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Review: The Book of Postfix: State-of-the-Art Message Transport
By: Pete O'Hara
I was very impressed with "The Book of Postfix" by authors Ralf Hildebrandt and Patrick Koetter and feel that it is an incredible Postfix reference. It gives a great overall view of the operation and management of Postfix in an extremely systematic and practical format. It flows in a logical manner, is easy to follow and the authors did a great job of explaining topics with attention paid to real world applications and how to avoid many of the associated pitfalls. I am happy to have this reference in my collection.
The authors have taken the time to clearly answer the key questions that are of real practical value. There is no excessive or superflous material here that, although may good to know, won't divert attention from the topic of configuring a solid MTA. The book is very well focused and the authors' hard work is obvious. There are sections where someone else may have left good enough alone but they went the extra mile to make sure that this book answered the important questions fully.
"The Book of Postfix" starts with "A Postmaster's Primer To Email" and continues through all of the key topics in a sensible progression so that even if you are fairly new to administering email you are taught in a sequential manner that promotes understanding. The comprehensive list of topics encompasses single and multiple domain servers, dial-ups, SMTP restrictions, internal and external content filters, mail gateways, SMTP proxy, SMTP authentication, SASL, LDAP, SQL integration, Transport Layer Security, chroots, rate limiting, performance tuning, and trouble shooting. It covers a good amount of ground.
The numerous "NOTE" and "CAUTION" sections provide great additional detail to real world scenarious that I found extremely relevant and useful. For each topic there is also an invaluable "TESTING" section so that you can verify for yourself that you are in fact getting the expected behavior. The imperative topic of security is always kept in mind in the confugrations and the accompanying diagrams and flow charts do an excellent job of enhancing the text and providing extra clarity.
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LinuxSecurity.com Feature Extras:
Getting to Know Linux Security: File Permissions - Welcome to the first tutorial in the 'Getting to Know Linux Security' series. The topic explored is Linux file permissions. It offers an easy to follow explanation of how to read permissions, and how to set them using chmod. This guide is intended for users new to Linux security, therefore very simple. If the feedback is good, I'll consider creating more complex guides for advanced users. Please let us know what you think and how these can be improved.
The Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection - To be honest, this was one of the best books that I've read on network security. Others books often dive so deeply into technical discussions, they fail to provide any relevance to network engineers/administrators working in a corporate environment. Budgets, deadlines, and flexibility are issues that we must all address. The Tao of Network Security Monitoring is presented in such a way that all of these are still relevant.
Encrypting Shell Scripts - Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure? If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure and some user doesn't have a "ps -ef" loop running in an attempt to capture that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in "ps" output).
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Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headline.
| Conectiva | ||
| Conectiva: kernel Kernel update | ||
| 2nd, May, 2005
The Linux kernel is responsible for handling the basic functions of the GNU/Linux operating system. |
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| Debian | ||
| Debian: New ethereal packages fix buffer overflow | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-ethereal-packages-fix-buffer-overflow-46567 |
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| Debian: New prozilla packages fix arbitrary code execution | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-prozilla-packages-fix-arbitrary-code-execution-34834 |
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| Debian: New ethereal packages fix buffer overflow | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-ethereal-packages-fix-buffer-overflow-46567 |
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| Debian: New smartlist packages fix unauthorised un/subscription | ||
| 3rd, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-smartlist-packages-fix-unauthorised-unsubscription |
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| Fedora | ||
| Fedora Core 3 Update: kdewebdev-3.3.1-2.1 | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated package advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-kdewebdev-331-21-13-01-00-119013 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: wireless-tools-27-2.2.0.fc3 | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Fix iwlist command for devices that need more time to scan all their channels (ie Atheros 5212abg cards) advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-wireless-tools-27-220fc3-16-35-00-119016 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: spamassassin-3.0.3-3.fc3 | ||
| 29th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-spamassassin-303-3fc3-00-25-00-119020 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: gimp-2.2.6-0.fc3.2 | ||
| 30th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-gimp-226-0fc32-23-37-00-119025 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: bootparamd-0.17-19.FC3 | ||
| 2nd, May, 2005
Updated package advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-bootparamd-017-19fc3-11-12-00-119032 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: tcpdump-3.8.2-8.FC3 | ||
| 2nd, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-tcpdump-382-8fc3-11-12-00-119033 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: kdelibs-3.3.1-2.12.FC3 | ||
| 2nd, May, 2005
A buffer overflow was found in the kimgio library for KDE 3.3.1. An attacker could create a carefully crafted PCX image in such a way that it would cause kimgio to execute arbitrary code when processing the image. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-kdelibs-331-212fc3-11-13-00-119034 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: vte-0.11.13-1.fc3 | ||
| 2nd, May, 2005
A whole bunch of upstream fixes for speed, rendering glitches and memory use reduction. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-vte-01113-1fc3-22-15-00-119037 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: perl-5.8.5-12.FC3 | ||
| 2nd, May, 2005
Security and packaging fixes. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-perl-585-12fc3-22-16-00-119038 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: php-4.3.11-2.5 | ||
| 3rd, May, 2005
This update fixes a compatibility issue between the PHP "snmp" extension (in the php-snmp package) and the recent upgrade of the net-snmp library=20 to version 5.2.1 advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-php-4311-25-11-29-00-119044 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: policycoreutils-1.18.1-2.12 | ||
| 3rd, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-policycoreutils-1181-212-16-28-00-119046 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: words-3.0-2.3 | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-words-30-23-11-41-00-119052 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: util-linux-2.12a-24.1 | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-util-linux-212a-241-11-42-00-119053 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: system-config-bind-4.0.0-11 | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-system-config-bind-400-11-17-20-00-119054 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: dhcp-3.0.1-42_FC3 | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-dhcp-301-42fc3-17-20-00-119055 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: lapack-3.0-26.fc3 | ||
| 5th, May, 2005
This update fixes problems in some lapack libraries (problems with compiler optimalization). This version contains all patches present in fc4 lapack version. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-lapack-30-26fc3-10-18-00-119060 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: system-config-bind-4.0.0-12 | ||
| 5th, May, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-system-config-bind-400-12-12-43-00-119061 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: gnutls-1.0.20-3.1.1 | ||
| 5th, May, 2005
New gnutls version fixes CAN-2005-1431 problem (possible DOS attack) advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-gnutls-1020-311-15-02-00-119062 |
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| Gentoo | ||
| Gentoo: Heimdal Buffer overflow vulnerabilities | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Buffer overflow vulnerabilities have been found in the telnet client in Heimdal which could lead to execution of arbitrary code. |
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| Gentoo: Pound Buffer overflow vulnerability | ||
| 30th, April, 2005
Pound is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that could lead to the remote execution of arbitrary code. |
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| Gentoo: eGroupWare XSS and SQL injection vulnerabilities | ||
| 30th, April, 2005
eGroupWare is affected by several SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. |
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| Gentoo: phpMyAdmin Insecure SQL script installation | ||
| 30th, April, 2005
phpMyAdmin leaves the SQL install script with insecure permissions, potentially leading to a database compromise. |
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| Gentoo: Horde Framework Multiple XSS vulnerabilities | ||
| 1st, May, 2005
Various modules of the Horde Framework are vulnerable to multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. |
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| Gentoo: Oops! Remote code execution | ||
| 5th, May, 2005
The Oops! proxy server contains a remotely exploitable format string vulnerability, which could potentially lead to the execution of arbitrary code. |
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| Red Hat | ||
| RedHat: Low: glibc security update | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated glibc packages that address several bugs are now available. This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-low-glibc-security-update-14420 |
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| RedHat: Important: kernel security update | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated kernel packages are now available as part of ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 2.1. This is the seventh regular update. This security advisory has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-kernel-security-update-85756 |
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| RedHat: Important: kernel security update | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated kernel packages are now available as part of ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 2.1 for 64-bit architectures. This is the seventh regular update. This security advisory has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-kernel-security-update-85756 |
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| RedHat: Important: Mozilla security update | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated Mozilla packages that fix various security bugs are now available. This update has been rated as having Important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-mozilla-security-update-5331 |
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| RedHat: Moderate: PHP security update | ||
| 28th, April, 2005
Updated PHP packages that fix various security issues are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-php-security-update-38610 |
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| RedHat: Low: nasm security update | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
An updated nasm package that fixes multiple security issues is now available. This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-low-nasm-security-update-RHSA-2005-381-01 |
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| RedHat: Moderate: evolution security update | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
Updated evolution packages that fix various security issues are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-evolution-security-update-46515 |
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| RedHat: Moderate: PHP security update | ||
| 4th, May, 2005
Updated PHP packages that fix various security issues are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-php-security-update-38610 |
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