Linux Server Security, Second Edition

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

OS Hardening Principles

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systems) are disabled. And with that, you should be connected and ready to build a

scan!

nessus will automatically switch to its Plugins tab, where you’re presented with a list

of all vulnerability tests available on the Nessus server, grouped by “family”

(Figure 3-10). Click on a family’s name (these are listed in the upper half of the win-

dow) to see a list of that family’s plug-ins below. Click on a family’s checkbox to

enable or disable all its plug-ins.

If you don’t know what a given plug-in does, click its name: an information window

will pop up. If you “hover” the mouse pointer over a plug-in’s name, a summary cap-

tion will pop up that states very briefly what the plug-in does. Plug-ins with yellow

triangles next to their checkboxes are dangerous: the particular tests they perform

have the potential to interrupt or even crash services on the target (victim) host.

Figure 3-9. User Bobo logs on to a Nessus server

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

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

106

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Chapter 3: Hardening Linux and Using iptables

By the way, don’t be too worried about selecting all or a large number of plug-ins: ...