Ubuntu

hackers making changes to my Ubuntu installation

Asked by D.W.

When I installed Ubuntu into my computer and downloaded security updates from the server; I later found out that some hacker denied me root/administrator privileges and that the only thing I could have was read only privileges to my computer! I did not even have time to download the firewall from the server to set the firewall rules. I also I found out that I am on the Windows server when I wish to have a secure server and want to know how to configure my computer to go onto a secure server. Also, found out that when installing Ubuntu from the CD it went to a apic setting in which I had to accept the command for a nonapi setting on the CD. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can personally prevent ANYONE from accessing my computer other than disabling any function dealing with remote features? I need to install commands on my computer that would prevent any person or groups from accessing and making changes to my computer.

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Jon Packard (jonpackard) said : 		#1

Thank you for submitting your questions. I will try to break this down into sections.

Administrator access: By default, the root account is locked. A user in the admin group can use sudo to run individual commands as root. Please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo for more info.

File permissions: Most system files are restricted so that a non-root user cannot damage the system. Please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions for more info.

Windows server: By default, Samba server (Windows file sharing for Linux - see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Samba) is not installed in Ubuntu. If you right-click on a folder and select 'Sharing Options" you can easily install and configure a Samaba share. If this is not what you are referring to, please supply more details about what kind of Windows server you are referring to.

APIC: It sounds like your PC boots up just fine so this should be a non-issue. More info on what APIC is can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Programmable_Interrupt_Controller.

Remote access: By default, remote desktop sharing is disabled and openssh-server is not installed. You will find that an Ubuntu system is very secure as long as you do not configure it otherwise or use non-supported applications. A router (firewall) never hurts, but you really don't need to go out of your way to secure Ubuntu. See http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2008/03/28/pwn-to-own-final-day-and-wrap-up for a very entertaining read. Hackers were given the chance to win laptops if they could hack into them (read the contents of a text file on the hard drive with a direct Ethernet connection). Nobody took home the laptop running Ubuntu.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#2

Hi, maybe you can give us a clue on your crossposting?
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/39493

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