SSH Filter and Server Security Apps

In simple one line sshdfilter is an application that will help you block the ssh attacks. Its a good little application easy to configure. I and my colleagues had already written the complete steps to install and configure the sshdfilter at the following URL:- SSHDFilter. Please go through the article and let us know if there is something you would like to add or would like to know.

we had this little app installed on our company’s internal servers and found it quite good. But honestly speaking, I would suggest if you want a good security for your server, i would also suggest the same common apps that most webhost guys suggest and sshdfilter is not one of them, The first thing is the Firewall and i recommend APF (Advanced Policy Firewall) it uses iptables internally, but is a handy app for any sysadmin.

The second and a very important recommended app is the BFD (Brute Force Detection) It Detects and blocks brute force attacks.

Commands to Find out the Hardware info of a Linux machine

Hello, i have come up with this little post, the thing is many a times when we would require and Hardware info of any PC in our oprganisation, like the amount of RAM, no of HDDs connected, the Processor, the motherboard, the motherboard serial no. and etc, whenever such info was required, the Hardware Guy would go to the User’s place and shut down the PC, open up the cabinet and write down all the hardware info on  a piece of paper.

This sounds foolish, when you have a linux PC why you need to do all this. Yes, But this happens in most of the organisations in mumbai who are running linux on their Desktops or Servers.

So Here’s a small post on the Tools, utilities and commands to find the Hardware info without the need to shutdown the PC and open up the cabinet.

Some info that are required by the Desktop admins or the Hardware admins to keep an inventory of the system or for any other purpose :-

The Processor model, type, its frequency, max speed, cache, etc.
RAM
HDD
Motherboard model, chipset, serial no., etc
Soundcard
NetworkCard

Tools :-

1) dmidecode – standardized description of a PC hardware including characteristics such as BIOS serial number and hardware connectors
2) hardinfo – displays information about your hardware and operating system
3) hwinfo – information about the hardware installed on a system
4) sysinfo – displays computer and system information
5) sysutils :- procinfo
6) lspci
7) lshw

Tool 1:-

dmidecode :- you can find many detailed info about the hardware.
# dmidecode -t smbios (will give you all the valid keywords to find the system information)

# dmidecode -t smbios
Invalid type keyword: smbios
Valid type keywords are:
bios
system
baseboard
chassis
processor
memory
cache
connector
slot

# dmidecode -t bios (will give the complete bios information including vendor, release date, and what all things are supported by the Bios

# dmidecode -t processor (will give the info about the CPU vendor, model, capacity, speed, voltage, clock, cache)

# dmidecode -t slot (will give the info of the no. of PCI slots)