Network Services

Any services which are not needed for your day-to-day use should be disabled. Most operating systems turn on too many services by default. This includes services such as SMTP, IMAP, POP, telnet (ssh is more secure), ftp (scp is more secure), http, DNS, and others. If you aren't sure that you need it, you most likely don't. While it may seem obvious to some, remember to check /etc/inetd.conf. This file allows services to start "as needed" when a request hits the machine from the network. So a service that you think is disabled may not be if it's still available through this service. For some flavors of Linux/UNIX, there is an excellent tool called Bastille Linux. This tool "hardens" various UNIX operating systems.

Last Updated:  May 26, 2004