[Techtalk] Server was hacked into; looking for tips on how to secure it

[Carla Schroder]

On Sunday 23 February 2003 10:36 pm, jennyw wrote:
>
> About Postfix being configured for an open relay -- it wasn't. 

by default it is not.
.  I don't think there are known exploits against
> BIND 9, although there were against BIND 8. 

Feh on BIND in any form. 
 http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/bind-security.html, for one example.
You're much better off using djbdns. I cannot say if it BIND had anything to 
do with your system getting cracked, but why risk it. 

>
> But since many processes were running as www-data, I think they got in
> through the Web site.  I'll research more ways of running Apache, but I'm
> in a difficult position since I had several sites on the server for other
> people and I'd like to get it up as soon as possible. Maybe there's a way
> to run Apache in a chroot jail or something?  Of course, I barely
> understand what that term means.
>

There's all kinds of great books and articles on Apache. It's quite 
secure-able, I don't know about using a chroot jail. Postfix runs happily 
inside a chroot jail.

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Carla Schroder
www.tuxcomputing.com
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