Koozali.org: home of the SME Server

Obsolete Releases => SME 9.x Contribs => Topic started by: calisun on November 19, 2015, 09:32:16 PM

Title: Hardening SME server
Post by: calisun on November 19, 2015, 09:32:16 PM
I am using my SME server as a web/ mail server. I am concerned with external attacks/ hacking/ ddos on my server (there is no internal network threat) so I was looking to install a contrib that will help me defend my server. I have found three contribs that are designed for that:

http://wiki.contribs.org/Denyhosts
http://wiki.contribs.org/Fail2ban
http://wiki.contribs.org/Mod_evasive

-Which one would be best at defending a web/mail server?
-Can I install more than one? (which ones)
-Have I missed any other contribs that might be better?
-Any other suggestions?

Thank you in advance.
Title: Re: Hardening SME server
Post by: DanB35 on November 19, 2015, 10:04:27 PM
I use Fail2Ban on my system and have found it to work pretty well.  From what I can see from the DenyHosts page, Fail2Ban would seem to duplicate it, but provide much broader functionality (it tracks failed logins for mail, web, etc., not just SSH).

From what I can see, I wouldn't install both Denyhosts and Fail2ban.  I don't see that mod_evasive would conflict with either of those, but I don't have any experience with it.
Title: Re: Hardening SME server
Post by: calisun on November 21, 2015, 04:20:49 AM
Thank you DanB35,
I have used denyhosts before and it seemed to work ok, but as per your suggestion I will try Fail2ban and see how it works out. I will also install Mod_evasive at the same time and monitor logs for any conflicts.
Title: Re: Hardening SME server
Post by: CharlieBrady on November 26, 2015, 07:56:37 PM
-Which one would be best at defending a web/mail server?

That depends on what you hope to defend it against.

Your best defence is to not install any software which has security vulnerabilities. None of the contribs you mention will protect your server against exploit of a web application which allows a remote attacker to run arbitrary code.
Title: Re: Hardening SME server
Post by: guest22 on December 09, 2015, 06:31:30 AM
Hence Docker comes to mind to isolate such web applications....
Title: Re: Hardening SME server
Post by: janet on December 09, 2015, 07:11:52 AM
Here
http://wiki.contribs.org/Docker