Thanks so far to all who replied to my earlier post asking about uninstalling a few services/programs to try to secure this box.
I have downloaded and printed out the Securing Debian Manual and am beginning to wade my way through. My biggest problem here is the assumptions the authors make about the level of knowledge that the reader will have about Debian/Linux ...there are a lot of things they make reference to that I have no idea about...:-) But I will in time. I have also installed from cd the Hardening Docs and will begin reading those too. A couple of the replies mentioned that I could disable services in the inetd.conf file. Below is a copy of mine, how do I know what I need and dont need? Thanks for any help. # /etc/inetd.conf: see inetd(8) for further informations. # # Internet server configuration database # # # Lines starting with "#:LABEL:" or "#<off>#" should not # be changed unless you know what you are doing! # # If you want to disable an entry so it isn't touched during # package updates just comment it out with a single '#' character. # # Packages should modify this file by using update-inetd(8) # # <service_name> <sock_type> <proto> <flags> <user> <server_path> <args> # #:INTERNAL: Internal services #echo stream tcp nowait root internal #echo dgram udp wait root internal #chargen stream tcp nowait root internal #chargen dgram udp wait root internal discard stream tcp nowait root internal discard dgram udp wait root internal daytime stream tcp nowait root internal #daytime dgram udp wait root internal time stream tcp nowait root internal #time dgram udp wait root internal #:STANDARD: These are standard services. #:BSD: Shell, login, exec and talk are BSD protocols. #:MAIL: Mail, news and uucp services. smtp stream tcp nowait mail /usr/sbin/exim exim -bs #:INFO: Info services ident stream tcp wait identd /usr/sbin/identd identd #:BOOT: Tftp service is provided primarily for booting. Most sites # run this only on machines acting as "boot servers." #:RPC: RPC based services #:HAM-RADIO: amateur-radio services #:OTHER: Other services vboxd stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/vboxd -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]