Donald A. Tevault - Mastering Linux Security and Hardening, Second Edition

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First published: January 2018
Second edition: February 2020

Production reference: 1200220

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ISBN 978-1-83898-177-8

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Donald A. Tevaultbut you can call him Donniegot involved with Linux way back in 2006, and has been working with it ever since. He holds the Linux Professional Institute Level 3Security certification, and the GIAC Incident Handler certification. Donnie is a professional Linux trainer, and thanks to the magic of the internet, teaches Linux classes literally the world over from the comfort of his living room. He's also a Linux security researcher for an IoT security company.

Michael Ernstoff is a Unix and Linux infrastructure and security specialist with over 25 years' experience. An independent consultant for 20 years, Michael has worked for many well-known blue-chip companies, mainly in the banking and finance industry. With extensive knowledge of host-based security, security hardening, and user and privilege management, Michael has developed and implemented solutions for Security & Regulatory Compliance and Identity Management. He is a keen amateur musician and has four children.

Vineet Tuli is currently working as a Senior Project Manager for a Telecom Services company in India. In this role, he is managing the company's technical side, overseeing a team of development, operations, and support people.

He has a total of 18 years' experience of developing applications in Linux and managing Linux servers. He has also imparted corporate training on Linux administration and Linux programming for around 10 years for companies in India and abroad.

He lives in Chandigarh with his wife and daughter and he is passionate about astronomy and photography.

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In this book, we'll cover security and hardening techniques that apply to any Linux-based server or workstation. Our goal is to make it harder for the bad guys to do nasty things to your systems.

We're aiming this book at Linux administrators in general, whether or not they specialize in Linux security. The techniques that we present can be used on either Linux servers or on Linux workstations.

We assume that our target audience has had some hands-on experience with the Linux command line, and has basic knowledge of the Linux essentials.

, Running Linux in a Virtual Environment, gives an overview of the IT security landscape, and will inform the reader why learning Linux security would be a good career move. We'll also show how to set up a virtual lab environment for the hands-on labs.

, Securing User Accounts, covers the dangers of always using the root user account, and introduces the benefits of using sudo instead. We'll then cover how to lock down normal user accounts, and ensure that the users use good-quality passwords.

, Securing Your Server with a Firewall Part 1, involves working with the various types of firewall utilities.

, Securing Your Server with a Firewall Part 2, involves working with the various types of firewall utilities.