Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security

Yanek Korff, Paco Hope, Bruce Potter9780596006266, 0596006268

FreeBSD and OpenBSD are increasingly gaining traction ineducational institutions, non-profits, and corporationsworldwide because they provide significant securityadvantages over Linux. Although a lot can be said for therobustness, clean organization, and stability of the BSDoperating systems, security is one of the main reasonssystem administrators use these two platforms.There are plenty of books to help you get a FreeBSD orOpenBSD system off the ground, and all of them touch onsecurity to some extent, usually dedicating a chapter to thesubject. But, as security is commonly named as the keyconcern for today’s system administrators, a single chapteron the subject can’t provide the depth of information youneed to keep your systems secure.FreeBSD and OpenBSD are rife with security “building blocks”that you can put to use, and Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSDSecurity shows you how. Both operating systems have kerneloptions and filesystem features that go well beyondtraditional Unix permissions and controls. This power andflexibility is valuable, but the colossal range ofpossibilities need to be tackled one step at a time. Thisbook walks you through the installation of a hardenedoperating system, the installation and configuration ofcritical services, and ongoing maintenance of your FreeBSDand OpenBSD systems.Using an application-specific approach that builds on yourexisting knowledge, the book provides sound technicalinformation on FreeBSD and Open-BSD security with plenty ofreal-world examples to help you configure and deploy asecure system. By imparting a solid technical foundation aswell as practical know-how, it enables administrators topush their server’s security to thenext level. Evenadministrators in other environments-like Linux andSolaris-can find useful paradigms to emulate.Written by security professionals with two decades ofoperating system experience, Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSDSecurity features broad and deep explanations of how how tosecure your most critical systems. Where other books on BSDsystems help you achieve functionality, this book will helpyou more thoroughly secure your deployments.