Am 18.09.2010 12:08, schrieb Roland RoLaNd: > > Dear all, > > i Just finished setting up an apache service on a centos 5.2 VM machine. > > i need to secure this machine as i'm soon to be setting a public IP over it where i'd be opening up the following services: > > > 1. http > 2. https > 3. ssh > > > Things i've done so far: > > 1. stopped root ssh access in sshd.conf > 2. tried configuring PAM so i get a more secure ssh passwords (dictionary wise) as well as tried setting up a 2 times authentication failure for the account to be disabled for 12 hours (i couldnl't succeed in setting this up) > 3. disabled port forwarding (to deny outsiders to tunnel through the server inside my network) couldn't succeed with this either. > > > Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.. > > thanks, > > --Roland First of all, you should really update to CentOS 5.5 plus all the additional package updates. And then, there is a nice wiki page http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/OS_Protection with lots of helpful information about your topic. Read it carefully, and you will find a link to http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-guide-i731.pdf with further tips to secure your system. Alexander