Author Topic: Computer security class part 2 (Read 267 times)

Trell · « **on:** September 16, 2003, 10:13:42 AM »

Ok guys I am hoping some people will help me level the playing field.
any one know anything about hardening computerts on a lan?

if you remeber my last post then you know I am taking a conputer security class from my local cc.
well in the class we broke into 2 teams each team needs to set up 3 computers one win2kpro one win2kserver and one linux.

we get graded based on how secure we keep the computer

all 6 computers will be on a hub so the one team can use a sniffer to access local traffic of the other team.

as scary as it is i was selected to be the team leader of one team.
The other teams caption does this for a living. he is the head network engineer of a small company.

sence i know very little on hardening these systems I was hoping
this board would be able to give me some tips.

we do need to have ftp, http and a database server running.

we allso need to configure the client pc(win2kpro) to access the servers.

any ideas will be great.

thank you,
chris

btw if know if grades were based on spelling i would have allready lost. lol:D

Chairboy · « **Reply #1 on:** September 16, 2003, 11:55:09 AM »

Ok, we need more info.

1. Can you use 3rd party firewall software? Or are you limited to just hardening it via configuration?

2. Have you patched IIS and the OS to get rid of the easy stuff? Eg, RPC holes, the most egregious buffer overruns, etc.

3. Can you run a security auditing program like Retina? If so, run it against your machine and theirs.

Suggestion, there are holes you may wish to read up on regarding the W2k IIS services like the one where you can read any file off the machine by using /../../ to navigate up out of the inetpub directory.

Suggestion, if you aren't using NTFS already, you may wish to convert. That way, you can lock down access to specific directories. Another thing, rename your administrator account and for the challenge, log into the UI w/ a restricted account. Also, do an nbtstat -a 123.23.23.23 on your machine to see what useful netbios data is available. (replace the fake IP with your real IP).

Use non-english passwords so they can't use the latest from lopht.

Finally, load up the policy editor and work your way through the available settings one by one. You'd be amazed at what you can lock down there.

Good luck!

Trell · « **Reply #2 on:** September 16, 2003, 12:01:13 PM »

well I will be installing the systems next thursday. So i have a little over a week to decide what to do. I can add anything I want to the boxes. the sky is the limit.

Is setting up firwalls on the local lan a good idea?

Chairboy · « **Reply #3 on:** September 16, 2003, 02:07:33 PM »

Sure, why not? Set it to very restrictive, then selectively open the ports you need. You still need to apply good security protocols to the rest of your server, but you limit the number of exploits they can employ.

AcId · « **Reply #4 on:** September 16, 2003, 02:11:25 PM »

learn how to setup iptables on the linux host or ipchains unless your already "up on that" (depends on what version of what flavor your installing). Make sure none of the "r" services are running, they shouldnt be by default on the newer versions (rsh, rlogin). Leave telnet off, if you must have a network login use ssh with a high encryption and large multi-character/digit passphrase.

Im not much help when it comes to the winders OS's, theyre pretty good fer gaming though

And I'll reiterate the use of non dictionary passwords. Also use just as many special characters and digits. If the max password length is 16 characters, use 16 characters.