Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, 2nd Edition

Minimizing Risk by Minimizing Services

An important way to minimize the threats to your web server is by minimizing the other services that are offered by the computer on which the web server is running. This technique works because each network service carries its own risks. By eliminating all nonessential services, you eliminate potential avenues through which an attacker could break into your system.

Making a Pre-Mac OS X Your Web Server

If security is your primary concern in running a web server, then you may wish to consider running your web server on a Macintosh computer running the OS 7, OS 8, or OS 9 operating systems. Because these versions of the Macintosh operating system were not delivered with a command-line interpreter, it is extremely difficult for attackers to break into the system and run programs of their own choosing. The Mac OS also doesn’t come with dozens of network services enabled that can be compromised. And Apple has a very good history of providing carefully written, apparently bug-free code.

At least four web servers are available for the Macintosh:

• MacHTTP is a freely available web server that is easy to administer.

• WebStar, a commercial version of MacHTTP, is sold by StarNine Technologies, a subsidiary of Quarterdeck.

• WebStar Pro is an SSL-enabled version of WebStar, also sold by StarNine Technologies.

• Apple’s personal web server is shipped with Mac OS 9 and possibly some releases of Mac OS 8.

Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is based on FreeBSD. As such, ...