Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications

Chapter 12. Building and Maintaining a Security Baseline

IN THIS CHAPTER, YOU'LL REVIEW basic steps required to create an appropriate baseline system for both the Ubuntu and Red Hat distributions. As noted in previous chapters, a good baseline keeps installed software to a minimum. A good baseline is secure, with firewalls and other security controls that block unauthorized access from both external and internal sources.

Some secure baseline configurations include read-only filesystems. That's one reason for the popularity of live CD distributions. Such media can be booted on most systems, with a fully functional version of Linux loaded into system Random Access Memory (RAM). You'll examine several options for live CDs with security-management ...