Using SSL Keys

I recently updated my SSL keys. Several servers are accessed by keys from a few devices. A common authorized_hosts file was created as a template. This post covers the generation and use of SSL keys.

HTTP2 on Apache2

HTTP2 allows web servers to serve multiple content streams on the same connection. This can reduce server and network load. I have updated my Ubuntu Apache servers to enable HTTP2. After installing the latest Ubuntu release, I needed to redo the switch to the event Multi-Processing Module (MPM) and switch PHP content delivery back to… Continue reading HTTP2 on Apache2

Securing Submisssion on Exim

I noticed a significant increase in the number of hosts attempting to authenticate to my Exim submission ports (465 and 587). As a result, I have implemented a number of security measures. These measures have effectively blocked the attempts. This post outlines the main measures that I have implemented. This includes ACLs and fail2ban blacklisting.

Banner message for ssh

Using a pre-authentication banner with ssh can verify identification before a password is entered. This can help prevent leaking passwords. Banners are simple to configure but often disabled in the default configuration.

fail2ban non-root startup

fail2ban runs as root by default. This is unnecessary for its functionality, other than to alter firewall rules. The firewall rules can be safely done, using sudo to enable the required calls. The Debian/Ubuntu init.d file has provisions to start fail2ban as a non-root user, but newer releases use systemd to start and stop the process. This requires a different procedure. ​ This procedure is for my servers which use Shorewall to maintain the firewall.

Understanding Covid-19 Statistics

Gathering statistics about communicalbe diseases is difficult. The best available statitics are rarely complete or current. This articile discusses some of the issues related to reporting Covid-19 statics

WordPress SSH2 configuration

Instead of the packaged WordPress I run the version provided by WordPress. It is installed using a different userid from the userid the webserver runs as.  To enable updates from the Admin Dashboard, I enabled sftp (ssh). This is how I did it.

init.d for Non-root Processes

When installing third-party applications, they often default to running as root. The server applications for TeamSite/LiveSite are among those. I have applied a simple modification to the init.d scripts that start them as a non-root user. It also allows the scripts to be run by members of an administration group via sudo. This approach applies… Continue reading init.d for Non-root Processes

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