
xinetd needed if xinetd services are being used, see /etc/xinetd.d/
for list of services
cups needed if CUPS is used for the printing system
rhnsd needed if server should connect to RHN to check for software
updates etc.
sysstat needed to reset system statistics logs
audit needed only if Linux Audit Subsystem (LAuS) should run for
collecting system call audit records
psacct needed only if kernel process accounting information is needed
smartd important for monitoring disk problems if hard disks support
SMART technology
netdump important if kernel oops data and memory dumps should be sent
to a Netdump server for server crashes
The start/stop scripts of all runlevel services can be found in the /etc/init.d directory. For
example, if you don't know what the atd service does, go to /etc/init.d and open the file atd.
And in the script look for lines that start programs. In the atd script the "daemon
/usr/sbin/atd" line starts the binary atd. Now having the name of the program that is started
by this service, you can check the online pages of atd by running man atd. This will help you to
find out more about a system service.
To permanently disable e.g. the runlevel service nfs, run:

chkconfig nfs off
To immediately disable the runlevel service nfs, run:
/etc/init.d/nfs stop
Closing Network Ports and Disabling Xinetd Services

The xinetd daemon is a replacement for inetd, the internet services daemon. It monitors the
ports for all network services configured in /etc/xinetd.d, and starts the services in response
to incoming connections.
To check if xinetd is enabled and running, execute:

# chkconfig --list xinetd
xinetd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
# /etc/init.d/xinetd status
xinetd (pid 2619) is running...
#
If xinetd is active, it is important to check which Unix services are active and controlled by
xinetd. The following command shows all services configured in /etc/xinetd.d and wheter
xinetd monitors the ports for these services:
# chkconfig --list | awk '/xinetd based services/,/""/'
xinetd based services:
krb5-telnet: off
rsync: off
eklogin: off
gssftp: off
klogin: off
chargen-udp: off
kshell: off
auth: on
chargen: off
daytime-udp: off
daytime: off
echo-udp: off
echo: off
services: off
time: off
time-udp: off
cups-lpd: off
#
To get a list of only active services for which xinetd monitors the ports, you could run:
# chkconfig --list | awk '/xinetd based services/,/""/' | grep -v off
xinetd based services:
auth: on
#
In the above example you can see that the telnet-server RPM is not installed on the system. If
the Telnet Server package telnet-server would be installed, it would show up on the list
whether it's active or not.
Here is an example how to disable a service. Assuming the telnet service is active, run the
following commands to disable it and to see how the telnet service entries are being updated:
# chkconfig --list telnet
telnet on
# cat /etc/xinetd.d/telnet | grep disable
disable = no
# chkconfig telnet off
# chkconfig --list telnet
telnet off
# cat /etc/xinetd.d/telnet | grep disable
disable = yes
#
For the telnet service it would be better to remove the package from the system since SSH
should be used instead:
# rpm -e telnet-server
It is important to investigate all active xinetd services and to disable them if they are not
needed.
Here is an example how to find out what a service does. Assuming you don't know what the
auth service does which is listed as active in the list above, run the following commands:
# grep " server" /etc/xinetd.d/auth
server = /usr/sbin/in.authd
server_args = -t60 --xerror --os -E
# man in.auth
No manual entry for in.auth
# rpm -qf /usr/sbin/in.authd
authd-1.4.1-1.rhel3
# rpm -qi authd-1.4.1-1.rhel3 | awk '/Description/,/""/'
Description :
authd is a small and fast RFC 1413 ident protocol daemon
with both xinetd server and interactive modes that
supports IPv6 and IPv4 as well as the more popular features
of pidentd.
# rpm -ql authd-1.4.1-1.rhel3
/etc/ident.key
/etc/xinetd.d/auth
/usr/sbin/in.authd
/usr/share/doc/authd-1.4.1
/usr/share/doc/authd-1.4.1/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/authd-1.4.1/README.html
/usr/share/doc/authd-1.4.1/rfc1413.txt
/usr/share/locale/ja/LC_MESSAGES/authd.mo
#
This example shows what can be done if there exists no online manuals for the binary in.authd
that is started by xinetd. The steps above should be helpful for finding out more about services.
The auth service (aka IDENT, see RFC 1413) allows remote daemons to query information
about users establishing TCP connections on the local server. In a trusted environment it helps a
server to identify who is trying to use it. For example, it can provide vital information for
troubleshooting and who has done what. IDENT requests are needed by some applications like
IRC. However, IDENT can be a security risk.
To disable the auth service, run the following command:

# chkconfig auth off
The xinetd daemon is quite flexible and has many features. Here are just a few functionalities of
Xinetd:
- Acces control for TCP, UDP, and RPC services
- Acess limitations based on time
- Provides mechanisms to prevent DoS attacks
For more information on Xinetd, see http://www.xinetd.org/ and

http://www.macsecurity.org/resources/xinetd/tutorial.shtml.
Reviewing Inittab and Boot Scripts

The inittab file /etc/inittab also describes which processes are started at bootup and during
normal operation. For example, Oracle uses it to start cluster services at bootup. Therefore, it is
recommended to ensure that all entries in /etc/inittab are legitimate in your environment.
I would at least remove the CTRL-ALT-DELETE trap entry to prevent accidental reboots:
# sed -i 's/ca::ctrlaltdel:/#ca::ctrlaltdel:/g'
The default runlevel should be set to 3 since in my opinion X11 (X Windows System) should not
be running on a production server. In fact, it shouldn't even be installed.
# grep ':initdefault' /etc/inittab
id:3:initdefault:
#
And depending on your environment you might want to comment out the UPS entries as well.
To have changes in /etc/inittab become effective immediately, you can run:

# init q
The /etc/rc.local script is used for commands or startup scripts which are pertinent only to a
specific server. (/etc/rc.local is a link to /etc/rc.d/rc.local).
Ensure that all startup scripts in /etc/rc.d/rc.local are legitimate.
Restricting System Access from Servers and Networks

Usually a firewall is used to protect a server from other servers and networks. However, in some
cases you may also want to protect a server within a network by using a TCP Wrapper.
The Xinetd super server that comes with most Linux distributions includes a built-in TCP
wrapper. It can be used to explicitly define network services to accept incoming connections
from specified servers and networks. The TCP wrappers implements access control through the
use of two files, /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny. Note that the hosts.allow file
takes precedence over the hosts.deny file. And you may want to change the permissions on the
two configuration files since they are both world readable.
A recommended security-strategy is to block all incoming requests by default, but allow specific
hosts or networks to connect. This is the strategy I will describe here.
To deny everything by default, add the following line to /etc/hosts.deny:

ALL: ALL
To accept incoming SSH connections from e.g. nodes rac1cluster, rac2cluster and rac3cluster,
add the following line to /etc/hosts.allow:
sshd: rac1cluster rac2cluster rac3cluster
To accept incoming SSH connections from all servers from a specific network, add the name of
the subnet to /etc/hosts.allow. For example:
sshd: rac1cluster rac2cluster rac3cluster .subnet.example.com
To accept incoming portmap connections from IP address 192.168.0.1 and subnet 192.168.5, add
the following line to /etc/hosts.allow:
portmap: 192.168.0.1 192.168.5.
To accept connections from all servers on subnet .subnet.example.com but not from server
cracker.subnet.example.com, you could add the following line to /etc/hosts.allow:
ALL: .subnet.example.com EXCEPT cracker.subnet.example.com
Here are other examples that show some features of TCP wrapper:
If you just want to restrict ssh connections without configuring or using /etc/hosts.deny, you
can add the following entries to /etc/hosts.allow:
sshd: rac1cluster rac2cluster rac3cluster
sshd: ALL: DENY
The version of TCP wrapper that comes with Red Hat also supports the extended options
documented in the hosts_options(5) man page. Here is an example how an additional program
can be spawned in e.g. the /etc/hosts.allow file:
sshd: ALL : spawn echo "Login from %c to %s" | mail -s "Login Info for %s"
log@loghost
For information on the % expansions, see "man 5 hosts_access".
The TCP wrapper is quite flexible. And xinetd provides its own set of host-based and time-
based access control functions. You can even tell xinetd to limit the rate of incoming
connections. I recommend reading various documentations about the Xinetd super daemon on
the Internet.
Securing SSH
Many network services like telnet, rlogin, and rsh are vulnerable to eavesdropping which is
one of several reasons why SSH should be used instead. Red Hat's default configuration for SSH
meets the security requirements for many environments. However, there are a few parameters in
/etc/ssh/sshd_config that you may want to change on RHEL and other Linux systems.
The chapter Restricting System Access from Servers and Networks shows how direct logins can
be disabled for shared and system accounts including root. But it's prudent to disable direct root
logins at the SSH level as well.
PermitRootLogin no
Also ensure to have privilege separation enabled where the daemon is split into two parts. With
privilege separation a small part of the code runs as root and the rest of the code runs in a chroot
jail environment. Note that on older RHEL systems this feature can break some functionality, for
example see Preventing Accidental Denial of Service.
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes
Since SSH protocol version 1 is not as secure you may want to limit the protocol to version 2
only:
Protocol 2
You may also want to prevent SSH from setting up TCP port and X11 forwarding if you don't
need it:
AllowTcpForwarding no
X11Forwarding no
Ensure the StrictModes directive is enabled which checks file permissions and ownerships of
some important files in the user's home directory like ~/.ssh, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys etc. If
any checks fail, the user won't be able to login.
StrictModes yes
Ensure that all host-based authentications are disabled. These methods should be avoided as
primary authentication.
IgnoreRhosts yes
HostbasedAuthentication no
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
Disable sftp if it's not needed:

#Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/misc/sftp-server
After changing any directives make sure to restart the sshd daemon:
/etc/init.d/sshd restart
Securing Postfix
Postfix is a replacement for Sendmail which has several security advantages over Sendmail.
Postfix consists of several small programs that perform their own small task. And almost all
programs run in a chroot jail. These are just a few examples why Postfix is recommended over
Sendmail. For more information on chroot jail, see Using Chroot Securely.
Linux servers that are not dedicated mail or relay servers should not accept external emails.
However, it is important for production servers to send local emails to a relay server.
Before you continue on a Red Hat system, make sure Postfix is activated using the following
command:
# alternatives --set mta /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix
The following parameters in /etc/postfix/main.cf should be set to ensure that Postfix accepts
only local emails for delivery:
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost
inet_interfaces = localhost
The parameter mydestination lists all domains to receive emails for.
The parameter inet_interfaces specifies the network to liston on.
Once you've configured Postfix, restart the mail system with the following command:
# /etc/init.d/postfix restart
To verify whether Postfix is still listening for incoming network request, you can run one of the
following commands from another node:
# nmap -sT -p 25 <remode_node>
# telnet <remote_node> 25
Don't run these commands on the local host since Postfix is supposed to accept connections from
the local node.
If you believe that I should cover other parameter(s) or if you think that other parameter(s)
should explicitly be set/changed for local mail delivery, please drop me an email.
Securing Sendmail
This article focuses on security issues that pertain to most Linux servers in a production
environment. Therefore, securing a mail or relay server is out of scope for this article since not
all Linux servers in a production environment are mail or relay servers. However, Sendmail or
Postfix is usually required for local mail delivery. Note that it is recommended to use Postfix
over Sendmail for various security reasons, see Securing Postfix for more information.
On newer Linux systems Sendmail is configured to run in the background for local mail delivery
and not to accept incoming network connections. If your server is not a mail or relay server, then
it is important that Sendmail is not accepting incoming network connections from any host other
than the local server.
The default sendmail.cf configuration file on RedHat does not allow Sendmail to accept
incoming network connections. The following setting in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf tells
Sendmail not to accept incoming network connections from servers other than the local node:
O DaemonPortOptions=Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA
If that's not the case on your system, you can change it by setting or uncommenting the
DAEMON_OPTIONS parameter in the /etc/mail/sendmail.mc file. Uncomment the
DAEMON_OPTIONS line in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc to read:
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
Then run:
# mv /etc/mail/sendmail.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.old
# m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
# /etc/init.d/sendmail restart
To verify whether Sendmail is still listening for incoming network request, you can run one of
the following commands from another node (make sure that you have permissions to probe a
machine):
# nmap -sT -p 25 <remode_node>
# telnet <remote_node> 25
Don't run these commands on the local host since Sendmail is supposed to accept connections
from the local node.
Securing NFS
General
NFS (Network File System) allows servers to share files over a network. But like all network
services using NFS involves risks.
Here are some basic rules:

- NFS should not be enabled if not needed.
- If you must use NFS, use TCP wrapper to restrict remote access.
- Make sure you export to only those machines that you really need to.
- Use fully qualified domain names to diminish spoofing attempts.
- Export only directories you need to export.
- Export read-only wherever possible.
- Use NFS over TCP.
If you don't have shared directories to export, ensure that the NFS service is NOT enabled and
running:
# service nfs status
rpc.mountd is stopped
nfsd is stopped
rpc.rquotad is stopped
# chkconfig --list nfs
nfs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
#
You probably don't need the portmap service as well which is used by NFS (the portmap
daemon registers rpc-based services for services like NFS, NIS, etc.):
# service portmap status
portmap is stopped
# chkconfig --list portmap
portmap 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
#
Enabling and Starting NFS Server
If you must use NFS, it can be activated using the following commands on Red Hat Linux:
chkconfig portmap on
chkconfig nfs on
service portmap start
service nfs start
The "portmap" service starts the portmap daemon.
Depending on the Linux OS distribution and version, the "nfs" service starts the rpc.rquotad,
nfsd, lockd, rpciod, rpc.mountd and rpc.idmapd daemons on Red Hat Fedora Core 3 which
is the OS that Red Hat Advanced Server 4 is based on. On Red Hat Advanced Server 3, the NFS
service starts rpc.mountd, nfsd and rpc.rquotad.
To probe the portmapper for all registered NFS related RPC programs, you can run rpcinfo. On
Red Hat Advanced Server 3, the output will look like this:
# rpcinfo -p <server>
program vers proto port
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100011 1 udp 607 rquotad
100011 1 tcp 610 rquotad
100003 2 udp 2049 nfs
100003 3 udp 2049 nfs
100003 2 tcp 2049 nfs
100003 3 tcp 2049 nfs
100005 1 udp 623 mountd
100005 1 tcp 626 mountd
100005 2 udp 623 mountd
100005 2 tcp 626 mountd
100005 3 udp 623 mountd
100005 3 tcp 626 mountd
#
Restricting Incoming NFS Requests
As I showed at Restricting System Access from Servers and Networks a recommended security-
strategy is to block all incoming requests by default, but allow specific hosts or networks to
connect. This is the strategy I will use here.
The portmap program and some of the NFS programs include a built-in TCP wrapper. To verify
if a program includes a TCP wrapper, you can run the following commands:
# strings /sbin/portmap | egrep "hosts.deny|hosts.allow|libwrap"
hosts_allow_table
hosts_deny_table
/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny
# strings /usr/sbin/rpc.rquotad | egrep "hosts.deny|hosts.allow|libwrap"
libwrap.so.0
# ldd /usr/sbin/rpc.rquotad | grep libwrap
libwrap.so.0 => /usr/lib/libwrap.so.0 (0x00874000)
#
If hosts.deny and hosts.allow are displayed, or if libwrap is displayed, then the program
includes a built-in TCP wrapper. If none of these strings are displayed, then adding the program
name to /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow will most probably have no effect.
To block all incoming requests by default, add the following line to /etc/hosts.deny if you
have not done so yet:
ALL: ALL
Verify from a remote server that portmapper does not list any registered RPC programs:
No remote programs registered.
#
To allow NFS mounts from trusted servers and networks only, you have to configure the servers
and networks for portmap and various NFS related programs in /etc/hosts.allow. To find out
which NFS programs are invoked when you start the NFS server, you can check the
/etc/init.d/nfs service script. Then run the "strings <program> | egrep "hosts.deny|
hosts.allow|libwrap"" command I described above.
On Red Hat Advanced Server 3, the /usr/sbin/rpc.rquotad program includes a built-in TCP
wrapper. On Red Hat Fedora Core 3, /usr/sbin/rpc.mountd now also includes a built-in TCP
wrapper.
To allow NFS requests from e.g. servers rac1pub.example.com, rac2pub.example.com,

rac3pub.example.com and from the .subnet.puschitz.com network, the configuration in
/etc/hosts.allow would look like as follows:
portmap: rac1pub.example.com rac2pub.example.com
rac3pub.example.com .subnet.puschitz.com
rpc.mountd: rac1pub.example.com rac2pub.example.com
rpc.rquotad: rac1pub.example.com rac2pub.example.com
Make sure to test NFS access thoroughly when using TCP wrappers. If a TCP wrapper has been
added to another NFS related program, please drop me a note.
For portmapper you can now test access from trusted servers or networks using the rpcinfo
command:
program vers proto port
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100003 2 udp 2049 nfs
100003 3 udp 2049 nfs
100003 2 tcp 2049 nfs
100003 3 tcp 2049 nfs
100005 1 udp 623 mountd
100005 1 tcp 626 mountd
100005 2 udp 623 mountd
100005 2 tcp 626 mountd
100005 3 udp 623 mountd
100005 3 tcp 626 mountd
#
If you run it from an "untrusted" server or network, you should get the following output:
No remote programs registered.
#
Exporting NFS File Systems
To allow a client access to a filesystem or directory, the /etc/exports serves as the access
control list.
To give the network "subnet.example.com" read-only access to /pub, the entries in

/etc/exports would look like as follows:
/pub *.subnet.example.com(ro,sync)
It is very important NOT to give write access to NFS clients if not absolutely needed! Entries in
/etc/exports are exported read-only ("ro" option) by default.
To allow servers rac1pub, rac2pub and rac3pub read-write access to the /data/OracleArch
directory, the entries in /etc/exports would look like as follows:
/data/OracleArch rac1pub.example.com(rw,sync) rac2pub.example.com(rw,sync)
rac3pub.example.com(rw,sync)
Note that options MUST NOT be separated from hostnames or networks with whitespace(s).
And use fully qualified domain names to diminish spoofing attempts.
All entries in /etc/exports are exported with the root_squash option ('root squashing') by
default. This means that a root user on a client machine does not have root privileges (root
access) to root-owned files on exported NFS filesystems/directories. It is not recommended to
turn 'root squashing" off using the no_root_squash option!
After you've made all your entries in /etc/exports, you can export all filesystems/directories
using the following command:
# exportfs -a
To unexport all shared filesystems/directories, run:
# exportfs -ua
To see all shared filesystems/directories, run:

# showmount -e localhost
Export list for localhost:
/pub *.subnet.example.com
/data/OracleArch rac3pub.example.com,rac2pub.example.com,rac1pub.example.com
Using NFS over TCP
If you need NFS, it is recommended to use NFS over TCP since NFS over UDP is not very
secure. All 2.4 and 2.6 kernels support NFS over TCP on the client side. Server support for TCP
appears in later 2.4 kernels, and in all 2.6 kernels.
To verify whether your server supports NFS over TCP, use the wire-test command
(/usr/sbin/wire-test is part of the am-utils package). If your server supports NFS over
TCP, the output looks like this:
# wire-test localhost
Network 1: wire="172.16.1.0" (netnumber=172.16.1).
My IP address is 0xac100101.
NFS Version and protocol tests to host "localhost"...
testing vers=2, proto="udp" -> found version 2.
testing vers=2, proto="tcp" -> found version 2.
testing vers=3, proto="tcp" -> found version 3.
#
If the server does not support NFS over TCP, the output will look like this:
# wire-test localhost
My IP address is 0xac100101.
NFS Version and protocol tests to host "localhost"...
testing vers=2, proto="tcp" -> failed!
testing vers=3, proto="tcp" -> failed!
#
To mount a shared directory using NFS over TCP, use the "proto=tcp" mount option:
# mount -o proto=tcp <nfs_server_name>:/pub /usr/local/pub
Make sure the target directory, in this example /usr/local/pub, exists on the client.
You can verify the NFS over TCP mount using the mount command:
# mount
...
nfsserver:/pub on /usr/local/pub type nfs (rw,proto=tcp,addr=172.16.10.8)
...
To have the shared directory mounted on the client at boot time, use the /etc/fstab file.
For the above example, the /etc/fstab entry could look like this:
nfsserver:/pub /usr/local/pub nfs
rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr,tcp 0 0
Copying Files Using SSH Without Providing Login Prompts

The following example is a suggestion you may want to use in some cases. It shows how files
can be copied over the network using ssh without providing an interactive login prompt.
SSH allows you to do a forced command using the "command" option. When you use this option
you can disable scp and enforce every passed ssh command to be ignored.
On the server side where you want to retrieve the file from, add the following entry to the
beginning of the SSH key in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 file:
command="/bin/cat ~/<file_name>" ssh-dss AAABB33Nza...OpenSSH key
To copy now the file from the remote server, you can run the following command:
ssh <user>@<server> > <local_file>
Since /bin/cat is executed on the server side, the output has to be redirected to the local file.
Another approach is to replace /bin/cat with your own script that checks the passed SSH
commands by reading the environment variable $SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND. For example:
#!/bin/ksh
if [[ $SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND = "File1" ||
$SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND = "File2" ]]
then
/bin/cat $SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND
else
echo "Invalid file name!"
exit 1
fi
So you replace /bin/cat with the script name in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2, and run the
following command to copy "File1":
ssh <user>@<server> File1 > <local_file>
To copy "File 2", run:
ssh <user>@<server> File2 > <local_file>
Every other passed parameter will return an error.
Kernel Tunable Security Parameters

The following list shows tunable kernel parameters you can use to secure your Linux server
against attacks.
For each tunable kernel parameters I will show the entry that needs to be added to the
/etc/sysctl.conf configuration file to make the change permanent after reboots. To activate
the configured kernel parameters immediately at runtime, use:
# sysctl -p
Enable TCP SYN Cookie Protection
A "SYN Attack" is a denial of service attack that consumes all the resources on a machine. Any
server that is connected to a network is potentially subject to this attack.
To enable TCP SYN Cookie Protection, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following
line:
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
Disable IP Source Routing
Source Routing is used to specify a path or route through the network from source to destination.
This feature can be used by network people for diagnosing problems. However, if an intruder
was able to send a source routed packet into the network, then he could intercept the replies and
your server might not know that it's not communicating with a trusted server.
To enable Source Route Verification, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following
line:
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
Disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance
ICMP redirects are used by routers to tell the server that there is a better path to other networks
than the one chosen by the server. However, an intruder could potentially use ICMP redirect
packets to alter the hosts's routing table by causing traffic to use a path you didn't intend.
To disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following
line:
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
Enable IP Spoofing Protection
IP spoofing is a technique where an intruder sends out packets which claim to be from another
host by manipulating the source address. IP spoofing is very often used for denial of service
attacks. For more information on IP Spoofing, I recommend the article IP Spoofing:
Understanding the basics.
To enable IP Spoofing Protection, turn on Source Address Verification. Edit the

/etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following line:
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
Enable Ignoring to ICMP Requests
If you want or need Linux to ignore ping requests, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the
following line:
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all = 1
This cannot be done in many environments.
Enable Ignoring Broadcasts Request
If you want or need Linux to ignore broadcast requests, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add
the following line:
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
Enable Bad Error Message Protection
To alert you about bad error messages in the network, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add
the following line:
net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1
Enable Logging of Spoofed Packets, Source Routed Packets, Redirect Packets
To turn on logging for Spoofed Packets, Source Routed Packets, and Redirect Packets, edit the
/etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following line:
net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1
References for Kernel Tunable Parameters
Network Security with /proc/sys/net/ipv4

IP Spoofing: Understanding the basics
Checking File Permissions and Ownership

Default umask
The umask (user file-creation mode mask) command is a shell built-in command which
determines the default file permissions for newly created files. This can be overwritten by system
calls but many programs and utilities make use of umask.
By default, Red Hat sets umask to 022 or 002 which is fine. If the name of the user account and
the group account is the same and the UID is 100 or larger, then umask is set to 002, otherwise
it's set to 022, see /etc/bashrc for bash shells.
$ id
uid=509(test) gid=510(test) groups=100(users),510(test)
context=user_u:system_r:unconfined_t
$ umask
0002
$
# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root)
groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel)
context=root:system_r:unconfined_t
# umask
0022
#
Here is an example how umask works:
$ umask 000
$ touch file1
$ ls -l file1
-rw-rw-rw- 1 oracle oinstall 0 Dec 26 19:24 file1
$ umask 002
$ touch file2
$ ls -l file2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oracle oinstall 0 Dec 26 19:24 file2
$ umask 022
$ touch file3
$ ls -l file3
-rw-r--r-- 1 oracle oinstall 0 Dec 26 19:25 file3
$
For the bash shell you can find the setting of umask in /etc/bashrc. The /etc/bashrc file is
for system-wide aliases and functions and is invoked by ~/.bashrc.
SUID/SGID Files
When the SUID (set user ID) or SGID (set group ID) bits are set on an executable, it executes
with the UID or GID of the owner of the executable rather than that of the person executing it.
This means that e.g. all executables that have the SUID bit set and are owned by root are
executed with the UID of root. A good example is the passwd command that allows ordinary
users to update the password field in the /etc/shadow file which is owned by root.
But SUID/SGID bits can be misused when the SUID/SGID executable has a security hole.
Therefore, you might want to search the entire system for SUID/SGID executables and document
it. For example, ensure that code developers don't set SUID/SGID bits on their programs if it's
not an absolute requirement. Very often you can use workarounds like removing just the
executable bit for world/others. However, a better approach is to change the design of the
software if possible.
To search the entire system for SUID or SGID files, you can run the following command:
find / -path /proc -prune -o -type f -perm +6000 -ls
The -prune option in this example is used to skip the /proc filesystem.
World-Writable Files
World-writable files are a security risk since it allows anyone to modify them. Additionally,
world-writable directories allow anyone to add or delete files.
To locate world-writable files and directories, you can use the following command:
find / -path /proc -prune -o -perm -2 ! -type l -ls
The "! -type l" parameter skips all symbolic links since symbolic links are always world-
writable. However, this is not a problem as long as the target of the link is not world-writable,
which is checked by the above find command.
World-Writable directories with sticky bit such as the /tmp directory do not allow anyone except
the owner of a file to delete or modify it in this directory. The sticky bit makes files stick to the
user who created it and it prevents other users from deleting and renaming the files. Therefore,
depending on the purpose of the directory world-writable directories with sticky are usually not
an issue. An example is the /tmp directory:
$ ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 18 root root 16384 Dec 23 22:20 /tmp
The "t" mode, which denotes the sticky bit, allows files to be deleted and renamed only if the
user is the owner of this file or the owner of the directory.
Unowned Files
Files not owned by any user or group might not necessarily be a security problem in itself.
However, unowned files could pose a security problem in the future. For example, if a new user
is created and the new users happens to get the same UID as the unowned files have, then this
new user will automatically become the owner of these files.
To locate files not owned by any user or group, use the following command:
find / -path /proc -prune -o -nouser -o -nogroup
Checking Accounts
Checking for Unlocked Accounts
It is important that all system and vendor accounts that are not used for logins are locked.
To get a list of unlocked accounts on your system, you can check for accounts that do NOT have
an encrypted password string starting with "!" or "*" in the /etc/shadow file. If you lock an
account using passwd -l, it will put a '!!' in front of the encrypted password, effectively
disabling the password. If you lock an account using usermod -L, it will put a '!' in front of the
encrypted password. Many system and shared accounts are usually locked by default by having a
'*' or '!!' in the password field which renders the encrypted password into an invalid string.
Hence, to get a list of all unlocked (encryptable) accounts, run:

# egrep -v '.*:\*|:\!' /etc/shadow | awk -F: '{print $1}'
Also make sure all accounts have a 'x' in the password field in /etc/passwd. The following
command lists all accounts that do not have a 'x' in the password field:
# grep -v ':x:' /etc/passwd
A 'x' in the password fields means that the password has been shadowed, i.e. the encrypted
password has to be looked up in the /etc/shadow file. If the password field in /etc/passwd is
empty, then the system will not lookup the shadow file and it will not prompt the user for a
password at the login prompt.
Checking for Unused Accounts
All system or vendor accounts that are not being used by users, applications, by the system or by
daemons should be removed from the system. You can use the following command to find out if
there are any files owned by a specific account:
# find / -path /proc -prune -o -user <account> -ls
The -prune option in this example is used to skip the /proc filesystem.
If you are sure that an account can be deleted, you can remove the account using the following
command:
# userdel -r <account>
Without the "-r" option userdel will not delete the user's home directory and mail spool
(/var/spool/mail/<user>). Note that many system accounts have no home directory.
Single User Mode Password for root
Some admins suggest to add the following line to the /etc/inittab file to ensure that a root
password is required for Single User Mode logons:
~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
This works but can be circumvented easily! At the GRUB or LILO prompt you can tell the boot
loader to alternate the init program by using the boot params "init=/bin/bash". This will place
you at a root shell prompt without a password.
Enabling Password Aging

In general I do not recommend that the system enforces password expiration for system and
shared accounts. This could lead to outages if an application's account expires:
# su oracle -c id
You are required to change your password immediately (password aged)
Changing password for test
(current) UNIX password:
Rather a corporate policy should govern password changes for system and shared accounts. But
for individual user accounts the system should expire the passwords automatically. The
following example shows how password expiration can be setup for individual user accounts.
The following files and parameters in the table are used when a new account is created with the
useradd command. These settings are recorded for each user account in the /etc/shadow file.
Therefore, make sure to configure the following parameters before you create any user accounts
using the useradd command:
/etc/login.defs PASS_MAX_DAYS 60 Maximum number of days a password is valid.

/etc/login.defs PASS_MIN_DAYS 7 Minimum number of days before a user can
change the password since the last change.
/etc/login.defs PASS_MIN_LEN n/a This parameter does not work. It is superseded
by the PAM module "pam_cracklib". See
Enforcing Stronger Passwords for more
information.
/etc/login.defs PASS_WARN_AGE 7 Number of days when the password change
reminder starts.
/etc/default/useradd INACTIVE 14 Number of days after password expiration that
account is disabled.
/etc/default/useradd EXPIRE Account expiration date in the format YYYY-
MM-DD.
Ensure that the above parameters are changed in the /etc/login.defs and
/etc/default/useradd files.
When a user account is created using the useradd command, the parameters listed in the above
table are recorded in the /etc/shadow file in the following fields:
<username>:<password>:<date>:PASS_MIN_DAYS:PASS_MAX_DAYS:PASS_WARN_AGE:INACTIV
E:EXPIRE:
To create a new user account you can execute the following command:
useradd -c "Test User" -g users test
The -g option specifies the primary group for this account:
# id test
uid=509(test) gid=100(users) groups=100(users)
The settings in /etc/login.defs and /etc/default/useradd are recorded for the test user in
the /etc/shadow file as follows:
# grep test /etc/shadow
test:!!:12742:7:60:7:14::
You can change the password aging any time using the chage command.
To disable password aging for system and shared accounts, you can run the following chage
command:
# chage -M 99999 <system_account_name>
To get password expiration information:
# chage -l <system_account_name>
For example:
# chage -l test
Minimum: 7
Maximum: 60
Warning: 7
Inactive: 14
Last Change: Jan 11, 2005
Password Expires: Mar 12, 2005
Password Inactive: Mar 26, 2005
Account Expires: Never
Enforcing Stronger Passwords

Practical Considerations
On an audited system it is important to restrict people from using simple passwords that can be
cracked too easily. However, if the passwords being enforced are too strong, people will write
them down. Strong passwords that are written down are not much safer than weak passwords.
Some will argue that strong passwords protect you against e.g. Dictionary Attacks and you can
defeat it by locking the accounts after a few failed attempts. However, this is not always an
option. As I will show at Locking User Accounts After Too Many Login Failures, locked system
accounts could bring down your applications and systems which would be nothing short of a
denial of service attack.
Undoubtedly, it is important to practise safe password management. In my opinion, a password

should have at least one digit number, one other character, and one upper case letter. But keep in
mind not to make it overly complicated.
How to Enforce Stronger Passwords
The pam_cracklib module checks the password against dictionary words and other constraints.
Unfortunately, however, the original Linux PAM module pam_cracklib uses a credit
mechanism. E.g. if you define password length minlen=10, then you will get 1 credit for e.g.
using a single digit number in your password if you defined dredit=1. This means that
pam_cracklib will accept a password of the length of minlen-credit. If you don't use a digit
number, then the minimum length of the password would be minlen. There was no way to tell
the module that a password _must_ include a digit number.
Back in 2000 I wrote a patch for the pam_cracklib module where you can assign negative
values to the pam_cracklib parameters lcredit, ucredit, dcredit, and ocredit. Using
negative values will disable the credit mechanism. For example, if you define dredit=-1, then
the module will only accept a password if it includes at least one digit number and if the
password has a length of at least minlen.
Red Hat has finally applied my pam_cracklib patch and you don't have to patch the
pam_cracklib module any more. The new pam_cracklib feature works in Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4 and Red Hat Fedora Core 3. This feature is now also included with the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 3 Update 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 Update 6 release. If the Linux
distribution you are using does not use the patched pam_cracklib module yet, you can find the
procedure for patching pam_cracklib here.
In the following example I'll assume that you are using the new pam_cracklib module, or that
you patched the module if your Linux distribution doesn't include the patched version yet.
The following example shows how to enforce the following password rules:
- Minimum length of password must be 8
- Minimum number of lower case letters must be 1
- Minimum number of upper case letters must be 1
- Minimum number of digits must be 1
- Minimum number of other characters must be 1
pam_cracklib.so minlen=8 Minimum length of password is 8

pam_cracklib.so lcredit=-1 Minimum number of lower case letters is 1
pam_cracklib.so ucredit=-1 Minimum number of upper case letters is 1
pam_cracklib.so dcredit=-1 Minimum number of digits is 1
pam_cracklib.so ocredit=-1 Minimum number of other characters is 1
To setup these password restrictions, edit the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file and add/change the
following pam_cracklib arguments highlighted in blue:
auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_env.so
auth sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so likeauth nullok
auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so
account sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_succeed_if.so uid < 100 quiet
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_permit.so
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3 minlen=8
lcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 dcredit=-1 ocredit=-1
password sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so nullok use_authtok
md5 shadow
password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_limits.so
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so
Now verify that the new password restrictions work for new passwords. Simply login to a non-
root account and change the password using the passwd command. Note that the above
requirements are not enforced if you run the passwd command under root.
NOTE: The /etc/pam.d/system-auth PAM configuration file is auto-generated and contains

records which dictate a generic authentication scheme. Keep in mind that authconfig might
clobber some changes you made. Since I never run authconfig I usually make changes to this
file because it's used by many PAM aware applications. Otherwise I'd have to make changes to
many configuration files. Changing system-auth is usually the preferred method. You might
even want to disable all execution bits from the /usr/sbin/authconfig binary to prevent
authconfig from clobbering your changes.
Restricting Use of Previous Passwords

The pam_unix module parameter remember can be used to configure the number of previous
passwords that cannot be reused. And the pam_cracklib module parameter difok can be used
to specify the number of characters hat must be different between the old and the new password.
In the following example I will show how to tell the system that a password cannot be reused for
at least 6 months and that at least 3 characters must be different between the old and new
password.
Remember that in the chapter Enabling Password Aging we set PASS_MIN_DAYS to 7, which
specifies the minimum number of days allowed between password changes. Hence, if we tell
pam_unix to remember 26 passwords, then the previously used passwords cannot be reused for
at least 6 months (26*7 days).
Here is an example. Edit the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file and add/change the following
pam_cracklib and pam_unix arguments:
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3 minlen=8
lcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 dcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 difok=3
md5 shadow remember=26
NOTE:
If the /etc/security/opasswd doesn't exist, create the file.
# ls -l /etc/security/opasswd
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Dec 8 06:54 /etc/security/opasswd
Locking User Accounts After Too Many Login Failures

I do not recommend that the system automatically locks system and shared accounts after too
many failed login or su attempts. This could lead to outages if the application's account gets
locked due to too many login failures like in this example:
# su oracle -c id
su: incorrect password
#
This could be an easy target for a denial of service attack. At Restricting Direct Login Access for
System and Shared Accounts I will show how to disable direct logins for system or shared
accounts.
In the following example I will show how to lock only individual user accounts after too many
failed su or login attempts.
Add the following two lines highlighted in blue to the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file as shown
below:
auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_tally.so onerr=fail
no_magic_root
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_tally.so per_user deny=5
no_magic_root reset
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3
md5 shadow
The first added line counts failed login and failed su attempts for each user. The default location
for attempted accesses is recorded in /var/log/faillog.
The second added line specifies to lock accounts automatically after 5 failed login or su attempts
(deny=5). The counter will be reset to 0 (reset) on successful entry if deny=n was not exceeded.
But you don't want system or shared accounts to be locked after too many login failures (denial
of service attack). To exempt system and shared accounts from the deny=n parameter, I added
the per_user parameter to the module. The per_user parameter instructs the module NOT to
use the deny=n limit for accounts where the maximum number of login failures is set explicitly.
For example:
# faillog -u oracle -m -1
# faillog -u oracle
Username Failures Maximum Latest
oracle 0 -1 Fri Dec 10 23:57:55 -0600 2005 on unknown
The faillog command with the option "-m -1" has the effect of not placing a limit on the
number of failed logins. To instruct the module to activate the deny=n limit for this account
again, run:
# faillog -u oracle -m 0
By default, the maximum number of login failures for each account is set to 0 which instructs
pam_tally to use the deny=n parameter. The faillog manual page on my Red Hat system says
that selecting maximum number of login failures of 0 will deactivate deny=n for the account.
The PAM documentation, however, says that per_user will only work if the .fail_max field
contains a non-zero value. After testing both values setting it to -1 worked. Maybe because it's
read as a high unsigned value?
To see failed login attempts, run:

# faillog
To unlock an account after too many login failures, run:
# faillog -u <user> -r
Make sure to test these changes thoroughly on your system using e.g. ssh and su, and make sure
root does not get locked!
To lock/unlock accounts manually, you can run one of the following commands:
# passwd -l <user>
# usermod -L <user>
# passwd -u <user>
# usermod -U <user>
NOTE:
Since the /var/log/faillog is owned by root and only root can write to the
/var/log/faillog file, xscreensaver and vlock won't work correctly. Each time
xscreensaver or vlock is executed as a non-root user, you won't be able to do an unlock since
these programs can't write to /var/log/faillog. I don't have a good solution for that. I can
only think of setting the SUID bits on these programs.
Restricting Direct Login Access for System and Shared

Accounts
On an audited production system it is very important to know who switched to which system or
shared account. Therefore it is prudent to restrict direct logins for all system and shared account
where more than one individual knows the password. All users should do a direct login using
their own account and then switch to the system or shared account. (If you are just interested in
restricting direct root SSH logins, see Securing SSH.)
However, there are situations where you have to allow direct logins for system or shared
accounts. For example, within an Oracle RAC cluster you have to enable direct ssh logins for
oracle. But in such an environment you have to protect the whole cluster as a single entity
against incoming ssh connection, i.e. direct oracle logins should not work if you come from a
node that is not part of the cluster. In the following example I will show how to achieve this goal
as well.
Usually all system and shared accounts have one thing in common, that is they are not in the
"users" group. The following example assumes that all individual user accounts are in the
"users" group but system and shared accounts like root and oracle are not. If you want to go a
step further, a good solution would be to implement a new 'logingroup' users group which would
require users to be given explicit access.
In this example I will show how to restrict direct logins for:
- SSH (/etc/pam.d/sshd)
- Console Login (/etc/pam.d/login)
- Graphical Gnome Login (/etc/pam.d/gdm
- or for all logins (/etc/pam.d/system-auth)
To accomplish this goal I will add the pam_access module to the PAM configuration files listed
above. This module provides logdaemon-style login access control based on login names, host
names, IP addresses, etc. The PAM module type that has to be used in the configuration files is
account. This module type does the authorization, i.e. is the user allowed to login (e.g. time,
day)? Don't confuse the PAM module type account with auth which does the authentication, for
example checking the password. And the control flag I will use is required. It specifies that
Success is required, Failure means that it will still call the remaining modules, but the result is
already determined.
For SSH Logins add the pam_access module to /etc/pam.d/sshd as follows:

auth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth required pam_nologin.so
account required pam_access.so
account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
password required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
For Console Logins add the pam_access module to /etc/pam.d/login as follows:

auth required pam_securetty.so
session required pam_selinux.so close
session optional pam_console.so
session required pam_selinux.so multiple open
For Graphical Gnome Logins add the pam_access module to /etc/pam.d/gdm as follows:
auth required pam_env.so
session optional pam_console.so
Now add the following line to the /etc/security/access.conf configuration file:

-:ALL EXCEPT users :ALL
The /etc/security/access.conf configuration file is read by the pam_access module. This
entry specifies that no users are accepted except users that are in the "users" group. Since the
pam_access module has been configured for "Authorization" (account) in the above PAM
configuration files, it denies direct logins for all accounts except the ones that are in the " users"
group.
Now on some systems like Oracle RAC clusters you have to enable direct ssh logins for oracle
within the cluster. On such systems you can enable direct ssh logins for oracle within the
cluster by adding/changing the following lines in /etc/security/access.conf:
-:ALL EXCEPT users oracle:ALL
-:oracle:ALL EXCEPT rac1cluster.example.com rac2cluster.example.com
rac3cluster.example.com
The first line has been edited to include the oracle account which will allow general direct
logins. However, the second line specifies that direct logins for oracle are only allowed from
Oracle RAC nodes (rac1cluster, rac2cluster, and rac3cluster) that are part of the cluster.
NOTE:
In RHEL4 pam_access is already configured for crond:

# grep pam_access /etc/pam.d/*
/etc/pam.d/crond:account required pam_access.so
accessfile=/etc/security/access-cron.conf
#
This means that the above entries in /etc/security/access.conf will stop cron from working.
Note that it is very prudent to always check whether pam_access is configured for any other
service on the system!
To ensure that all users on the system can still run cron jobs you can add the following argument
to pam_access in /etc/pam.d/crond:
account required pam_access.so accessfile=/etc/security/access-cron.conf
This ensures that the /etc/security/access.conf configuration file is not invoked by crond.
Since pam_cracklib does not grant permissions if the configuration file does not exist, execute
the following command to create an empty file:
# touch /etc/security/access-cron.conf
Now verify that cron jobs can be launched by any user on the system.
NOTE:
The above example will only work if there exists no "users" account in the /etc/passwd file on
the system, which is usually the case. Otherwise you have to either delete the "users" account or
you have to designate or create another group name.
Restricting su Access to System and Shared Accounts

This chapter shows how to restrict people from su-ing to system and shared accounts even if they
know the passwords.
Users usually don't share the passwords of their own accounts but are less hesitant to share it for
shared accounts. This chapter helps to mitigate this problem.
The following example shows how to restrict su access to the root, oracle, and postgres
account to a specific set of users.
NOTE: The documentation about the pam_wheel module included in many Linux distributions
is wrong. For instance, in Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1 the pam_wheel module does not only
restrict people from su-ing to the root account like it used to be. It restricts people from su-ing
to any account.
Example for Restricting su Access to root, oracle, and postgres Accounts
Create a new group for each set of users that are allowed to su to the root, oracle, and
postgres account:
# groupadd rootmembers
# groupadd oraclemembers
# groupadd postgresmembers
Add all users who are allowed to su to the root, oracle, and postgres account to the new
member groups created above.
The following requirement will be configured:
- Only admin1 should be able to su to root, oracle, and postgres.
- Only oracledba1 should be able to su to oracle.
- Only postgresdba1 should be able to su to postgres.
- No one else on the system should be able to su to any account.
# usermod -G rootmembers adminuser1
# usermod -G oraclemembers oracleuser1
# usermod -G postgresmembers postgresuser1
As you probably noted, I did not add adminuser1 to the other member groups. Instead, I will
show how to give people in the rootmembers group automatically su access to the oracle and
postgres account without adding them to the oraclemembers and postgresmembers groups. I
consider root admins an exception. They should not be added to all member groups on the
system.
Next add the three authentication lines highlighted in blue to the /etc/pam.d/su file as shown
below:
auth sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_rootok.so
auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_stack.so service=su-root-
members
auth sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_stack.so service=su-other-
members
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_stack.so service=system-auth
password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_selinux.so close
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_selinux.so open multiple
session optional /lib/security/$ISA/pam_xauth.so
These additional authentication lines specify that nobody should be able to su to any account
unless at least one of the PAM services, su-root-members or su-other-members, returns
Success. The control flag sufficient means that a Success will bypass the remaining
authentication modules and overall Success is returned for the authentication part. Failure means
that the failed authentication PAM service is ignored. If both authentication PAM services fail,
then the last authentication module pam_deny is invoked which will deny all requests for any
available authentication module. This will cause the authentication part to fail for the su
command.
Next the new authentication PAM service configuration files /etc/pam.d/su-root-members

and /etc/pam.d/su-other-members need to be created.
The file /etc/pam.d/su-root-members referenced in /etc/pam.d/su should read like:

auth required /lib/security/pam_wheel.so use_uid group=rootmembers
auth required /lib/security/pam_listfile.so item=user sense=allow
onerr=fail file=/etc/security/su-rootmembers-access
The file /etc/security/su-rootmembers-access referenced in /etc/pam.d/su-root-
members should read like:
root
oracle
postgres
The control flag required which is specified for both modules means that both modules have to
return Success. Otherwise this PAM service will return Failure to the "su" PAM service
configured in /etc/pam.d/su. The first line returns Success only if the user is in the
rootmembers groups. The second line allows only access (sense=allow) to those users specified
in /etc/security/rootusername, which is root, oracle, and postgres - these are the only users
that will be accepted as a user argument to su. The item=user argument instructs pam_listfile
that the entries in /etc/security/rootusername are usernames. If an error occurs, such as an
unreadable configuration file, access is denied (onerr=fail).
NOTE: Once su access to root is working for users in the rootmembers, I recommend to avoid
making any changes to the /etc/pam.d/su-root-members file in the future. Making a mistake
in this file could revoke access to root for all users on the system. That's the reason why I created
two PAM service files, /etc/pam.d/su-root-members for people in the rootmembers group,
and /etc/pam.d/su-other-members (see below) for all other member groups since you will
most probably add more member groups to this file in the future.
Next the file /etc/pam.d/su-other-members referenced in /etc/pam.d/su should be created

and read like:
auth sufficient /lib/security/pam_stack.so service=su-oracle-members
auth sufficient /lib/security/pam_stack.so service=su-postgres-members
auth required /lib/security/pam_deny.so
If one of the two PAM services returns Success, it will return Success to the "su" PAM service
configured in /etc/pam.d/su. Otherwise the last module will be invoked which will deny all
further requests and the authentication fails.
Next the PAM services "su-oracle-members" and "su-postgres-members" have to be created.

The file /etc/pam.d/su-oracle-members referenced in /etc/pam.d/su-other-members
should read like:
auth required /lib/security/pam_wheel.so use_uid group=oraclemembers
onerr=fail file=/etc/security/su-oraclemembers-access
The file /etc/security/su-oraclemembers-access referenced in /etc/pam.d/su-oracle-
members should read like:
oracle
The file /etc/pam.d/su-postgres-members referenced in /etc/pam.d/su-other-members

should read like:
auth required /lib/security/pam_wheel.so use_uid
group=postgresmembers
onerr=fail file=/etc/security/su-postgresmembers-access
The file /etc/security/su-postgresmembers-access referenced in /etc/pam.d/su-
postgres-members should read like:
postgres
Now verify that adminuser1 can su to root, oracle, and postgres. No one else should be able
to su to root. oracleuser1 should be able to su to oracle only, and postgresuser1 should be
able to su to postgres only. No one else on the system should be able su to any of these
accounts even if they know the password.
Preventing Accidental Denial of Service

General
Linux allows you to set limits on the amount of system resources that users and groups can use.
This is also very handy if bugs in programs accidentally use up too much resources, slow down
the machine, or even render the system unusable. I've seen systems where incorrect settings have
allowed programs to use up too much resources which made the server unresponsible for new
connections or local logins (e.g. a program uses up all file handles on the system). This could
become a security issue if someone is allowed to use up all resources and causes a denial of
service attack. Depending on your environment you may want to review resource limits for user
accounts and groups.
Example for Restricting System Resources
The following example shows a practical use of setting or restricting system resources for an
Oracle user account. For a list of system resource settings, see /etc/security/limits.conf. It
would be a good idea to review the default settings of system resource.
Most shells like Bash provide control over various resources like the maximum allowable
number of open file descriptors or the maximum number of processes available to a user. To see
all shell limits, run:
ulimit -a
For more information on ulimit for the Bash shell, see man bash and search for ulimit.
Important Note:
Setting "hard" and "soft" limits in the following examples might not work properly when you
login to oracle using a SSH session. It should work if you log in as root and su to oracle.
Resource limits should also work if the application is started automatically during the boot
process. But if you experience the problem that the changed resource limits in
/etc/security/limits.conf are not applied when logging in through SSH, then you may have
to try to set UsePrivilegeSeparation in /etc/ssh/sshd_config to "no" and restart the SSH
daemon by executing /etc/init.d/sshd restart. Unfortunately, privilege separation does not
work properly with PAM on some Linux distributions. But also note that turning off privilege
separation is not really recommended since it's a valuable security feature that has already
prevented exploitation of SSH vulnerabilities.
For example, to change the number of file handles or open files that the Oracle user can use, you
have to edit the file /etc/security/limits.conf as root and make the following changes or
add the following lines, respectively:
oracle soft nofile 4096
oracle hard nofile 63536
The "soft limit" in the first line defines the number of file handles or open files that the Oracle
user will have after login. If the Oracle user gets error messages about running out of file
handles, then the Oracle user can increase the number of file handles like in this example up to
63536 ("hard limit") by running the following command:
ulimit -n 63536
You can set the "soft" and "hard" limits higher if necessary. Note that I do not recommend to set
the "hard" limit for nofile for the oracle user equal to /proc/sys/fs/file-max. If you do
that and the oracle user uses up all the file handles, then the whole system will be out of file
handles. This could mean that you won't be able to initiate new remote logins any more since the
system won't be able to open any PAM modules which are required for performing a login.
You also need to ensure that pam_limits is configured in the file /etc/pam.d/system-auth, or
in /etc/pam.d/sshd (for SSH), /etc/pam.d/su (for su), or /etc/pam.d/login (local logins
and telnet) if you don't want to enable it for all logins, or if /etc/pam.d/system-auth does not
exist like on SUSE. This is the PAM module that will read the /etc/security/limits.conf
file. The entry should read like:
session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so
Here are the two "session" entries I have in my /etc/pam.d/system-auth file:
session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so
session required /lib/security/pam_unix.so
Now login to the oracle account again since the changes will become effective for new login
sessions only.
$ su - oracle
$ ulimit -n
4096
$
Note that the ulimit options are different for other shells.
The default limit for oracle is now 4096 and the oracle user can increase the number of file
handles up to 63536:
$ su - oracle
$ ulimit -n
4096
$ ulimit -n 63536
$ ulimit -n
63536
$
To make this change permanent, add "ulimit -n 63536" (for Bash) to the
~oracle/.bash_profile file which is the user startup file for the Bash shell on Red Hat Linux
(to verify your shell run: echo $SHELL). To do this you could simply copy/paste the following
commands for the oracle's Bash shell:
su - oracle
cat >> ~oracle/.bash_profile << EOF
ulimit -n 63536
EOF
Displaying Login Banners

It is prudent to place a legal banner on login screens on all servers for legal reasons and to
potentially deter intruders among other things. Consult legal counsel for the content of the
banner.
If you want to print a legal banner after a user logs in using ssh, local console etc., you can use
the /etc/motd file. Create the file if it doesn't exist and type in the banner that applies to your
organization.
# cat /etc/motd
This system is classified...
Use of this system constitutes consent to official monitoring.
#
For SSH you can edit the Banner parameter in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file which will
display the banner before the login prompt.
For local console logins you can edit the /etc/issue which will display the banner before the
login prompt.
For GDM you could make the following changes to require a user to acknowledge the legal
banner by selecting 'Yes' or 'No'. Edit the /etc/X11/gdm/PreSession/Default file and add the
following lines at the beginning of the script:
if ! gdialog --yesno '\nThis system is classified...\n' 10 10; then
sleep 10
exit 1;
fi
You have to add a sleep of 10 seconds, otherwise GDM will believe that X crashed if the session
lasted less than 10 seconds. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing the 10 seconds timeout is
hardcoded and there is no configuration parameter to change it - I checked the source code.
Miscellaneous
Host-Based Linux Monitoring and Intrusion Detection
Before you put a server into production or better, before you put a server on the network, you
should have an integrity checker installed on your system that lets you check if unauthorized
changes have been made. In this way, if an intruder compromises your system you will know
what changed on your server. You should also have an Intrusion Detection Software (IDS)
solution in place that alarms you about intrusions, as well as Intrusion Prevention software.
It is outside the scope of this article to cover Linux Monitoring and Intrusion Detection solutions.
There are lots of interesting articles out there to read and there are several good products
available on the market including open source solutions. For a powerful open source network-
intrusion prevention and detection system, see Securing your system with Snort.
Connect Accounting Utilities
Here is a list of commands you can use to get data about user logins:
who Shows a listing of currently logged-in users.

w Shows who is logged on and what they are doing.
last Shows a list of last logged-in users, including login time, logout time, login IP
address, etc.
lastb Same as last, except that by default it shows a log of the file /var/log/btmp,
which contains all the bad login attempts.
lastlog This command reports data maintained in /var/log/lastlog, which is a record
of the last time a user logged in.
ac Prints out the connect time in hours on a per-user basis or daily basis etc. This
command reads /var/log/wtmp.
dump-utmp Converts raw data from /var/run/utmp or /var/log/wtmp into ASCII-parsable
format.
Also check the /var/log/messages file.
Other
The following items may not necessarily be Linux security related but should be configured
correctly on all audited Linux systems:
 Resolver (/etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/nsswitch.conf)

 NTP (/etc/ntp.conf)

Securing _ Hardening RHEL

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Securing and Hardening Red Hat Linux Production Systems

A Practical Guide to Basic Linux Security in Production Enterprise Environments

Retiring Linux Servers with Sensitive Data

Kernel Security Features

Kernel Tunable Security Parameters:

FTP, telnet, and rlogin (rsh)

Removing Unnecessary Software Packages (RPMs)

Detecting Listening Network Ports

Starting nmap 3.70 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2004-12-10 22:51 CST

Nmap run completed -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 221.669 seconds

Closing Network Ports and Disabling Runlevel System

To permanently disable e.g. the runlevel service nfs, run:

Closing Network Ports and Disabling Xinetd Services

To check if xinetd is enabled and running, execute:

To disable the auth service, run the following command:

For more information on Xinetd, see http://www.xinetd.org/ and

Reviewing Inittab and Boot Scripts

To have changes in /etc/inittab become effective immediately, you can run:

Restricting System Access from Servers and Networks

To deny everything by default, add the following line to /etc/hosts.deny:

Disable sftp if it's not needed:

Here are some basic rules:

Enabling and Starting NFS Server

Restricting Incoming NFS Requests

To allow NFS requests from e.g. servers rac1pub.example.com, rac2pub.example.com,

Exporting NFS File Systems

To give the network "subnet.example.com" read-only access to /pub, the entries in

To see all shared filesystems/directories, run:

Using NFS over TCP

Copying Files Using SSH Without Providing Login Prompts

Kernel Tunable Security Parameters

Enable TCP SYN Cookie Protection

Disable IP Source Routing

Disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance

To enable IP Spoofing Protection, turn on Source Address Verification. Edit the

Enable Ignoring to ICMP Requests

Enable Ignoring Broadcasts Request

Enable Bad Error Message Protection

Enable Logging of Spoofed Packets, Source Routed Packets, Redirect Packets

References for Kernel Tunable Parameters

Network Security with /proc/sys/net/ipv4

Checking File Permissions and Ownership

Hence, to get a list of all unlocked (encryptable) accounts, run:

Checking for Unused Accounts

Single User Mode Password for root

Enabling Password Aging

/etc/login.defs PASS_MAX_DAYS 60 Maximum number of days a password is valid.

Enforcing Stronger Passwords

Undoubtedly, it is important to practise safe password management. In my opinion, a password

How to Enforce Stronger Passwords

pam_cracklib.so minlen=8 Minimum length of password is 8

NOTE: The /etc/pam.d/system-auth PAM configuration file is auto-generated and contains

Restricting Use of Previous Passwords

Locking User Accounts After Too Many Login Failures

To see failed login attempts, run:

Restricting Direct Login Access for System and Shared

For SSH Logins add the pam_access module to /etc/pam.d/sshd as follows:

For Console Logins add the pam_access module to /etc/pam.d/login as follows:

Now add the following line to the /etc/security/access.conf configuration file:

In RHEL4 pam_access is already configured for crond:

Restricting su Access to System and Shared Accounts

Example for Restricting su Access to root, oracle, and postgres Accounts

Next the new authentication PAM service configuration files /etc/pam.d/su-root-members

The file /etc/pam.d/su-root-members referenced in /etc/pam.d/su should read like: