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How to set up a safe and secure Web server

arstechnica.com

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Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#31

Post by buster »

Ah well, it's rather a "how i set up a small web server for fiddling around with stuff" not so much a professional article about security. Sorry, but the first page is like "mhh, yeah, geeks hate MS, let's use the other choices" under the hood. Why? Because it doesn't really mention a technical choice against MS. Don't get me wrong i would never ever use Windows Server but when i'd write such an article i'd have to find at least a few technical pros and cons for the choices i preset. "Uhhh, the internet is more like a unixy thing" doesn't cut it.

This goes on with the choice for Ubuntu Server. Why? Is it an article about "safe and secure web server" or about "how does my grandma set up a server"? There are much more choices in terms of reliability and proven track record like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Debian, RHEL/CentOS. The choice was made because it's easier to set up and apparently the author is too lazy to _really_ do his homework.

In the end, i'd say if the articles title would be "beginners guide how to setup a server" i wouldn't comlain..

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#32

Post by buster »

EricDeb wrote: post #21
quandrum wrote: post #10

I think it's time articles like these start suggesting an infrastructure as code product, like chef or puppet, to do the heavy lifting. I feel like doing this stuff by hand should be considered insecure and outdated..

Any other tools or resources you'd recommend to a newbie web server admin? I've checked out a few books but it's hard to know what's being used in industry.

I'd recommend puppet or ansible.

http://ansible.cc/

http://puppetlabs.com/

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#34

Post by pooriaazimi »

da_n wrote: post #20
zdw wrote: post #12

Better hardware would be an HP Microserver (which should win the contest for "worst URL ever"): http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/15351-15351-42... Has ECC RAM support. Takes 4 3.5" hard disks, and runs very quiet and cool.

That is a truly frightening URL, makes me wonder what kind of CMS they are running that generates 100 character long URI (Vignette?).

This is the scary part IMO: http://h10010.www1.hp.com - If you go to http://www.hp.com/xxxxxx (the rest) or even http://h10010.www.hp.com/xxxxx, it's a 404. Even worse:

    curl http://www1.hp.com
    curl: (6) Could not resolve host: www1.hp.com; nodename nor servname provided, or not known

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#36

Post by Encosia »

stephen_g wrote: post #15
barefoot wrote: post #14

"...being locked to IIS as a Web server (or dependent on crippled Windows ports of better Web servers) means you'll be playing in the bush leagues. IIS is found running many huge and powerful websites in the world, but it's rarely selected in a vacuum..." I sense a little bit of bias. As a multiplatform developer I can think of a number of reasons why someone might opt to go the Windows Server route. ASP.NET MVC 4 is…

Do those versions let you use the products on production web servers though?

Yes.

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#37

Post by shy_coder »

leeoniya wrote: post #30

knockd + fail2ban + iptables http://howto.biapy.com/en/debian-gnu-linux/system/security/h... also, chrooted sftp-only accounts http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH/Cookbook/SFTP#Chrooted_...

http://configserver.com/cp/csf.html

Another solution that is much easier to configure compared to iptables/fail2ban.

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#38

Post by Stratoscope »

ceol wrote: post #16
hardik988 wrote: post #11

Pardon my stupidity, but how would one go about getting an IP address for a server installed at home? Is it a static IP address provided by my ISP, or something else ?

If you have a dynamic IP, Dyn offers DNS services[0] that let you tie a domain to it through them. I believe it requires you to install something on your machine that monitors your IP and reports it back. Otherwise, you just use your IP and make sure to edit the DNS yourself when it changes. [0]: http://dyn.com/dns/

Many routers have dynamic DNS support built in now. For example, my Asus RT-N66U supports several DDNS services including Dyn and a free one that Asus provides for its router customers at {yourcustomsubdomain}.asuscomm.com.

No big surprise here, since the router is really just a nice little Linux box.

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#39

Post by thedufer »

jkuria wrote: post #7

Frankly, articles like these are a deterrent to all but the most techie of people. Why go through all this and shell $270 when you can get an Amazon EC2 instance free for a year!

Honestly, its a much easier setup on your own box. You have the option of a GUI, and I've found installing a linux distro on my own box to be much easier than figuring out EC2.

Re: How to set up a safe and secure Web server

#40

Post by hristov »

barefoot wrote: post #14

"...being locked to IIS as a Web server (or dependent on crippled Windows ports of better Web servers) means you'll be playing in the bush leagues. IIS is found running many huge and powerful websites in the world, but it's rarely selected in a vacuum..." I sense a little bit of bias. As a multiplatform developer I can think of a number of reasons why someone might opt to go the Windows Server route. ASP.NET MVC 4 is…

I tried to read the Bizspark FAQ, and now my head hurts. But anyways, what I think I was able to get out of it is that:

1. You have to apply. 2. You have to be approved, which takes a minimum of 5 business days, and you may not get approved. 3. At some point you "graduate" and lose your licenses and have to pay for software. The faq does not say when this graduation happens, but I seem to remember hearing something about 6 months.

So, no it is not really free. And it is definitely harder to get it than simply typing:

sudo apt-get install apache2

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