Linux Security Principle: Containment of Failure

Containment of Failure Everyone who used Windows 95 or 98 in the past is familiar with the concept of failure. One crashing application was enough to bring the system to a halt. Fortunately, Linux systems have a strong foundation, including privilege separation and memory management. When things go wrong, the impact is reduced to a minimum. This is called containment. Linux Memory Management Memory is like your the storage capacity of your brain. Every bit should be stored properly, or otherwise […]

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Missing Packages: Don’t Trust External Repositories!

Missing packages… If you are in the business of system administration, you know the big dilemma when it comes to installing software: missing packages. Yes, a lot of packages are available in the repositories of your Linux distribution, but not the one you need. Or when it is, it is horribly outdated. So you reach out to external resources, like community maintained repositories, right? With Lynis, we face this same issue. While most of the distributions have Lynis in the […]

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Linux System Integrity Explained: Ensure Data, Logging and Kernel Integrity

Linux System Integrity Explained From Data and Logging, up to Kernel Integrity Systems exist for one primary goal, which is processing data. Information security helps protecting this valuable data, by ensuring its availability, integrity, and confidentiality. In other words, data should be available when we need it. Then it should be properly transmitted and stored, without errors. Our last goal ensures that it is only available to those with a need to know. Many open source software components are available […]

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