Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Lead Authors
  • About the Contributing Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • I. Red Hat Linux Installation and User Services
  • Chapter 1. Introduction to Red Hat Linux
  • Chapter 2. Installation of Your Red Hat System
  • Chapter 3. LILO and Other Boot Managers
  • Chapter 4. Configuring the X Window System, Version 11
  • Chapter 5. Window Managers
  • Chapter 6. Connecting to the Internet
  • Chapter 7. IRC, ICQ, and Chat Clients
  • Chapter 8. Using Multimedia and Graphics Clients
  • II. Configuring Services
  • Chapter 9. System Startup and Shutdown
  • Chapter 10. SMTP and Protocols
  • Chapter 11. FTP
  • Chapter 12. Apache Server
  • Chapter 13. Internet News
  • Chapter 14. Domain Name Service and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
  • Chapter 15. NIS: Network Information Service
  • Chapter 16. NFS: Network Filesystem
  • Chapter 17. Samba
  • III. System Administration and Management
  • Chapter 18. Linux Filesystems, Disks, and Other Devices
  • Chapter 19. Printing with Linux
  • Chapter 20. TCP/IP Network Management
  • Chapter 21. Linux System Administration
    • Working as root
    • Performing System Maintenance
    • Managing Software with RPM
    • Using Gnome-RPM
    • Managing Users and Groups with linuxconf
    • Managing Users and Groups from the Command Line
    • Setting Disk Quotas with linuxconf
    • Creating Special Accounts with linuxconf
    • Analyzing Performance
    • Understanding Your Security Responsibilities
    • Getting Help
    • Summary
  • Chapter 22. Backup and Restore
  • Chapter 23. System Security
  • IV. Red Hat Development and Productivity
  • Chapter 24. Linux C/C++ Programming Tools
  • Chapter 25. Shell Scripting
  • Chapter 26. Automating Tasks
  • Chapter 27. Configuring and Building Kernels
  • Chapter 28. Emulators, Tools, and Window Clients
  • V. Appendixes
  • A. The Linux Documentation Project
  • B. Top Linux Commands and Utilities
  • C. The GNU General Public License
  • D. Red Hat Linux RPM Package Listings

Understanding Your Security Responsibilities

A system is only as secure as its weakest link, and the system administrator has to be extremely cautious. Keeping on top of possible vulnerabilities is essential, especially if the system contains important data.

Choosing Good Passwords

Choosing a good password is very important. It is important to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, too! This is especially true for the superuser, root. Imagine someone gains access as superuser to the system. He can do anything he pleases, such as reading everyone's email and files or even erasing the whole system! Passwords should not be easy to guess. Having a password that is your birthday is not a good idea nor is having a password that is all numbers or all letters.

Making Security Updates

Keeping your software up to date is imperative. Every day you hear about vulnerabilities. The older your software is, the more known holes that a hacker can exploit. It is a good idea to periodically check for Red Hat Linux updates and security advisories at http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/updates.html. CERT also posts advisories and available updates for many platforms at http://www.cert.org.

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