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Tag: Security

  • Insecure application Audit – Secunia Personal Security Inspector(PSI)

    Secunia Personal Security Inspector (PSI) is a great tool for Windows Operating Systems (Windows 2003,Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows SP4 )to assess the installed applications on your system for patch status of installed applications and audits the applications for insecured versions and End Of life status.

    While Secunia PSI is not a replacement to a Antivirus, Firewall or a malware protection software, it does lend a great deal of help in auditing the applications installed on the system and to report Insecure, End Of Life applications.

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  • Packet Fence – Opensource NAC (Network Access Control)

    Packet Fence is an OpenSource NAC (Network Access Control) Solution available under GPL license and is completely free. Packet Fence is a Network Access Control solution with world class features and many features beating those provided by expensive commercial alternatives. Mostly installed in acamedic institutions, please visit here to find a list of organisations and institutions that use Packet Fence as a Network Access Control system.

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  • How To enable Secure Shell (SSH) in Cisco IOS and disable Telnet

    Using Telnet for remote administration of Cisco Routers and Switches (infact for any other device like a unix,linux or a solaris seerver) is not very secure as the data including the passwords are sent in clear text. It will only be a matter of time for a malicous attacker who can sniff the packets to gain access to the passwords and infact the whole network.

    It is recommended that Secure Shell (SSH) is used for remote administration of Cisco Routers and Switches. 

    NOTE: Cisco IOS on the Catalyst switches are by default supplied with the SSH feature bultin. However, the basic Cisco IOS for the routers do not have the SSH facility built-in. To use the SSH feature on Cisco Routers, you need to have the Cisco IOS version with the IPSec(DES or 3DES) encryption software.

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  • Endian Firewall – IPCop based Opensource Linux Firewall

    Endian Firewall is an Opensource Linux Firewall based on the IPCop Linux Firewall, a very popular Opensource firewall. Endian Firewall is almost an opensource Universal threat Management (UTM) device with a Stateful firewall, VPN, Webproxy, SIP proxy for VoIP, Web Security, Content Filtering, Mail gateway and Antivirus, Anti-spyware and Anti-phishing capabilities.

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  • How to Disable ICMP Redirects in Linux for security (Redhat,Debian,Ubuntu,SuSe tested)

    ICMP Redirects Send and Accept are by default enabled on most of the linux flavours including Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Suse Linux.

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  • Solaris Security – Disable ICMP Redirect in Sun Solaris

    Solaris Operating Environment by default is configured to both accept and send  the ICMP Redirect messages. According to RFCs, only a router or a gateway device should send an ICMP Redirect message and any other hosts should only be able to receive the ICMP Redirects. If the Solaris server is not acting as a Router or a Gateway then sending ICMP Redirect message should be disabled. The same applies to accepting ICMP Redirect messages if the solaris server is not required to receive ICMP Redirect messages (say a single Router/Gateway network/subnets scenario) as a malicous hacker could send fake ICMP redirect messages to modify the routing table on the host and potentialy cause a Denial of Service attack.

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  • Disable ICMP Redirects in Windows(2000,XP,2003)

    ICMP redirect is a type 5 ICMP error message sent by a gateway router to a sending host informing of an optimal alternate route to the destination host and to update its routing table with the new host route to the target destination host.

    ICMP Redirects being an inefficient way to update a hosts routing table of an optimal route to a target destination can cause security issues. A malicious hacker with little knowledge about the network can launch a Denail of Service (DoS) attack on a host on the network.

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