Mastering Linux Security and Hardening - Second Edition

Locking the root user account

The cloud is big business nowadays, and it's now quite common to rent a virtual private server from companies such as Rackspace, DigitalOcean, or Microsoft Azure. These can serve a variety of purposes:

• You can run your own website, where you install your own server software instead of letting a hosting service do it.
• You can set up a web-based app for other people to access.
• Recently, I saw a YouTube demo on a crypto-mining channel that showed how to set up a Proof of Stake master node on a rented virtual private server.

One thing that these cloud services have in common is that when you first set up your account and the provider sets up a virtual machine for you, they'll have you log in to the root user account. ...