Five Vital Pointers To Securing A VPS Server

Posted by admin on Aug 11th, 2011 in Virtual Private Hosting | 0 comments

Five Vital Pointers To Securing A VPS Server

Article by Dirik Hameed

Securing your VPS server is a very important action to save you from virtual crime. By keeping your VPS protected early on, you’re saving time and effort and you’re preventing other problems as well. It’s not that hard to protect your UK Linux VPS host. The five most important steps are as follows:

Firewall

If you’re using a UK Linux VPS and Windows Virtual server you can protect your server from hackers and other viruses with a firewall. If you want to increase your security, you should also consider adding other related tools. These are Config Server Firewall, System Integrity Monitor, Network Socket Inode Validation, and Linux Environment Security, among others. If you have installed a firewall, then it is necessary to open up extra ports to add new services or programs.

Root Kit Hunter Installation

Of course, some viruses like root kits, backdoors, local exploits, and Trojans can be sneaky enough to pass through a firewall. This is what a root kit hunter is for. You can use it to detect any flaws in your UK VPS hosting service. In the following list you will see the steps in installing a root kit hunter.

a. With your SSH as root, log in to your server. [root@support007 ~]# cd /usr/local/src/

b. Make sure you have the latest version of RKHunter. [root@support007 ~]# wget rkhunter.1.3.2.tar.gz

c. Extract files [root@support007 ~]# tar -xzvf rkhunter-1.3.2.tar.gz

d. [root@support007 ~]# cd rkhunter-1.3.2

e. [root@support007 ~]# ./installer.sh

f. Now setup RKHunter to e-mail you daily scan reports. [root@support007 ~]# pico /etc/cron.daily/rkhunter.sh By following these steps, you can successfully install a root kit hunter.

Securing /tmp partition

/tmp is a common method used by hackers and viruses in order to work out of any propagate themselves. You can mount your /tmp with stops that can make sure that executables can’t be run from /tmp and to prevent escalated privileges. Such stops are “noexec” and “nosuid”. By adding none /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0 in “/etc/fstab” you can further secure your computer. After you save the file and reboot the VPS hosting UK, you can be sure that your VPS is actually safer.

ModSecurity Installation.

ModSecurity is actually a powerful shield against most attacks. It’s open source, meaning it’s free. It detects intrusions and prevents attacks on your programs that could be the most vulnerable. It’s also compatible with Apache web servers.

Enabling PHP suEXEC

Once a PHP runs as an Apache Module, it executes as the user or group of the web server. In most cases, this is usually “nobody” or “apache”. Suexec is a mechanism supplied with Apache that allows executing CGI scripts as the user they belong to, rather than Apache’s user. This improves security in situations where multiple mutually distrusting users have the possibility to put CGI content on the server.

By following these simple five steps, any user can secure their VPS server and save it from any internal or external infection. You have to remember that your hardware and the files in it are extremely important, and should be protected from all possible dangers, be it Trojans, root kits, and other viruses. You can save your money and time by securing your VPS server easily.

About the Author

For a UK Linux VPS host go to Switchlink at . Switchlink expertise in virtual servers.