Linux Server Security, Second Edition

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Server Installation

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start with https:) to protect your connection. Even so, as Chapter 10 shows, the Web

is a tough environment to secure. I never feel quite safe using web-based admin tools

and tend to fall back on ssh or tunneling. You might compromise by using web tools

during the design phase with a test database and move to other administrative tools

for deployment.

Server Installation

Now that you’ve located your database server to protect against TCP exploits, you

need to select a safe version of MySQL to guard against any code-based vulnerabili-

ties.

Choosing a Version

Bug fixes, security fixes, performance enhancements, new features, and new bugs are

part of each new server release. You always want the most recent stable version. At

the time of writing, MySQL Server 4.1 is production, and 5.0 is the development

tree. Old 3.x releases still abound, the most recent being 3.23.58. If you’re running

an older version of mySQL, make sure it’s newer than 3.23.55 to avoid a remote

MySQL root account (not Linux root) exploit. Make the move to 4.1 if you can,

because there are many improvements. Here are some useful links to keep up with

new problems as they’re discovered:

Vulnerabilities

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=mysql

Bugs

http://bugs.mysql.com/search.php

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