A quick way to make a Ubuntu server a bit more secure.
Use the newly installed and configured system as a reference, or golden, image. Use that image as a baseline installation media and ensure that any future installation comply with benchmarks and policies using a configuration management tool, e.g Ansible or Puppet.
Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa
and Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
.
If you’re just interested in the security focused systemd configuration, it’s available as a separate document.
If you’re interested in testing your host settings, you’ll find the instructions here.
Note
|
This is a constant work in progress. Make sure you understand what it does. Read the code and do not run this script without first testing in a non-operational environment. |
Note
|
There is a SLSA artifact present under the slsa workflow for file checksum verification. |
A Packer template is available in the Packer directory.
An Ansible playbook is available in the konstruktoid/ansible-role-hardening repository.
-
Start the server installation.
-
Pick language and keyboard layout.
-
Select "Ubuntu Server (minimized)".
-
Configure network connections.
-
Partition the system, see below for recommendations.
-
Do not install the OpenSSH server, "Featured Server Snaps", or any other packages.
-
Finish the installation and reboot.
-
Log in.
-
If wanted, set a Grub2 password with
grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2
. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Passwords for more information. -
Install necessary packages:
sudo apt-get -y install git net-tools procps --no-install-recommends
. -
Download the script:
git clone https://github.com/konstruktoid/hardening.git
. -
Change the configuration options in the
ubuntu.cfg
file. -
Run the script:
sudo bash ubuntu.sh
. -
Reboot.
FW_ADMIN='127.0.0.1' // (1)
SSH_GRPS='sudo' // (2)
SSH_PORT='22' // (3)
SYSCTL_CONF='./misc/sysctl.conf' // (4)
AUDITD_MODE='1' // (5)
AUDITD_RULES='./misc/audit-base.rules ./misc/audit-aggressive.rules ./misc/audit-docker.rules' // (6)
LOGROTATE_CONF='./misc/logrotate.conf' // (7)
NTPSERVERPOOL='0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org pool.ntp.org' // (8)
TIMEDATECTL='' // (9)
VERBOSE='N' // (10)
AUTOFILL='N' // (11)
ADMINEMAIL="root@localhost" // (12)
KEEP_SNAPD='Y' // (13)
CHANGEME='' // (14)
# Configuration files
ADDUSER='/etc/adduser.conf'
AUDITDCONF='/etc/audit/auditd.conf'
AUDITRULES='/etc/audit/rules.d/hardening.rules'
COMMONPASSWD='/etc/pam.d/common-password'
COMMONACCOUNT='/etc/pam.d/common-account'
COMMONAUTH='/etc/pam.d/common-auth'
COREDUMPCONF='/etc/systemd/coredump.conf'
DEFAULTGRUB='/etc/default/grub.d'
DISABLEFS='/etc/modprobe.d/disablefs.conf'
DISABLEMOD='/etc/modprobe.d/disablemod.conf'
DISABLENET='/etc/modprobe.d/disablenet.conf'
FAILLOCKCONF='/etc/security/faillock.conf'
JOURNALDCONF='/etc/systemd/journald.conf'
LIMITSCONF='/etc/security/limits.conf'
LOGINDCONF='/etc/systemd/logind.conf'
LOGINDEFS='/etc/login.defs'
LOGROTATE='/etc/logrotate.conf'
PAMLOGIN='/etc/pam.d/login'
PSADCONF='/etc/psad/psad.conf'
PSADDL='/etc/psad/auto_dl'
RESOLVEDCONF='/etc/systemd/resolved.conf'
RKHUNTERCONF='/etc/default/rkhunter'
RSYSLOGCONF='/etc/rsyslog.conf'
SECURITYACCESS='/etc/security/access.conf'
SSHFILE='/etc/ssh/ssh_config'
SSHDFILE='/etc/ssh/sshd_config'
SYSCTL='/etc/sysctl.conf'
SYSTEMCONF='/etc/systemd/system.conf'
TIMESYNCD='/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf'
UFWDEFAULT='/etc/default/ufw'
USERADD='/etc/default/useradd'
USERCONF='/etc/systemd/user.conf'
-
The IP addresses that will be able to connect with SSH, separated by spaces.
-
Which group the users have to be member of in order to acess via SSH, separated by spaces.
-
Configure SSH port.
-
Stricter sysctl settings.
-
Auditd failure mode. 0=silent 1=printk 2=panic.
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Auditd rules.
-
Logrotate settings.
-
NTP server pool.
-
Add a specific time zone or use the system default by leaving it empty.
-
If you want all the details or not.
-
Let the script guess the
FW_ADMIN
andSSH_GRPS
settings. -
Add a valid email address, so PSAD can send notifications.
-
If
'Y'
then thesnapd
package will be held to prevent removal. -
Add something just to verify that you actually glanced the code.
Disable coredumps and crash shells, set DefaultLimitNOFILE
and
DefaultLimitNPROC
to 1024.
Compress logs, forward to syslog and make log storage persistent. Ensure rsyslog writes logs with stricter permissions.
Configure /tmp/
and /var/tmp/
. Remove floppy drivers from /etc/fstab
and add hidepid=2
to /proc
.
Configure useradd
and adduser
to set /bin/false
as default shell,
home directory permissions to 0750
and lock users 30 days after password
expires.
Installs acct
aide-common
apparmor-profiles
apparmor-utils
auditd
audispd-plugins
debsums
gnupg2
haveged
libpam-apparmor
libpam-pwquality
libpam-tmpdir
needrestart
openssh-server
postfix
rkhunter
sysstat
systemd-coredump
tcpd
psad
update-notifier-common
vlock
.
Removes apport*
autofs
avahi*
beep
git
pastebinit
popularity-contest
rsh*
rsync
talk*
telnet*
tftp*
whoopsie
xinetd
yp-tools
ypbind
.
Configure the OpenSSH
daemon. The configuration changes will be placed in
the directory defined by the Include
option if present, otherwise the default
sshd_config
will be modified.
Configure auditd,
use $AUDITD_RULES
and set failure mode $AUDITD_MODE
.
Disable bluetooth
bnep
btusb
cpia2
firewire-core
floppy
n_hdlc
net-pf-31
pcspkr
soundcore
thunderbolt
usb-midi
usb-storage
uvcvideo
v4l2_common
kernel modules.
Note that disabling the usb-storage
will disable any usage of USB storage
devices, if such devices are needed USBGuard
should be configured accordingly.
Configure aide.
Remove suid
bits from the executables listed in
this document.
Set root
path to /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
,
and user path to /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
.
Configure rkhunter.
Configure postfix. Disable the VRFY
command,
configure smtpd_banner
, smtpd_client_restrictions
and inet_interfaces
.
Install and configure usbguard.
Configure sudo
with use_pty
, logfile
, !visiblepw
, !pwfeedback
,
passwd_timeout
and timestamp_timeout
.
Restrict su
to the sudo
group.
Configure psad.
f_pre
f_kernel
f_firewall
f_disablenet
f_disablefs
f_disablemod
f_systemdconf
f_resolvedconf
f_logindconf
f_journalctl
f_timesyncd
f_fstab
f_prelink
f_aptget_configure
f_aptget
f_hosts
f_issue
f_sudo
f_logindefs
f_sysctl
f_limitsconf
f_adduser
f_rootaccess
f_package_install
f_psad
f_coredump
f_usbguard
f_postfix
f_apport
f_motdnews
f_rkhunter
f_sshconfig
f_sshdconfig
f_password
f_cron
f_ctrlaltdel
f_auditd
f_aide
f_rhosts
f_users
f_lockroot
f_package_remove
f_suid
f_restrictcompilers
f_umask
f_path
f_aa_enforce
f_aide_post
f_aide_timer
f_aptget_noexec
f_aptget_clean
f_systemddelta
f_post
f_checkreboot
There are approximately 760 Bats tests for most of the above settings available in the tests directory.
sudo apt-get -y install bats
git clone https://github.com/konstruktoid/hardening.git
cd hardening/tests/
sudo bats .
Running bash ./runTests.sh
will use Vagrant to run
all above tests, Lynis and
OpenSCAP with a
CIS Ubuntu benchmark on all
supported Ubuntu versions.
The script will generate a file named TESTRESULTS.adoc
and CIS report in
HTML-format.
Running bash ./runHostTests.sh
, located in the tests directory,
will generate a TESTRESULTS-<HOSTNAME>.adoc
report.
Do you want to contribute? That’s great! Contributions are always welcome, no matter how large or small. If you found something odd, feel free to submit a new issue, improve the code by creating a pull request, or by sponsoring this project.
Logo by reallinfo.