On Mon, 2004-01-19 at 09:57, Matt Benjamin wrote:
> Mark,
> It seems to me as if a Linux-specific security exam essentially has to 
> be focussed on the technical aspects of securing Linux systems.  If the 
> kinds of highly general security certification are already in CISSP etc, 
> then it's hard to see why LPI would or even could duplicate it.

Actually, the LPI exam should model the actual _implementation_ of the
relevant 7 or 10 domains in the SSCP or CISSP, respectively.  I'll
assume it would be more towards the 7 in the SSCP, and not the full
spread of 10 in the CISSP, because we're testing on Linux, "system" in
practice.

> Having said that, I think that just in the technical area there are big 
> challenges.  For example, what mandatory access control tool (LIDS, 
> Selinux, Subdomain, SeOS/eTrust) will this exam expect people to know? 

A fine question.  Do we stick with fundamentals that are general to all
(which may be more like SSCP/CISSP), or get into specifics of a few?

In the end, that _should_ only address one domain.  Let's not be
Microsoft and make the "Security Speciality" exam(s) little more than
basic DAC/MAC and logging fundamentals (yes, I'm a MCSA:Sec and
MCSE:Sec, which I consider to be a _joke_).

> Taking the path of "doing what most Linux admins are doing" for security 
> will not lead to good security practices, I'm afraid...

Here's my suggestions (_not_ complete, comprehensive):  

Application Security:  Apache, FTP, DNS w/Auth, etc...
Host Access Control:  TCP Wrappers, Sudo, DAC/MAC (as above)
Host Local/Network Filesystems:  Ext3/XFS ACLs, NFS/Samba, AFS
Host Auditing:  Syslog, Kernel (maybe 2.6-focused?), Select Add-ons
Host/Net Filter:  NetFilter/IPTables, IPTable Modules
Network Authentication:  Kerberos, LDAP-SASL
Vunerability Scans:  nmap, Nessus, other "top 10/25" tools
Host IDS:  Tripwire, other checksumming tools (one begins with "A",
can't remember because I don't use it, but I should)
Network IDS:  Snort, complementary tools, other "top 10/25" tools

I'm sure I'm missing a few domains and tools there, but that's the jist
of most of the "implementation" issues that are specific to Linux.
 

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- Engineer, Technologist, School Teacher
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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