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 Or when it is, it is horribly outdated.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 […]

Read more

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 […]

Read more

Increase kernel integrity with disabled Linux kernel modules loading

Increasing Linux kernel integrity Disable loading kernel module on Linux systems The Linux kernel can be configured to disallow loading new kernel modules. This feature is especially useful for high secure systems, or if you care about securing your system to the fullest. In this article, we will have a look at the configuration of this option. At the same time allowing legitimate kernel modules to be loaded. Disable kernel modules Newer kernel modules have a sysctl variable named kernel.modules_disabled. Sysctl […]

Read more