Most CTOs today have a software engineering background but have only limited knowledge about securing applications at scale.
The goal of this post is to be an easy to understand resource get you started on the path to a more secure app. This is a guide that early stage CTOs (and anyone else) can use to harden their security, without it feeling like a chore.
Restrict internal services by IP addresses
Connections to your infra and non-public properties (hosted CIs, Admin interfaces, databases etc.) should only be accessible through a bounce host (VPC, VPN etc.)
Network segmentation / Segment the network
Limit the network’s visibility. Split your network into subnetworks, each one being a network segment.
Take control of who accesses the network by implementing VLANs. Your network structure is only visible locally, so the attacker will find themselves with the task of understanding the non-visible network infrastructure, that’s one more step for them and a little more peace of mind for you.
This measure allows the business to limit the effects of issues or failures generated in a network segment, in this way, the segment could be put on quarantine avoiding the damage propagation to the other segments.
Node hardening / Harden your nodes
Avoid pivoting to give some additional security to your network segments.
“Will do!”, you say, “but what the heck is pivoting?”
Well, it’s the technique of jumping from one network segment to another to gain a broader attack range. So, how can I be safe from this? Hardening is a common network technique where we give special attention to device configurations.
This usually means to update default credentials and remove unnecessary software, logins, and services. In the following list we will give you some basic tasks that are hardening activities.
- Use strong passwords
- Close key ports that you don’t use(Ex: ssh)
- Update security patches
- Encrypt, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel
- Implement virtual machines or containers techs
Guide to Linux Hardening
Guide to Windows Hardening
Implement a firewall
Firewalls are beautiful programs that could be the difference between a server working correctly, and a server being down.
The firewall’s job is to protect internal networks from unauthorized external access and attack attempts.
Have your firewall carefully configured, they are really useful, but if you don’t take the time to customize it, it could just be a waste of valuable resources.
Cloudflare Getting Started
AWS WAF guide
Run it unprivileged
If an attacker successfully hacks your application, having your services running as a restricted-user will force them to scale privileges, making it harder for the attacker to take over the host and/or to bounce to other services.
Privileged users are called =&5=& on Unix systems, and =&6=& or =&7=& on Windows systems.
These users have complete control of the system, so it’s really important leave them alone and only use them on those cases where they are specifically and inevitably necessary.
A common scenario is to find the databases running as root/system or under a unique user for more than one database, which brings us to another weakness.
If an attacker gains access to one of database, they automatically will have access to all the rest. So, don’t use privileged users and create one user and password for each database and service you have.
Make sure all your critical services are secured
As a company you rely on a variety of services like Google Apps, Slack, WordPress etc. Don’t settle for the security defaults of these tools, they are some of the first things the attackers try and they can be an easy attack vector if not configured properly.
There are different tools to generate and save credentials like KeePass or LastPass, they use a master key to access the information, or in their mobile versions, allow you to use touch ID.
Also, make sure you update everything regularly, this is not only because you’ll get a nicer interface, but in the majority of cases updates are released to fix vulnerabilities and add new functionality, which could include new security measures.
So, if you have any default credentials, update them! And, if you have any software, service, or platform with a pending update, update it!
=&9=&
How to harden your Google Apps
Hardening WordPress
Backup, then backup again
Backup all your critical assets. Ensure that you attempt to restore your backups frequently so you can guarantee that they’re working as intended.
Don’t do it only when you remember to do it, nor with a year between each backup. Be regular, and do it with reasonable periods of time. Don’t take unnecessary risks. S3 is a very cheap and effective way to backup your assets:
Guide to backing up files on Amazon S3
Guide to backup on Digital Ocean
Guide to backup on Azure through Resource Manager
Enforce a password policy
“Admin1234”
Please, don’t act surprised if I just guessed at least one of your passwords.
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