Linux Server Admin Tools and GNU Benchmark Tools Directory

Lynis is an open source and one of the most trusted automated auditing tool for software patch management, malware scanning and vulnerability detecting in Unix based systems. This tool is useful for auditors, network and system administrators, security specialists and penetration testers. This Lynis security audit tool for linux.

Lynis performs hundreds of individual tests, to determine the security state of the system. The security scan itself consists of performing a set of steps, from initializing the program, up to the displaying the report.

security audit tool

What Lynis is doing?

Determine operating system
Search for available tools and utilities
Check for Lynis update
Run tests from enabled plugins
Run security tests per category
Report status of security scan
During the scan, technical details about the scan are stored in a log file. At the same time findings (warnings, suggestions, data collection), are stored in a report file.

Download and Install

Download latest version from https://cisofy.com/download/lynis/

[root@testvm1]# wget https://cisofy.com/files/lynis-2.2.0.tar.gz
[root@testvm1]# tar -zxvf lynis-2.2.0.tar.gz
[root@testvm1]# cd lynis

[root@testvm1 lynis]# ./lynis audit system

[ Lynis 2.1.8 ]

################################################################################
comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are
welcome to redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
See the LICENSE file for details about using this software.

Copyright 2007-2016 – CISOfy, https://cisofy.com
Enterprise support and plugins available via CISOfy
################################################################################

[+] Initializing program
————————————
– Detecting OS… [ DONE ]

—————————————————
Program version: 2.1.8
Operating system: Linux
Operating system name: CentOS
Operating system version: CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core)
Kernel version: 3.10.0
Hardware platform: x86_64
Hostname: testvm1
Auditor: [Unknown]
Profile: ./default.prf
Log file: /var/log/lynis.log
Report file: /var/log/lynis-report.dat
Report version: 1.0
Plugin directory: ./plugins
—————————————————
– Checking profile file (./default.prf)…
– Program update status… [ SKIPPED ]

[+] System Tools
————————————
– Scanning available tools…
– Checking system binaries…

[+] Plugins (phase 1)
————————————
Note: plugins have more extensive tests, which may take a few minutes to complete

– Plugin: pam
[.]

[+] Boot and services
————————————
– Service Manager [ systemd ]
– Checking UEFI boot [ DISABLED ]
– Checking presence GRUB [ OK ]
– Checking presence GRUB2 [ FOUND ]
– Checking for password protection [ WARNING ]
– Check running services (systemctl) [ DONE ]
Result: found 14 running services
– Check enabled services at boot (systemctl) [ DONE ]
Result: found 18 enabled services
– Check startup files (permissions) [ OK ]

[ Press [ENTER] to continue, or [CTRL]+C to stop ]
use help option for more information

[root@testvm1 lynis]# ./lynis –help

[ Lynis 2.2.0 ]

Copyright 2007-2016 – CISOfy, https://cisofy.com/lynis/
Enterprise support and plugins available via CISOfy
################################################################################

[+] Initializing program
————————————

Usage: lynis [options] mode
Mode:

audit
audit system : Perform security scan
audit dockerfile <file> : Analyze Dockerfile

update
update info : Show update details
update release : Update Lynis release
Scan options:
–auditor “<name>” : Auditor name
–dump-options : See all available options
–no-log : Don’t create a log file
–pentest : Non-privileged scan (useful for pentest)
–profile <profile> : Scan the system with the given profile file
–quick (-Q) : Quick mode, don’t wait for user input
–tests “<tests>” : Run only tests defined by <tests>
–tests-category “<category>” : Run only tests defined by <category>

Layout options:
–no-colors : Don’t use colors in output
–quiet (-q) : No output, except warnings
–reverse-colors : Optimize color display for light backgrounds

Misc options:
–debug : Debug logging to screen
–view-manpage (–man) : View man page
–version (-V) : Display version number and quit

Enterprise options:
–plugin-dir “<path>” : Define path of available plugins
–upload : Upload data to central node
More scan options are available. See man page and online documentation for details.

Docker is a container virtualization technology that offers the promise of a more efficient, lightweight approach to application deployment than most organizations are currently implementing. Docker uses the resource isolation features of the Linux kernel such as cgroups and kernel namespaces, and a union-capable filesystem such as aufs and others to allow independent “containers” to run within a single Linux instance, avoiding the overhead of starting and maintaining virtual machines.

Docker is a tool that is designed to benefit both developers and system administrators, making it a part of many DevOps (developers + operations) toolchains. For developers, it means that they can focus on writing code without worrying about the system that it will ultimately be running on. It also allows them to get a head start by using one of thousands of programs already designed to run in a Docker container as a part of their application. For operations staff, Docker gives flexibility and potentially reduces the number of systems needed because of its small footprint and lower overhead.

Docker Security

There are three major areas to consider when reviewing Docker security:

the intrinsic security of the kernel and its support for namespaces and cgroups;
the attack surface of the Docker daemon itself;
loopholes in the container configuration profile, either by default, or when customized by users.
the “hardening” security features of the kernel and how they interact with containers.

One of the many security feature is provided by modern Linux kernels. It is also possible to leverage existing, well-known systems like TOMOYO, AppArmor, SELinux, GRSEC, etc. with Docker.

docker container

Docker installation

You can review all other platform installation here

Docker installation on Centos

It should be need kernel version 3.10 at minimum.

You can install Docker engine using the yum package manager. Log into your machine as a user with sudo or root privileges.

Make sure your existing yum packages are up-to-date.

# yum update

Add the yum repo.

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/docker.repo

[dockerrepo]
name=Docker Repository
baseurl=https://yum.dockerproject.org/repo/main/centos/$releasever/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://yum.dockerproject.org/gpg
EOF

Install the Docker package.

# yum install docker

Start the Docker daemon.

#service docker start

Thats it. Check your docker container status.

#docker ps

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Lynis security audit tool for linux

Download and Install

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