Vicky’s server guides

If you are on cpanel (or any other centos server) and need the security feature that root cannot log in via ssh (I will cover this elsewhere) you can do it by adding new user by using these commands:

# adduser testuser
# passwd testuser

that will create the user “testuser” and prompts you to enter his password

With this you would not be able to su to root, therefore you need to add this user to wheel group by using command:

# usermod -f wheel testuser

Voila, now user “testuser” will be able to su – to root and you can disable direct root login in your ssh configuration.

Rkhunter is an intrustion detection program for Linux OS which has been widely used by many server administrators. Sometimes there is a false alarm but most of the time you need to check the problematic areas Rkhunter points out.

NEW: November 30th 2009 – Rkhunter v.1.3.6. is available and this how-to is updated.

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Michael Boelen, the author of RKHUNTER rootkit checker has made another nice auditing tool – Lynis. It works on many Linux/Debian/MacOS/BSD systems and provides you the admin important information about system configuration and security issues.

Update: On 15th December 2009 there was version 1.2.9 released. I updated this how-toa bit late, but better than never .

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I always want to know when root logs in to my server. It is a security measure I cope with in my mailbox deleting mails after I logged in as well.  Here is a little help for you all to receive mail when root logs in via ssh.

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