Ensure That auditd Is Enabled

The auditd component is a user-space component of the Linux audit framework, providing the auditctl, ausearch, and aureport programs to audit and view logs. Audit rules are configured using the auditctl program. When getting started, auditctl reads these rules from /etc/audit/audit.rules. The aud...

Configure Audit Rules for Network Environment

Attackers may change the system domain name and host name to launch attacks, such as host spoofing. It is recommended that the user set the audit of system calls setdomainname and sethostname and the audit of the /etc/hosts file to monitor changes in the system domain name and host name. You can...

Do Not Enable the DNS Service

The Domain Name System DNS is a hierarchical naming system that maps names to IP addresses of computers, services, and other network resources. Unless a system is the designated DNS server, you are advised to disable its DNS service to reduce the attack surface. SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025...

Ensure That the Password Protection Is Configured for GRUB

GRUB is the default bootloader of Linux. The bootloader can set the startup mode of the system. By setting the GRUB password, you can prevent attackers from modifying the GRUB setting to enter the single-user mode. If the GRUB password is not set, attackers can easily access the GRUB editing menu...

Configure Audit Rules for File Access Control Permissions

File access permission control is the basic permission management in Linux. Different users can access different files after being authorized. This prevents sensitive information leakage or file data tampering between users and prevents common users from accessing high-permission files or...

Do Not Allow Non-root Users with UID 0

The user with UID 0 is the super administrator user in the Linux system. By convention, the user name is root. The UID of a non-root user cannot be 0. If the UID of the root user is changed to another value and the UID of another user for example, the test user is changed to 0, the test user is...

Ensure That the Password Validity Is Set Correctly

If a password is not changed for a long time, the password is vulnerable to brute force cracking, which compromises system security. If the password validity period is set too short, the password needs to be changed frequently, increasing management costs. In addition, users may fail to log in...

Ensure That a User Has Its Own Home Directory

Each user must have its own home directory for storing user-related data. The owner of the home directory must be the user. If the owner of the home directory is not the user, the user cannot read or write the home directory, or the user data stored in the home directory can be read or tampered...

Ensure a Firewall Service is Enabled

A firewall is a fundamental security control that enforces mandatory access between networks or systems. Without a firewall, systems are exposed to unauthorized access, data theft, tampering, bandwidth abuse, and malicious traffic. Linux commonly provides three firewall services: firewalld defaul...

Configure Proper MACs Algorithms for the SSH Service

In cryptography, a message authentication code MAC is an authentication mechanism used by communication entities to check message integrity. If the configured algorithms are insecure, security risks increase because weak algorithms have been or are about to be cracked in the industry. The...

Do Not Preset known_hosts for the SSH Service

knownhosts stores the public keys of the computers that the host has accessed. After a user successfully logs in to another computer, the public key information is automatically saved in $HOME/.ssh/knownhosts. When the same computer is accessed next time, its public key is verified. If the...

Configuring the SSH Service Port Properly

A server typically has multiple NICs and IP addresses. You need to plan IP addresses to determine which ones are used for services or management. Not all IP addresses need to listen on SSH connections. You can specify only some IP addresses to perform SSH connections to reduce the attack surface...

Configure Audit Rules for File Access Failures

System calls, such as open, truncate, ftruncate, create and openat, are audited and monitored. If the -EACCES or -EPERM error is returned, you lack the permission to access the files. In this case, audit logs need to be recorded. File access failures due to a lack of proper permissions are common...

Ensure That the umask Value Is Correct

The umask value is the mask for default file or directory permissions. When a file or directory is created, its default permission is set to 777 minus the umask value. For a file, its execute permission is also removed. If the umask value is set improperly, the permission of new files may be too...

Do Not Install Insecure SNMP Versions

Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP is a standard protocol designed to manage network nodes in IP networks. This protocol allows the exchange of network management and control data between network elements NEs. If SNMP is installed in scenarios where SNMP is not required, additional system...

Configure the Kernel Parameter ptrace_scope Properly

ptrace is a system call used for process tracing. It provides the capability for a parent process to observe and control child processes. Linux Kernel 3.4 and later versions support completely restricting or disabling the ptrace function. According to the Linux Kernel Yama Documentation, the...

Enable PAM Authentication

Pluggable Authentication Modules PAM on the Linux platform provides a series of open source shared library files .so files. You can flexibly control the authentication process by configuring parameters. After PAM authentication is configured for SSH, the user authentication management module of t...

Configure Session Audit Rules

You are advised to audit and monitor the /var/run/utmp, /var/log/wtmp, and /var/log/btmp files. /var/run/utmp records all login events, /var/log/wtmp records all login, logout, shutdown, and restart events, and /var/log/btmp records login failure events. If session audit is not configured,...

Configure a Proper SSH Service Authentication Mode

A proper authentication mode helps ensure user and system data security. Typically, the user/password authentication mode is suitable for human-machine users. In non-interactive login scenarios, the public and private keys are suitable for authentication. In high-risk scenarios, only the public a...

Do Not Use auditctl to Set auditd Rules

auditd service rules can be configured using either rule files in the /etc/audit/rules.d/ directory applied after server restart or the auditctl command for immediate effect. The permission of the /etc/audit/rules.d/ directory is 750, while that of the auditctl command is 755. Therefore,...