Anti-Virus and Firewall Software

[lewisc]

Hi,
I have a Linux VPS Server and I was wondering whether Webhosting UK automatically scan and protect out servers from viruses and hack attempts etc, or are we suppose to install and run anti-virus and firewall software ourselves? If we are expected to do this, do you know any good anti-viral/firewall software (preferably free) for linux?

Thanks and Regards.

[Hexosphere]

Part of running a VPS, is to maintain it yourself, although support will assist in this if you need it.

CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) is a common choice, especially for users of cpanel or webmin, it's designed to run on top of iptables, it just presents an easier way to use it rather than learning iptables directly. With it comes a login failure daemon which you can configure to alert you of not just failed logins, but also successful logins to SSH and when people issue the SU command.

I personally use it and would recommend it.

As for Anti-virus, I'd recommend Clam AntiVirus, which you can find more information about at their website. As you haven't stated whether you have a control panel, there are various ways this can be installed, if you are using cpanel, you can install it directly from there, otherwise if it's a plain linux vps without a control panel, you'd have to look at installing it from source.

If you're not sure about any of it, contact support and they'll either be happy to assist you decide which way to go, or alternatively they may install them for you.

[lewisc]

Hi,
Thanks for that information. I will install the Clam Antivirus software.

I have a plain linux vps, but i do have the Parallels Power Panel and that includes a firewall option which allows ports to be dis/enabled and certain ip addresses to be blocked, for example i have blocked all ip addresses (except my own) to remotely access mysql and ssh. I also installed logwatch, this automatically sends an email telling me everything thats happened to my server in past 24 hrs. Do you think that will be good enough to protect my server?

Thanks.

[Administrator]

Hi,
Thanks for that information. I will install the Clam Antivirus software.

I have a plain linux vps, but i do have the Parallels Power Panel and that includes a firewall option which allows ports to be dis/enabled and certain ip addresses to be blocked, for example i have blocked all ip addresses (except my own) to remotely access mysql and ssh. I also installed logwatch, this automatically sends an email telling me everything thats happened to my server in past 24 hrs. Do you think that will be good enough to protect my server?

Thanks.

Hi Lewis, Mod_security and adding some vulnerable php functions to disabled_functions in php.ini will make your VPS almost 99% secure.

You can ask our staff to help you with these 2 things. Make sure you immediately check working of all websites and all your mysql driven applications once our staff has installed mod_security.

[lewisc]

Hi,
I use Apache Tomcat hosting my web apps (i'm a Java [J2EE] developer), I don't actually use the Apache server (except for phpmyadmin to check mysql) and decided against integrating Tomcat into the Apache server because that just means I have two servers to protect rather than one and don't recognise a noticeable difference in speed, so i'm not sure mod_security and moving vulnerable php functions would benefit me?

Thanks.

[lewisc]

Hi,
I contacted the vps support via ticket to give me a bit of help in trying to solve an error i have come across when setting up clamav-milter, but i got the response:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you have a plain VPS we can't exactly tell you the configuration of ClamAV. If you go for Cpanel control panel, it installs and configure clamav itself. We would suggest you to contact clamAV support for more help regarding this issue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Am i right in thinking that your vps support don't offer technical support? Because if they don't solve problems like this, what do they do out of interest?

Regards,

Cian.

[Hexosphere]

Can't answer for support, but sometimes it helps to understand the steps you've gone through to set something up to be able to later troubleshoot / problem resolve.

You say that you've gone with clamav-milter, to maybe help your situation you could try looking here, it's a how to on setting up and configuring it.

If you've got any issues you want troubleshooting, give me a shout and i'll help where i can.

[Dan]

Hi,
I contacted the vps support via ticket to give me a bit of help in trying to solve an error i have come across when setting up clamav-milter, but i got the response:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you have a plain VPS we can't exactly tell you the configuration of ClamAV. If you go for Cpanel control panel, it installs and configure clamav itself. We would suggest you to contact clamAV support for more help regarding this issue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Am i right in thinking that your vps support don't offer technical support? Because if they don't solve problems like this, what do they do out of interest?

Regards,

Cian.

Hi Lewis,

As ClamAV is third party, support staff are at the same level of configuration knowledge as you regarding the software, that's what I think has gone wrong, although Support should install this for you upon request.

[Administrator]

Hi,
I contacted the vps support via ticket to give me a bit of help in trying to solve an error i have come across when setting up clamav-milter, but i got the response:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you have a plain VPS we can't exactly tell you the configuration of ClamAV. If you go for Cpanel control panel, it installs and configure clamav itself. We would suggest you to contact clamAV support for more help regarding this issue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Am i right in thinking that your vps support don't offer technical support? Because if they don't solve problems like this, what do they do out of interest?

Regards,

Cian.

Hi Cian,

I apologise for such response from our support staff. Please let me know the Ticket ID and I will ask them to look into this.

I apologise for not being able to get back to you earlier, but I will get this sorted asap.

[GRACE100]

Thanks

Thank explanation helped me too