"Hardening" is the process of protecting a system and its applications against unknown threats. And Hardening Linux will explain the main steps that any Network or Systems Administrator needs to take, to protect his computers that run on Linux. This book discusses security of mail servers, web servers, and file servers, as well as hardening IP tables and remote access functionality.
Written in a similar manner to Hardening Windows and Hardening Apache, complete with checklists and reference-style chapters, Hardeing Linux shows Apress’ commitment to publishing books that appeal to the security professional.
This book is a technical guide to hardening and securing Linux hosts and some of the common
applications used on Linux hosts. It provides information on how to harden the base
Linux operating system, including firewalling and securing connections to your hosts. It also
looks at hardening and securing some of the applications commonly run on Linux hosts, such
as e-mail, IMAP/POP, FTP, and DNS.
No single book on security, even a book on the security of a single operating system, will
ever answer all the security questions or address all the possible threats. This book is about
providing risk mitigation and minimization. I have set out to identify risks associated with
running Linux and some of the applications that run on Linux hosts. I have then provided
technical solutions—backed by frequent examples, code, and commands—that minimize,
mitigate, or in some circumstances negate those risks. The configurations and examples I
provide are designed to ensure your Linux hosts are hardened against attack while not limiting
the functionality available to your users.