Meeting2004_11

November: Config files, Security

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Meeting Notes for November 13, 2004
- Newbie Session: Config Files
- Main Presentation: Security

Meeting Notes for November 13, 2004

The meeting was held in Room B079 of WCTC from 1240 to 1500, with 17 persons in attendance.

Newbie Session: Config Files

Whil Hentzen first showed us /home/myname/.bashrc and then /boot/grub/menu.lst where you can change your grub screen providing options for the operating systems you can load. A good source of information on grub is: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual

He then displayed a number of config files that he often edits, explaining what the various lines mean, among which:

/etc/samba/smb.conf
/etc/X11/XF86Config
/etc/inittab
/etc/hosts
/etc/passwd
/etc/fstab
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

As always, there was lots of participation from the audience, and much appreciation for Whil's ongoing classes.

Main Presentation: Security

Roger Jenson gave a slide show using OpenOffice.org's Impress, and it was indeed an impressive presentation! Among the many points covered:

Installations

Installations are usually secure - the big job is to stay secure, and this requires attention to vulnerability within operating systems, applications, and informational resources.

Strong passwords

Essential for security. They should be more than six characters and a mix of upper/lower case and alpha and numeric characters.

Check your vendor's website and/or mail list for specific recommendations.

Roger does not recommend enabling automatic software updates. Look over the updates and patches that are being offered and choose what you need. He showed how SUSE's "YOU" (YAST Online Update) works. Other distros like Mandrake and Fedora also have good update programs.

Connecting to networks

Connecting to networks is the major risk for vulnerability and requires the highest level of safeguards.

Useful websites

http://www.sans.org	The SANS Institute
http://www.secunia.com	this is not the one giving the first alerts, but has the best archives, and the homepage gives a good summary of the most recent advisories and their severity.
http://www.securityfocus.com	this has high volume email lists, where you can get some of the earliest hints on potential problems. The Bugtraq button gives a list of the latest alerts. The homepage gives a summary of timely articles.
http://www.osvdb.org	the Open Source Vulnerability Database
http://alerts.symantec.com	Members only. This is very comprehensive and also very expensive. Being a member, Roger showed the various services available here. You can search by operating systems, applications, severity levels, etc. There are excellent graphic charts, and for each cybervillain there are details on history, mitigating strategies, solutions such as patches provided, etc.