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11. Security Sources

There are a LOT of good sites out there for Unix security in general and Linux security specifically. It's very important to subscribe to one (or more) of the security mailing lists and keep current on security fixes. Most of these lists are very low volume, and very informative.

11.1 FTP Sites

CERT is the Computer Emergency Response Team. They often send out alerts of current attacks and fixes. See ftp://ftp.cert.org for more information.

Replay ( http://www.replay.com) has archives of many security programs. Since they are outside the US, they don't need to obey US crypto restrictions.

Matt Blaze is the author of CFS and a great security advocate. Matt's archive is available at ftp://ftp.research.att.com/pub/mab

tue.nl is a great security FTP site in the Netherlands. ftp.win.tue.nl

11.2 Web Sites

• The Hacker FAQ is a FAQ about hackers: The Hacker FAQ
• The COAST archive has a large number of Unix security programs and information: COAST
• SuSe Security Page: http://www.suse.de/security/
• Rootshell.com is a great site for seeing what exploits are currently being used by crackers: http://www.rootshell.com/
• BUGTRAQ puts out advisories on security issues: BUGTRAQ archives
• CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team, puts out advisories on common attacks on unix platforms: CERT home
• Dan Farmer is the author of SATAN and many other security tools. His home site has some interesting security survey information, as well as security tools: http://www.trouble.org
• The Linux security WWW is a good site for Linux security information: Linux Security WWW
• Infilsec has a vulnerability engine that can tell you what vunerabilities affect a specific platform: http://www.infilsec.com/vulnerabilities/
• CIAC sends out periodic security bulletins on common exploits: http://ciac.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/index/bulletins
• A good starting point for Linux Pluggable Authentication modules can be found at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/.
• The debian project has a web page for their security fixes and information. It is at http://www.debian.com/security/.
• WWW Security FAQ, written by Lincoln Stein, is a great web security reference. Find it at http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/www-security-faq.html

11.3 Mailing Lists

Bugtraq: To subscribe to bugtraq, send mail to listserv@netspace.org containing the message body subscribe bugtraq. (see links above for archives).

CIAC: Send e-mail to majordomo@tholia.llnl.gov. In the BODY (not subject) of the message put (either or both): subscribe ciac-bulletin

Red Hat has a number of mailing lists, the most important of which is the redhat-announce list. You can read about security (and other) fixes as soon as they come out. Send email to majordomo@redhat.com and put subscribe redhat-announce.

The Debian project has a security mailing list that covers their security fixes. see http://www.debian.com/security/ for more information.

11.4 Books - Printed Reading Material

There are a number of good security books out there. This section lists a few of them. In addition to the security specific books, security is covered in a number of other books on system administration.

Building Internet Firewalls By D. Brent Chapman & Elizabeth D. Zwicky

1st Edition September 1995

ISBN: 1-56592-124-0

Practical UNIX & Internet Security, 2nd Edition By Simson Garfinkel & Gene Spafford

2nd Edition April 1996

ISBN: 1-56592-148-8

Computer Security Basics By Deborah Russell & G.T. Gangemi, Sr.

1st Edition July 1991

ISBN: 0-937175-71-4

Linux Network Administrator's Guide By Olaf Kirch

1st Edition January 1995

ISBN: 1-56592-087-2

PGP: Pretty Good Privacy By Simson Garfinkel

1st Edition December 1994

ISBN: 1-56592-098-8

Computer Crime A Crimefighter's Handbook By David Icove, Karl Seger & William VonStorch (Consulting Editor Eugene H. Spafford)

1st Edition August 1995

ISBN: 1-56592-086-4