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Updating PHP 7.0 to 7.1 on an Ubuntu 16.04 Vultr VM

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Here is how you can quickly update PHP 7.0 to 7.1 on a Vultr Ubuntu domain.

I have configured a number of Vultr domains with NGINX and PHP 7.1 FPM and today I realised I need to update PHP 7.0 to 7.1 to fix a  few security exploits (read more here and here on securing Ubuntu in the cloud). PHP has a good page where you can keep up to date with PHP news here https://secure.php.net/. You can also view the PHP bug tracker to view bugs here. PHP aggregation user @php_net on twitter is good to follow, the official PHP twitter account is @official_php.

I have not noticed in daily Ubuntu package updates no option to update PHP 7.0 to 7.1, I must have to update manually.

WARNING: Backup your site and test this on a non-production server before doing it on a live server.  I had an issue with PHP 7.1 breaking WordPress 3.9 (MySQL issues with some plugins) and I had to roll back to 7.0 (see rollback tips in troubleshooting below). WordPress says it is PHP 7.1 compatible but issues exist. WordPress 3.9 ditches “mysql” and used “mysqli” and when instead PHP 7.1 WordPress could not find “mysqli”?

List packages with updates

You can run the following to view upgradable packages (TIP: Backup NGINX and other configuration files before any upgrades).

Update your server packages

Reboot

You should now see this on startup

You can view your installed PHP configuration file and installed version by typing to following in your servers command line.

Now let’s install a package viewer

Search installed packages (or non-installed) PHP packages.

Uninstall all local PHP related packages

Confirm packages are uninstalled

Install PHP 7.1 and common packages

Verify PHP 7.1 installation

Reboot

See if the PHP 7.1 FPM service has started

sudo systemctl | grep php
> php7.1-fpm.service

Restart PHP 7.1 FPM Service

Edit your /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default and change the fastcgi_pass from “7.0” to “7.1”

Edits:

Reload NGINX configuration and restart NGINX

Your website should now be back up and running PHP 7.1

PHP 7.1

Post Install Tasks

View this blog post on other useful linux commands.

Run a Lynis security scan.

Edit your PHP.ini file and add required changes (e.g upload sizes).

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini
# upload_max_filesize = 2M
+ upload_max_filesize = 8M

Troubleshooting

View PHP configuration values (add this to a debug.php and load in in a browser)

<?php

// Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
phpinfo();

// Show just the module information.
// phpinfo(8) yields identical results.
phpinfo(INFO_MODULES);

?>

I broke my WordPress 3.9 when I tried to update to PHP 7.1 so I rolled back to 7.0.

Google help had me stuck for a while when I had issues purging php 7.1.

Purge Error

Because my blog (with install steps) was down I used this site to help be find the commands to run.

Conclusion

Sometimes going with cutting edge tech you will go out on a limb, ensure you know and can restore a working site if need be.

Always have a backup and restore plan.

Hope this guide helps.

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v1.35 WordPress 3.9 error with PHP 7.1

Debug an offline Vultr Ubuntu server

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Having a self-managed Ubuntu server from Vultr for as low as $2.5 a month (or Digital Ocean for $5 a month (setup guides here or here respectively)) can certainly be cheap but you take on all the support and risk in keeping the services up.

Vultr has a good monitoring information but this does not show you services performance.

Monitor

Node JS monitoring service like http://docs.keymetrics.io/ is great at monitoring Node applications where webmin and PHPServerMonitor are good options for monitoring basic servers and services.

The more software you install the more complex the setup and find potential errors.

Service Interruption Notifications

How will you be notified when things are down?  Having automated monitoring scripts (or Self Service Status Pages) or external monitoring services is a good idea, the last thing you wants is to see your server or service is down based on a twitter reply.

Down

Much thanks goes to Michael Boelen on Twitter for reporting that my server was down:  Follow: @mboelen

Founder of @cisofy_is, author of rkhunter and Lynis, blogger at linux-audit.com, public speaker. #linux #security

Read more Linux troubleshooting tips at https://linux-audit.com/

You can have many different types of errors and it is going to be hard to suggest where your problem is going to be.

Provider/Networking Errors

Always assume provider errors are an issue, more often than not my servers have gone offline due to provider problems outside of my control.

I have had networking errors on Vultr with the default Dynamic DHCP IP’s (prompting changes to Static IP’s). I have also had issues with Static IP’s on Vultr and had to log a Support Tickets again when my server went offline, In this case, Vultr was able to restore my server but I am unsure of what happened?

Example Problem (DHCP IP): Dynamic IP, VM is totally offline (not accessible via the web or Telnet, but is accessible via Vultr Web Console).

I logged a ticket with Vultr after I rebooted the server.

DHCP

Vultr support quickly identified the problem was my server was not picking up an IP address and suggested I set static IP and reboot.

DHCP Error

Example Problem (Static IP): VM is totally offline (not accessible via the web or Telnet, but is accessible via Vultr Web Console).

Again I logged a support ticket and Vultr indicated the issues was network related.

Networking

In both cases, there was nothing I could do (a reboot did not fix each error) and a support ticket had to be logged.

Broken WordPress

Example Problem (Website Down): Error 502 bad gateway

Today I had a server stay-up buy NGINX reported error 502 bad gateway. IN this case, I rebooted the server

Know your NGINX log file location

Show the last 22 lines of the identifies NGINX log file

tail -n 200 error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log

Error  Hints

PHP-FPM is reporting errors.

WordPress too is reporting errors, I could have restarted NGINX and PHP but it was just as easy to reboot the server as I forgot the right commands to restart PHP/NGINX.

I rebooted the server in 30 seconds.

Reboot

How I Rebooted in Ubuntu

How to prevent this error in future?

  • Extend PHP file execution time (No)
  • Daily reboots of the server (No)?
  • Daily restarts of NGINX/PHP (Yes, Short Term)
  • Check the server for errors and automatically reboot (Yes, Long Term).

How to check system uptime (verifying the server rebooted)

I will set a cronjob entry to perform diagnostics (via a Bash Script) and restart NGINX/PHP or the server. I might set up remote monitoring of the webserver content too.

I should have checked memory/CPU usage too but forgot (sometimes it is best to do a deep investigation and get more information).

Troubleshooting Network Errors

As mentioned above the providers can have network issues (with a static or Dynamic IP) so don’t feel bad if you cannot fix every networking error.

Perform External Ping

Can you ping a remote server from your server?

Has your domain expired?

Check the expiry of your domain here

Here is a nice post on setting up a bash script to check multiple domains expiry.

Common (Digital Ocean) Debugging commands

SSL Certificate

You can check the expiry of your SSL certificate by scanning our site with https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

If you use a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate you can reissue a certificate (see my guide here)

Web Server Config

It is a good idea to make a backup of your web server (NGINX) configuration and know what each configuration value does.

View NGINX Config

Web Console (Vultr)

Server Setup Guide

Read more here on setting up Ubuntu on Vultr

Local Network Info

Read more here on setting up Ubuntu Networking on Vultr

Disable Firewall

Read more on setting up firewalls on Ubuntu here.

Logs

Common Ubuntu Log paths: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxLogFiles

If in Doubt, Reboot

Log a ticket

Remember you can log a ticket with Vultr when things go pear shape.

Monitoring

Don’t forget to have a self-serve status page to alert you when things go wrong.

Vultr Status Page

View the Vultr status page here.

Your Status Page

Read my service status page guide here.

Past Data

Do document past errors and try and prevent those errors from happening again and act upon reoccurring errors (using past documentation).

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Revision History

v1.2 added common digital ocean commands

etc

Setup an Ubuntu Desktop GUI on a Vultr VM Remotely

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Lubuntu is a free Ubuntu desktop GUI that you can install on a Vultr or Digital Ocean VM in the cloud, more information on lubuntu here.

Introduction

When you set up a Vultr server (see my guide here on setting up a Vultr VM) you can also install an Ubuntu GUI Desktop if you prefer GUI access to your server (over SSH and the terminal command line).

After you have set up your server  (fyi: you can buy a server here on Vultr for as low as $2.5 a month or buy a Digital Ocean server for $5 a month) and secure it (perform an optional security audit).  Don’t forget to add a free SSL certificate.

Vultr allows you to log into an admin panel and access your servers web console (text or GUI)

Ubuntu GUI

Setup lubuntu

From the command line type

TIP: If you receive failures about “Temporary failure resolving ‘archive.ubuntu.com’” edit the file “/etc/resolv.conf” and add “nameserver 8.8.8.8” Update will then work.

There are two versions of the Ubuntu Desktop

1) Light Desktop

A Light version of lubuntu is available for low memory VMs

To install a light version run

Note: lubuntu-core should work on a VM with as low as 128MB of RAM. Read more here.

or

2) Full Desktop

If you have more memory (> 1GB RAM)  you can run a richer environment

Note: lubuntu-desktop will take a lot longer to install over the core version.

Install the Firefox browser

apt-get install firefox

Reboot Your Server

sudo shutdown -r now

After your server reboots login to the Vultr admin panel and click the Web Console icon (computer screen icon, 5 in from the right).

Ubuntu GUI

Core Version

After you login to the web console, you will receive this screen (for the core version).

Ubuntu GUI Login

You can log in as any existing user instead of a guest if you wish.

Ubuntu GUI Login Other

You have a limited desktop and environment with the core version.

Ubuntu

When you log out you can choose from the options below.

Logout

Full Desktop version

As before open the Vultr web console for the server.

Ubuntu GUI

If your lubuntu desktop session does not load try running

You can then log into the Ubuntu desktop (same as the light version above).  You will be able to use FireFox, use a Terminal, install packages with the Lubuntu Software Center and browse files. The start menu is per packed with software too,

Ubuntu

The full desktop has loads more software pre-installed (and available to install via the software center).

I opened a few apps and my server only used 472MB ram (it was using about 420MB before I installed lubuntu), all CPU cores were mostly idle.

Common Folders:

etc

Lubuntu Sofware Center

Installing MySQL workbench

MySQL Workbench

I Installed MySQL Workbench

MySQL Workbench

More software is available in the lubuntu Software Center

Synaptic Package Manager

The Synaptic package manager is also available if you are familiar with that.

Synaptic

Troubleshooting

You may receive this error on startup.

Error

Review your: /root/.profile file

Erroring line

It is safe to ignore this error message as the command is just trying to generate a suggests exit result. More on the mesg command here.

Check out the extensive Hardening a Linux Server guide at thecloud.org.uk: https://thecloud.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Hardening_a_Linux_Server

Enjoy

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Revision History

v1.2 added link to hardening linux server.

v1.1 fixed typos (26th Sep 2017)

v1.0 Initial Post (26th Sep 2017)

etc

How to use Sublime Text editor locally to edit code files on a remote server via SSH

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This guide will show you how to use Sublime Text editor locally to edit code files on a remote server via SSH.

This guide assumes oy already have a working SSH connection between your Mac and your remote server (with no firewall issues) and have configured SSH keys via modifying to authorized_keys file to enable SSH access.

Need a server?

I now use UpCLoud for cloud servers as they are super fast (read the blog post here). Get $25 free credit by signing up at UpCloud using this link.

UpCloud is way faster than Vulr.

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

Setting up slower region-specific servers can be found here. Set up a Server on Vultr here for as low as $2.5 a month or set up a Server on Digital Ocean (and get the first 2 months free ($5/m server)). I have a guide on setting up a Vultr server here or Digital Ocean server here.  Don’t forget to add a free LetsEncrypt SSL Certificate and secure the server (read more here and here).

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Setting up your local machine

Open Sublime Text 3 and press COMMAND+SHIFT+P to bring up the command bar and type Install and click Package Control: Install    Package and click it.

Sublime instal package

Wait a  few seconds for the packages list to show and type “rsub”

Sublime Install RSUB

Ok let’s make an SSH alias to your server on your Mac by typing “sudo nano ~/.ssh/config”

SSH Alias

Make these changes

ssh alias

File contents:

Now we can connect to the server via SSH by typing “ssh mysrv”

ssh connect

After typing the server’s password you will be connected to the ssh server

Now on your local Mac load the following page in a web browser (and review the code): https://raw.github.com/aurora/rmate/master/rmate  and copy the contents to the clipboard.

On the remote server (the SSH one) type:

Now paste the contents or this page into nano editor and save it and exit nano.

Now run this chmod command to make the rmate file executable.

Now on the server, we can open any text file with rmate and have it open locally in Sublime via SSH.  Yes, Open a  file on a server and have it automatically open in locally 🙂

SSH

If you have many files to open then create a bash file to open files with rmate

sudo nano openfilesonmac.sh

Contents:

#!/bin/bash

rmate index.html 
rmate index1.html 
rmate index2.html 
rmate index3.html 
rmate index4.html 
rmate index5.html 
rmate index6.html 
rmate index7.html 
rmate index8.html 
rmate index9.html 
rmate index10.html

File permissions:

chmod +x openfilesonmac.sh

Now we can open may remote files locally by running the bash script.

All saves in Sublime locally are sent to the server 🙂

e.g

Still here, read more articles here or use the form below to ask a question or recommend an article.

Port Forwarding with vSSH on OSX

If you use a third party ssh program like vSSH you will also need to setup port forwarding to avoid this error

How.

port forward

Now you can open remote files locally with SSH or vSSH too.

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v1.4 Added UpCloud Info.

v1.3 vSSH Port forwarding.

Run an Ubuntu VM system audit with Lynis

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Following on from my Securing Ubuntu in the cloud blog post I have installed Lynis open source security audit tool to check out to the security of my server in the cloud.

Lynis is an open source security auditing tool. Used by system administrators, security professionals, and auditors, to evaluate the security defences of their Linux and Unix-based systems. It runs on the host itself, so it performs more extensive security scans than vulnerability scanners. https://cisofy.com/lynis and https://github.com/CISOfy/lynis.

It is easy to setup a server in the cloud (create a server on Vultr or Digital Ocean here). Guides on setting up servers exist ( setup up a Vultr VM and configure it and digital ocean server) but how about securing it? You can install a LetsEncrypt SSL certificate in minutes or setup Content Security Policy and Public Key Pinning but don’t forget to get an external in-depth review of the security of your server(s).

Lynis Security Auditing Tool

Preparing install location (for Lynis)

Install Lynis

Running a Lynus system scan

./lynis audit system -Q

Lynis Results 1/3 Output (removed sensitive output)

[ Lynis 2.5.5 ]

################################################################################
  Lynis 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.

  2007-2017, CISOfy - https://cisofy.com/lynis/
  Enterprise support available (compliance, plugins, interface and tools)
################################################################################


[+] Initializing program
------------------------------------
- Detecting OS...  [ DONE ]
- Checking profiles... [ DONE ]

  ---------------------------------------------------
  Program version:           2.5.5
  Operating system:          Linux
  Operating system name:     Ubuntu Linux
  Operating system version:  16.04
  Kernel version:            4.4.0
  Hardware platform:         x86_64
  Hostname:                  yourservername
  ---------------------------------------------------
  Profiles:                  /linis/lynis/default.prf
  Log file:                  /var/log/lynis.log
  Report file:               /var/log/lynis-report.dat
  Report version:            1.0
  Plugin directory:          ./plugins
  ---------------------------------------------------
  Auditor:                   [Not Specified]
  Test category:             all
  Test group:                all
  ---------------------------------------------------
- Program update status...  [ NO UPDATE ]

[+] System Tools
------------------------------------
- Scanning available tools...
- Checking system binaries...

[+] Plugins (phase 1)
------------------------------------
: plugins have more extensive tests and may take several minutes to complete - Plugin pam
    [..]
- Plugin systemd
    [................]

[+] Boot and services
------------------------------------
- Service Manager [ systemd ]
- Checking UEFI boot [ DISABLED ]
- Checking presence GRUB [ OK ]
- Checking presence GRUB2 [ FOUND ]
- Checking for password protection [ OK ]
- Check running services (systemctl) [ DONE ]
: found 24 running services
- Check enabled services at boot (systemctl) [ DONE ]
: found 30 enabled services
- Check startup files (permissions) [ OK ]

[+] Kernel
------------------------------------
- Checking default run level [ RUNLEVEL 5 ]
- Checking CPU support (NX/PAE)
 support: PAE and/or NoeXecute supported [ FOUND ]
- Checking kernel version and release [ DONE ]
- Checking kernel type [ DONE ]
- Checking loaded kernel modules [ DONE ]
active modules
- Checking Linux kernel configuration file [ FOUND ]
- Checking default I/O kernel scheduler [ FOUND ]
- Checking for available kernel update [ OK ]
- Checking core dumps configuration [ DISABLED ]
- Checking setuid core dumps configuration [ PROTECTED ]
- Check if reboot is needed [ NO ]

[+] Memory and Processes
------------------------------------
- Checking /proc/meminfo [ FOUND ]
- Searching for dead/zombie processes [ OK ]
- Searching for IO waiting processes [ OK ]

[+] Users, Groups and Authentication
------------------------------------
- Administrator accounts [ OK ]
- Unique UIDs [ OK ]
- Consistency of group files (grpck) [ OK ]
- Unique group IDs [ OK ]
- Unique group names [ OK ]
- Password file consistency [ OK ]
- Query system users (non daemons) [ DONE ]
- NIS+ authentication support [ NOT ENABLED ]
- NIS authentication support [ NOT ENABLED ]
- sudoers file [ FOUND ]
- Check sudoers file permissions [ OK ]
- PAM password strength tools [ OK ]
- PAM configuration files (pam.conf) [ FOUND ]
- PAM configuration files (pam.d) [ FOUND ]
- PAM modules [ FOUND ]
- LDAP module in PAM [ NOT FOUND ]
- Accounts without expire date [ OK ]
- Accounts without password [ OK ]
- Checking user password aging (minimum) [ DISABLED ]
- User password aging (maximum) [ DISABLED ]
- Checking expired passwords [ OK ]
- Checking Linux single user mode authentication [ OK ]
- Determining default umask
- umask (/etc/profile) [ NOT FOUND ]
- umask (/etc/login.defs) [ SUGGESTION ]
- umask (/etc/init.d/rc) [ SUGGESTION ]
- LDAP authentication support [ NOT ENABLED ]
- Logging failed login attempts [ ENABLED ]

[+] Shells
------------------------------------
- Checking shells from /etc/shells
: found 6 shells (valid shells: 6).
- Session timeout settings/tools [ NONE ]
- Checking default umask values
- Checking default umask in /etc/bash.bashrc [ NONE ]
- Checking default umask in /etc/profile [ NONE ]

[+] File systems
------------------------------------
- Checking mount points
- Checking /home mount point [ SUGGESTION ]
- Checking /tmp mount point [ SUGGESTION ]
- Checking /var mount point [ SUGGESTION ]
- Query swap partitions (fstab) [ NONE ]
- Testing swap partitions [ OK ]
- Testing /proc mount (hidepid) [ SUGGESTION ]
- Checking for old files in /tmp [ OK ]
- Checking /tmp sticky bit [ OK ]
- ACL support root file system [ ENABLED ]
- Mount options of / [ NON DEFAULT ]
- Checking Locate database [ FOUND ]
- Disable kernel support of some filesystems
- Discovered kernel modules: cramfs freevxfs hfs hfsplus jffs2 udf 

[+] Storage
------------------------------------
- Checking usb-storage driver (modprobe config) [ NOT DISABLED ]
- Checking USB devices authorization [ ENABLED ]
- Checking firewire ohci driver (modprobe config) [ DISABLED ]

[+] NFS
------------------------------------
- Check running NFS daemon [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Name services
------------------------------------
- Searching DNS domain name [ UNKNOWN ]
- Checking /etc/hosts
- Checking /etc/hosts (duplicates) [ OK ]
- Checking /etc/hosts (hostname) [ OK ]
- Checking /etc/hosts (localhost) [ SUGGESTION ]
- Checking /etc/hosts (localhost to IP) [ OK ]

[+] Ports and packages
------------------------------------
- Searching package managers
- Searching dpkg package manager [ FOUND ]
- Querying package manager
- Query unpurged packages [ NONE ]
- Checking security repository in sources.list file [ OK ]
- Checking APT package database [ OK ]
- Checking vulnerable packages [ OK ]
- Checking upgradeable packages [ SKIPPED ]
- Checking package audit tool [ INSTALLED ]

[+] Networking
------------------------------------
- Checking IPv6 configuration [ ENABLED ]
 method [ AUTO ]
 only [ NO ]
- Checking configured nameservers
- Testing nameservers
: 108.xx.xx.xx [ OK ]
: 2001:xxx:xxx:xxx::6 [ OK ]
- Minimal of 2 responsive nameservers [ OK ]
- Checking default gateway [ DONE ]
- Getting listening ports (TCP/UDP) [ DONE ]
* Found 18 ports
- Checking promiscuous interfaces [ OK ]
- Checking waiting connections [ OK ]
- Checking status DHCP client [ NOT ACTIVE ]
- Checking for ARP monitoring software [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Printers and Spools
------------------------------------
- Checking cups daemon [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking lp daemon [ NOT RUNNING ]

[+] Software: e-mail and messaging
------------------------------------
- Sendmail status [ RUNNING ]

[+] Software: firewalls
------------------------------------
- Checking iptables kernel module [ FOUND ]
- Checking iptables policies of chains [ FOUND ]
- Checking for empty ruleset [ OK ]
- Checking for unused rules [ FOUND ]
- Checking host based firewall [ ACTIVE ]

[+] Software: webserver
------------------------------------
- Checking Apache (binary /usr/sbin/apache2) [ FOUND ]
: No virtual hosts found
* Loadable modules [ FOUND (106) ]
- Found 106 loadable modules 
- anti-DoS/brute force [ OK ]
- web application firewall [ OK ]
- Checking nginx [ FOUND ]
- Searching nginx configuration file [ FOUND ]
- Found nginx includes [ 2 FOUND ]
- Parsing configuration options
- /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
- /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
- SSL configured [ YES ]
- Ciphers configured [ YES ]
- Prefer server ciphers [ YES ]
- Protocols configured [ YES ]
- Insecure protocols found [ NO ]
- Checking log file configuration
- Missing log files (access_log) [ NO ]
- Disabled access logging [ NO ]
- Missing log files (error_log) [ NO ]
- Debugging mode on error_log [ NO ]

[+] SSH Support
------------------------------------
- Checking running SSH daemon [ FOUND ]
- Searching SSH configuration [ FOUND ]
- SSH option: AllowTcpForwarding [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: ClientAliveCountMax [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: ClientAliveInterval [ OK ]
- SSH option: Compression [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: FingerprintHash [ OK ]
- SSH option: GatewayPorts [ OK ]
- SSH option: IgnoreRhosts [ OK ]
- SSH option: LoginGraceTime [ OK ]
- SSH option: LogLevel [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: MaxAuthTries [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: MaxSessions [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: PermitRootLogin [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: PermitUserEnvironment [ OK ]
- SSH option: PermitTunnel [ OK ]
- SSH option: Port [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: PrintLastLog [ OK ]
- SSH option: Protocol [ OK ]
- SSH option: StrictModes [ OK ]
- SSH option: TCPKeepAlive [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: UseDNS [ OK ]
- SSH option: VerifyReverseMapping [ NOT FOUND ]
- SSH option: X11Forwarding [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: AllowAgentForwarding [ SUGGESTION ]
- SSH option: AllowUsers [ NOT FOUND ]
- SSH option: AllowGroups [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] SNMP Support
------------------------------------
- Checking running SNMP daemon [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Databases
------------------------------------
- MySQL process status [FOUND ]

[+] LDAP Services
------------------------------------
- Checking OpenLDAP instance [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] PHP
------------------------------------
- Checking PHP [ FOUND ]
- Checking PHP disabled functions [ FOUND ]
- Checking expose_php option [ OFF ]
- Checking enable_dl option [ OFF ]
- Checking allow_url_fopen option [ ON ]
- Checking allow_url_include option [ OFF ]
- Checking PHP suhosin extension status [ OK ]
- Suhosin simulation mode status [ OK ]

[+] Squid Support
------------------------------------
- Checking running Squid daemon [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Logging and files
------------------------------------
- Checking for a running log daemon [ OK ]
- Checking Syslog-NG status [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking systemd journal status [ FOUND ]
- Checking Metalog status [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking RSyslog status [ FOUND ]
- Checking RFC 3195 daemon status [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking minilogd instances [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking logrotate presence [ OK ]
- Checking log directories (static list) [ DONE ]
- Checking open log files [ DONE ]
- Checking deleted files in use [ FILES FOUND ]

[+] Insecure services
------------------------------------
- Checking inetd status [ NOT ACTIVE ]

[+] Banners and identification
------------------------------------
- /etc/issue [ FOUND ]
- /etc/issue contents [ OK ]
- /etc/issue.net [ FOUND ]
- /etc/issue.net contents [ OK ]

[+] Scheduled tasks
------------------------------------
- Checking crontab/cronjob [ DONE ]
- Checking atd status [ RUNNING ]
- Checking at users [ DONE ]
- Checking at jobs [ NONE ]

[+] Accounting
------------------------------------
- Checking accounting information [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking sysstat accounting data [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking auditd [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Time and Synchronization
------------------------------------
- NTP daemon found: ntpd [ FOUND ]
- NTP daemon found: systemd (timesyncd) [ FOUND ]
- Checking for a running NTP daemon or client [ OK ]
- Checking valid association ID's [ FOUND ]
- Checking high stratum ntp peers [ OK ]
- Checking unreliable ntp peers [ FOUND ]
- Checking selected time source [ OK ]
- Checking time source candidates [ OK ]
- Checking falsetickers [ OK ]
- Checking NTP version [ FOUND ]

[+] Cryptography
------------------------------------
- Checking for expired SSL certificates [0/1] [ NONE ]

[+] Virtualization
------------------------------------

[+] Containers
------------------------------------

[+] Security frameworks
------------------------------------
- Checking presence AppArmor [ FOUND ]
- Checking AppArmor status [ ENABLED ]
- Checking presence SELinux [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking presence grsecurity [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking for implemented MAC framework [ OK ]

[+] Software: file integrity
------------------------------------
- Checking file integrity tools
- Checking presence integrity tool [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Software: System tooling
------------------------------------
- Checking automation tooling
- Automation tooling [ NOT FOUND ]
- Checking presence of Fail2ban [ FOUND ]
- Checking Fail2ban jails [ ENABLED ]
- Checking for IDS/IPS tooling [ FOUND ]

[+] Software: Malware
------------------------------------

[+] File Permissions
------------------------------------
- Starting file permissions check
/root/.ssh [ OK ]

[+] Home directories
------------------------------------
- Checking shell history files [ OK ]

[+] Kernel Hardening
------------------------------------
- Comparing sysctl key pairs with scan profile
- fs.protected_hardlinks (exp: 1) [ OK ]
- fs.protected_symlinks (exp: 1) [ OK ]
- fs.suid_dumpable (exp: 0) [ DIFFERENT ]
- kernel.core_uses_pid (exp: 1) [ DIFFERENT ]
- kernel.ctrl-alt-del (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- kernel.dmesg_restrict (exp: 1) [ DIFFERENT ]
- kernel.kptr_restrict (exp: 2) [ DIFFERENT ]
- kernel.randomize_va_space (exp: 2) [ OK ]
- kernel.sysrq (exp: 0) [ DIFFERENT ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.bootp_relay (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians (exp: 1) [ DIFFERENT ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.mc_forwarding (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.proxy_arp (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter (exp: 1) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects (exp: 0) [ DIFFERENT ]
- net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians (exp: 1) [ DIFFERENT ]
- net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts (exp: 1) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses (exp: 1) [ OK ]
- net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies (exp: 1) [ DIFFERENT ]
- net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps (exp: 0) [ DIFFERENT ]
- net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects (exp: 0) [ OK ]
- net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route (exp: 0) [ OK ]

[+] Hardening
------------------------------------
- Installed compiler(s) [ FOUND ]
- Installed malware scanner [ NOT FOUND ]

[+] Custom Tests
------------------------------------
- Running custom tests...  [ NONE ]

[+] Plugins (phase 2)
------------------------------------
- Plugins (phase 2) [ DONE ]

================================================================================

...

Lynis Results 2/3 – Warnings

I resolved the only warning by typing

After updating the Lynis system scan I re-ran the text and got

Lynis Results 3/3 – Suggestions

Installing a Malware Scanner

Install ClamAV

Download virus and malware definitions (this takes about 30 min)

Output:

sudo freshclam
> ClamAV Update process started at Wed Nov 15th 20:44:55 2017
> Downloading main.cvd [10%]

I had an issue on some boxes with clamav reporting I could not run freshclam

sudo freshclam
ERROR: /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log is locked by another process
ERROR: Problem with internal logger (UpdateLogFile = /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log).

This was fixed by typing

Troubleshooting clamav

Clam AV does not like low ram boxes and may produce this error

It looks like the solution is to increase your total ram.

fyi: Scan with ClamAV

Re-running Lynis gave me the following malware status

Lynis Security rating

Installed

After re-running the test I got this Lynis security rating score (an improvement of 1)

Installed and configured debsums and auditd

Now I get the following Lynis security rating score.

Conclusion

Lynis is great at performing an audit and recommending areas of work to allow you to harden your system (brute force protection, firewall, etc)

Security Don’ts

  • Never think you are done securing a system.

Security Do’s

  • Update Software (and remove software you do not use.)
  • Check Lynis Suggestions and try and resolve.
  • Security is an ongoing process, Do install a firewall, do ban bad IP’s, Do whitelist good IP’s, Do review Logs,
  • Do limit port access, make backups and keep on securing.

I will keep on securing and try and get remove all issues.

Read my past post on Securing Ubuntu in the cloud.

Scheduling an auto system updates is not enough in Ubuntu (as it is not recommended as the administrator should make decisions, not a scheduled job).

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

fyi: CISOFY/Lynis do have paid subscriptions to have external scans of your servers: https://cisofy.com/pricing. (why upgrade?)

Lynis Plans

I will look into this feature soon.

Updating Lynis

I checked the official documentation and ran an update check

./lynis --check-update
This option is deprecated
Use: lynis update info

./lynis update info

 == Lynis ==

  Version            : 2.5.5
  Status             : Outdated
  Installed version  : 255
  Latest version     : 257
  Release date       : 2017-09-07
  Update location    : https://cisofy.com/lynis/


2007-2017, CISOfy - https://cisofy.com/lynis/

Not sure how to update?

./lynis update
Error: Need a target for update

Examples:
lynis update check
lynis update info

./lynis update check
status=outdated

I opened an issue about updating v2.5.5 here. I asked Twiter for help.

Twitter

Official Response: https://packages.cisofy.com/community/#debian-ubuntu

Git Response

Waiting..

I ended up deleting Lynis 2.5.5

Updated

And reinstalled to v2.5.8

Output:

More actions post upgrade to 2.5.8

  • Added a legal notice to “/etc/issues”, “/etc/issues.net” file’s.

Installing Lynis via apt-get instead of git clone

The official steps can be located here: https://packages.cisofy.com/community/#debian-ubuntu

apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys C80E383C3DE9F082E01391A0366C67DE91CA5D5F
apt install apt-transport-https
echo 'Acquire::Languages "none";' > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99disable-translations
echo "deb https://packages.cisofy.com/community/lynis/deb/xenial main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cisofy-lynis.list
apt update
apt install lynis
lynis show version

Unfortunately, I had an error with “apt update”

Error:

Complete install output

I reopened Github issue 491. A quick reply revealed that I did not put a space before “xenial” (oops)

fyi: I removed the dead keystore from apt by typing…

I can now install and update other packages with apt and not have the following error

I will remove the git clone and re-run the apt version later and put in more steps to get to a High 90’s Lynis score.

More

Read the official documentation https://cisofy.com/documentation/lynis/

Next: This guide will investigate the enterprise version of https://cisofy.com/pricing/ soon.

Hope this helps. If I have missed something please let me know on Twitter at @FearbySoftware

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v1.46 Git hub response.

Installing Redis 3.x onto Ubuntu 16.04

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This post will show you how to install Redis 3.x onto Ubuntu 16.04

Redis is a server-side (Lua based) schema-free open source (in Memory) NoSQL Key/Value store database that supports replication between servers. Redis has an Eventual Consistency replication between servers (over Immediate Consistency) between servers. Eventual consistency is evil in some peoples minds, eventual consistency does require different coding considerations (to guaranteed valid data but does offer speed benefits).

Redis is the worlds 9th most popular database behind Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DB2, Microsoft Access, Cassandra. Redis is the most popular key-value store database. View the database trend chart here.

When to use Redis over MySQL or MongoDB

Here is a great guide on when to use Redis over MongoDB. Read my previous guide on building a scalable and secure MySQL Cluster.

Redis has a place where a relational database or NoSQL document stores do not (but it is more work). Read more here.

Redis is great in situations where caching or where memory is available on the server.

Free Memory

Installing Redis on Ubuntu

Backup the conf file

Open the redis cli (and test it).

Show Redis info (from the redis-cli)

Benchmarking your Redis (quick)

Benchmarking your Redis (slow)

How to save and query a simple key/value integer

How to save and query a simple key/value string

Saving and querying multiple values

Clear all

Add to list (new items at the top)

127.0.0.1:6379> lpush testlist "a"
(integer) 1
127.0.0.1:6379> lpush testlist "b"
(integer) 2
127.0.0.1:6379> lpush testlist "c"
(integer) 3
127.0.0.1:6379> lrange testlist 0 -1
1) "c"
2) "b"
3) "a"

Add to list (new items at the bottom)

Redis Documentation

redis.io

redis.io/­documentation

https://redis.io/commands/

Redis Crash Course Tutorial

More

5 uses of redis as a database.

Using Redis at scale at Twitter

Digital Ocean guide on Redis

Coming soon PHP access to Redis.

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v1.2 Removed reference to Redis 4 in the blurb.

v1.1 Oops, this was Redis 3 and not 4 (thanks, Patrik)

v1.0 Initial version

How to be alerted after system boot on Ubuntu 16.04 with an email via Gmail

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This will allow you to sent an email at startup on Ubuntu boot. You will need to ensure sendmail is setup and working (read my guide on How to send email via G Suite from Ubuntu in the cloud, setup an Ubuntu server in the cloud here (guide here)).

Create a  scripts folder

mkdir /scripts/

Create a file called /scripts/emailstartup.sh and add..

optional: Uncomment lines above to attach a zip file instead of a log file (don’t forget to attach the zip instead of the log file in sendmail.)

Make the script file executable

sudo chmod +X /scripts/emailstartup.sh

Test the script

Add the following to crontab -e to ensure the script is executed 5 minutes after startup.

On reboot, you will be emailed desired start-up information.

email capture

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v1.0 initial post

How to send email via G Suite from Ubuntu in the cloud

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Here is how I send emails from the command line in Ubuntu servers in the cloud via G SUote connect emails

Jan 2018 Update

Post on adding a second domain to G Suite

Post on adding email aliases to G Suite

Main

If you use ufw for your Ubuntu firewall then allow port 587 out traffic (read more in securing Ubuntu in the cloud here).

Ensure your port is open on IPV4 and IPV6.

If you have a GUI managed firewall with your server host then configure it to allow port 587 (out).

Read more on useful terminal commands here or setting up a Digital Ocean Ubuntu server here for as low as $5 a month here, Vultr server for as low as $2.5 here ($10 free credit). Read more about setting up an AWS Ubuntu server here.

Install sendmail and other pre requisites

Now you are ready to send an email with 1 line in the terminal (use your Gmail email unless you have diverted your email to G Suite (then use that email, guide here). Create a G Suite account here.

FYI: I have setup my email for my domain to redirect via G Suite (see my guide here and older guide here)

Send an email from the command line

This is not a drop-in replacement for Outlook or Thunderbird email clients but it is perfect for command-line alerts to con-jobs or start-up notifications.

Sending an email with an attachment

Coming soon: A guide on backing up Ubuntu with Rsync etc.

More

Post on adding a second domain to G Suite

Post on adding email aliases to G Suite

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v1.2 added other links

v1.1 added links to two G Suite guides.

Deploying WordPress to a Vultr VM via command line

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Here is my guide on setting up WordPress on an Ubuntu server via the command line. Here is my recent guide on the wp-cli tool.

Read my guide on setting up a Vultr VM and installing NGINX web server and MySQL database. Use this link to create a Vultr account.  This guide assumes you have a working Ubuntu VM with NGINX web server, MySQL, and SSL.

Consider setting up an SSL certificate (read my guide here on setting up a  free SL certificate with Let’s Encrypt). Once again read my guide on Setting up a Vultr server. Also moving WordPress from CPanel to a self-managed server and securing Ubuntu in the cloud. Ensure you are backing up your server (read my guide on How to backup an Ubuntu VM in the cloud via crontab entries that trigger Bash Scripts, SSH, Rsync and email backup alerts).

Ensure MySQL is setup.

Ensure your server is setup, firewall enabled (port 80 and 443 enabled), NGINX is installed and working.

Check NGINX version

Check NGINX Status

Check your PHP install status to confirm your setup, put this in a new PHP file (e.g /p.php) and load it to view PHP configuration and to verify PHP setup.

Loading PHP Configuration

First I edited NGINX configuration to allow WordPress to work.

location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
        proxy_set_header Proxy "";
}

Mostly I added this line.

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;

I restated NGINX and PHP

nginx -t
nginx -s reload
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart

If this config change is not made WordPress will not install or run.

Database

In order to setup WordPress, we need to create a MySQL database/database user before downloading WordPress from the command line.

From an ssh terminal type (and log in with your MySQL root password)

Create a database (choose a database name, add random text).

mysql> create database databasemena123;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Create a user and assign them to the blog (choose a username, add random text)

If your password is simple you will get this warning.

A 50+ char password with 10 digits and 10 numbers should be ok

You can now apply the permissions and clear the permissions cache.

Go to your /www folder on your server and run this command to download WordPress.

You can now move any existing temporary index files in your /www folder

mv index.html oldindex.html
mv index.php oldindex.php
p.php oldp.php

ls -al
total 8724
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Aug 21 11:17 .
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root    4096 Aug 13 22:27 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      37 Jul 31 11:51 oldindex.html
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      37 Jul 31 11:51 oldindex.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      19 Aug 21 11:04 oldp.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 8910664 Aug 21 11:16 wordpress.zip

Now I can extract wordpress.zip

First, you need to install unzip

Now Unzip wordpress.zip

unzip wordpress.zip

At this point, I decided to remove all old index files on my website

The unzipped contents are in a sub folder called “wordpress”, we need to move the WordPress contents up a folder.

“wordpress” folder contents.

Remove the wordpress.zip in /www/

Move all files from the /www/wordpress/ up a folder to /www/.

Now we can create and upload folder

mkdir /www/wp-content/content/

Apply permissions (or you can never upload to WordPress).

chmod 755 /www/wp-content/uploads/

I think I need to apply permissions here (to allow plugins to upload/update)

Edit the wp-config-sample.php

Add your database name to the WordPress config.

Before:

After:

Add your database username and password to the WordPress config.

Before:

After:

Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ and copy the salts to your clipboard and replace this in your wp-config-sample.php

..with paste over whatever you generated (e.g)

Now save changes to wp-config-sample.php

Rename the sample config file (to make it live)

You can now load your website ( https://www.yourserver.com ) and finish the setup in the WordPress GUI.

Wordpress Setup GUI

WordPress should now be installed and you can log in.

Don’t forget to update your options – /wp-admin/options-general.php

I would recommend you review the options to prevent comment spam – /wp-admin/options-discussion.php

Also if you are using the twentyseventeen theme consider updating your header image (remove the pot plant) 0 /wp-admin/customize.php?theme=twentyseventeen&return=%2Fwp-admin%2Fthemes.php

Signup for a Vulr server here for as low as $2.5 a month or a Digital Ocean server ($10 free credit/2 months, signup for G Suite email on google here and read my guide here.

Read this guide on using the wp-cli tool to automate post-install.

I hope this helps.

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v1.1 added wp-cli tool

Installing Webmin Server Management web GUI on Ubuntu

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Setting up Ubuntu in the cloud is great if you are not afraid of using the command line but for those that need it, there are web based server management GUI’s you can install.

Once Ubuntu is installed (I have many guides at www.fearby.com) you can install http://www.webmin.com/ (web based management GUI for Ubuntu).  It is similar to https://runcloud.io but it’s free. Read the Webadmin install guide here.

Ubuntu Install Steps

Run this in your root terminal to install Webmin on Ubuntu after you install and configure a web server, MySQL and SSL.

Allow port 1000 on your firewall (in my case I am limiting this to my public IP).

I opened port 10,000 on my Digital Ocean firewall screen too.

I installed an SSL certificate on my server (my guide here).  I am having issues with Google Chrome and my SSL certificate so I switched ot safari.

I navigated to https://mydomain.com:10000 to log in to the Webmin dashboard

I could now log in to Webmin so I reset the password???

Now I can login to Webmin

Webmin has a  load of options available, I zeroed in on viewing log files.

I think I need to ban a few IP’s in my firewall based on the login attempts above. View my guide on securing Ubuntu in the cloud.

Done

Webmin has a great section on Ubuntu Users

View User Details

Securing Webmin Configuration then IP Access Control and whitelist your IP address to ensure no one else can view your server (I went to http://icanhazip.com to get my IP address).

I then used the Webmin backup screen to backup my system.

This is great, it is backing up my system 🙂

I used pydf to see how much storage space I have (I am only using 2.65GB but have 17GB available).

Gzip is taking a load of time to backup my system.

I did not need to use (htop) to monitor the CPU, Webmin has a CPU monitor built in.

Webmin also allows you to add users

Beware though you need to assign a user to modules or they won’t be able to do/see much when they login.

If you provide your MySQL root password you can create databases in Webmin under Servers then MySQL Database Server

Loads of database options that I would normally use Adminer for 🙂

File Browser

There is a file browser but (I can’t seem to drag and drop).

Official documentation is found here. I’ll add more to this post as I discover it.

Check out my other posts at www.fearby.com.

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v1.0 Initial Post