[Wylug-help] new registered member - How do I harden Mandrake 9.2?

[Nik Jewell]

Chris

Once you get beyond Mandrake's GUI firewall interface I'm afraid that
you may find the command line unavoidable to further harden your box.
Whilst the most important things generally are to turn off unnecessary
services (Mandrake has a GUI admin tool in drakconfig for this), and
keep your installation up to date with security patches (again, there is
an update tool), there is practically no end to the modifcations to your
OS that you can make, depending on how paranoid you are, to further
secure it.  This is all related to what you intend to do with your
installation, and if you are not intending to offer any public services
then it will be mostly irrelevant to you.

However, you say you have a home network (more than one box?), so have
you considered getting a firewalling router for your broadband
connection?  This will alleviate most of your fears, and protect all the
boxes on your network.  If you are not intending to run any public
servers then I'd cautiously suggest that this is probably enough for
your purposes - with Linux you don't need personal firewalls to prevent
software from phoning home, anti-virus software, anti-trojan software
etc like you do on Windows.  You should be able to get one for about
£100.  I'm a fan of Draytek routers, but many people recommend the
Linksys ones.

If you do want to get your hands dirty, but learn a lot about Linux and
networking in the process, then I can recommend:

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/solrhe/Securing-Optimizing-Linux-The-Ultimate-Solution-v2.0.pdf

Although written for a Redhat installation, it is mostly generic enough
to cover Mandrake, and contains step by step instructions (for the
command line!).

HTH

Nik

Chris Mackins wrote:

>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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>Hello
>
>I'm a complete newbie to Linux. However, although I've got my boxed
>Linux mandrake 9.2 and can't wait to put microsoft through the shredder
>I'm used to basically installing software with just a couple of mouse
>clicks. I'll be using a home network with broadband.  I understand that
>configuring the firewall that comes pre-packaged with Mandrake 9.2 isn't
>enough to secure the network, and that I need to harden Mandrake for
>increased security?  This stuff/concept is all kind of new to me.
>
>Does anyone have any suggestions regarding how I can do this 'easily' -
>being the operative word as I'm not a techie - I'm migrating from
>Microsoft! While I recognise there is loads of info 'out there' on the
>web, much of it is, from my observations, all very techie oriented.
>While I'm confident and competent about getting my way around a
>PC/Microsoft OS/Windows - but when it comes to Linux and command lines,
>this is a new area altogether.  I look forward to the future and the
>possibilities that Linux offers but my immediate short term goals are to
>get Mandrake 9.2 up and running securly to enable myself and family to
>use without concern straight away.
>
>Are there any web sites/documentation that can guide a non techie newbie
>to this aspect?
>
>Thanks in anticipation.
>
>Chris.
>
>
>
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