RimuHosting Blog

Category: Security

  • Apache exploit may crash your server – heres how to fix it

    We have picked up that there was an exploit in Apache which can result in your server running out of memory. the discovery was noticed quiet some time ago, but never fixed, and it seems to have reared its head publicly resulting in some people actively attacking. There is no patch for apache as yet,…

  • PCI compliance – a basic HOWTO

    A lot of people are wanting to be PCI compliant these days, and this is generally a good thing. PCI compliance is not just a server spec, but a list of procedures, policies, controls over access to data. Therefore the server side is only one part of the process. It can be expensive and time…

  • Jboss Exploits

    There is a JBoss exploit out in the wild.  See http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0738 and https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-30741 for details.

  • Proftpd exploitable versions

    Due the severity of the proftp bug, and the mixed systems and versions in the VPSs, we many customers have switched to use vsftp, others just started using sftp, regardless that we have the following notes for customers willing to enable proftpd again: The bug affects versions >= 1.3.2rc3, for more information: http://bugs.proftpd.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3521 Here is…

  • Disabling exploitable proftpds

    A stack overflow bug has been identified in ProFTPd.  This bug allows users to gain remote access (usually root) to an attacker.  This bug requires immediate attention and potentially a restore to the last backup image of your server. Information on the bug can be found here: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-4221 We have been handling the issue per…

  • Security at home – encrypted home directories

    This isn’t directly server related at all, more for the home or office user who wants to make sure things are nice and secure. At the office we like to also make sure our desktops are fairly safe to connect from as well, mostly  in case the machines ever get stolen, we know our data…

  • Exploited VPS? phpmyadmin?

    Currently we are being inundated with scans and exploits looking for new machines to take over, most of these are using insecure phpmyadmin installs. If you are unsure if your box has been hacked then the things to look for are similar to this…

  • Old versions of PHPMyAdmin and Automated Scanning

    It has come to our attention that we have had a decent number of  alerts about machines scanning on our networks in the last day. All of them have been running hacks from /tmp named things like /tmp/dd_ssh etc. These files are owned and run by the apache user, and on further investigation all put…

  • Easy Peasy Linux Firewalling – iptables

    A lot of our customers have asked for firewalls, and since this is a common theme, i decided that I would help them out. Of course it can be a mission to learn how to make your own and what to do or not do, and some of the pre-made ones can be confusing. So…

  • Keeping Tabs on Successful Logins

    There are a number of things that any sysadmin should be doing (or is already doing) to keep tabs on the systems they manage. One of the things that I do which is quite simple (read: quick and dirty) is having my server send me a message anytime a user logs into the server. I…