RimuHosting Blog

Category: Security

  • Quick and easy iptables blocking and firewalling basics

    A customer emailed in today had noticed somebody trying to hack or crash his VPS. He tracked it down to one particular IP address but didnt know how to block him. There are several things you can do to block him, the long term solution and better option is probably using a firewall like iptables.…

  • Evading Webapp Vulnerability Scans

    Most attackers aren’t after your digital property or information stored on your server.  They’re mostly after your server for its resources to send spam, host phishing sites or launch attacks against other servers.  So unless you’re running a high profile site or have managed to anger a malcontent, your server likely isn’t going to be…

  • checking the checksums of your binary packages

    Occasionally you just want a bit of piece of mind about your server or Linux install. You may suspect there is somebody who has hacked your computer or even something changed by a package install that shouldn’t have been. Heres a couple of ideas on how to do a quick ‘health’ check on he md5sum…

  • Unsure who is sending spam? Try this

    Anyone who has hosted peoples websites before, has had  either a blog hacked, or some guy thinking he is going to send mass mailouts using PHP or similar happen. Its extremely hard to trackdown and deal with, and yet it can get your server listed at spam service denying legitimate email from getting through. This…

  • Does your VPS have MD5 enabled for passwords?

    We recently discovered that the way we install a VPS differs slightly from the usual CD install. This is not something we do specifically but something that can be improved on in the set-ups of CentOS5.3. When you install from a CD it automatically enables MD5 encryption in passwords (which should be the norm), however…

  • Has your VPS been hacked?

    If you use any pre-packaged software, it always pays to sign up to their mailing list or security advisory list. This means if any exploits or updates happen, you are on the ball and up to date. Today we had an email from a customer whos front page had been replaced. I noticed it was…