Plans for next generation linux desktop support.
Desktop Linux Distributions supported at SLAC
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, codename "Xenial Xerus"
Long term support (LTS) releases are for 5 years.
- 16.04 = YY.MM of release date (released April 2016)
- End of Life date is April 2021
It is possible to upgrade (complete reinstall not required) from one LTS distro to the next (eg, 14.04 -> 16.04)
- CentOS 7
- 10 year support lifetime
- End of Life date is June 2024
- Red Hat sponsors the CentOS project: in 2014 CentOS officially joined forces with Red Hat
Desktop Linux Authentication Configuration
- Windows Active Directory will be used for authentication
- This aligns with the SCS long term plan to reduce dependence on Unix Heimdal Kerberos
Security Services/Features needed, based on SLAC MinSec
These will be configured using Chef Configuration Management and Compliance scanning/reporting
- Anti-virus Software
- Install and configure ClamAV (optional, since not in moderate enclave)
- Application Patches
- Configure automatic updates for Applications via apt/yum config
- Authentication
- Global account authentication policy handled by Active Directory
- Use Chef Compliance to scan for any enabled insecure protocols such as telnet and ftp
- Logging
- Configure syslog to log to central syslog server, and enable logging locally to /var/log/everything
- Network Services
- Check for inappropriate network services via Chef Compliance
- Operating System Patches
- Configure automatic updates for OS patches via apt/yum
- Passwords
- Configure local password quality checks and policies (expiration time, etc) according to SLAC password policy
- Global account password policy handled by Active Directory
- Baseline Security Configuration
- CIS Level 1 Workstation Profile will be used (modified where appropriate)
- Chef Compliance scanning can report on compliance level for our baseline
- PDFs are available for the CIS Benchmarks for Ubuntu 16.04 and CentOS 7
- Training
- No additional changes needed (same SLAC Training Assignments are required)
- Security Scanning
- Local scanner account will be enabled to allow authenticated Nessus scans by Cyber Security team
- Banner
- The SLAC DOE login banner will be configured
- The SLAC DOE login banner will be configured
Additional Operating System Configuration needed
These will be configured using Chef Configuration Management and Compliance scanning/reporting
- NTP client
- DNS client
- logrotate
- mailgateway (mail client)
- sudo
- shells
- unixadmins (sets up unix-admin logins and scanner account)
- root (manage root password and root home environment)
Reference Documents
Published SLAC Policies and Governance SLAC Controlled Documents page:
https://docs.slac.stanford.edu/sites/pub/Pages/SLAC_Policies.aspxMinimum Security Requirements for Computing
https://docs.slac.stanford.edu/sites/pub/Publications/701-I02-001-00_Min_Sec_Req_for_Comp.pdfConfiguration Management Procedures in the SCS twiki:
https://novel.slac.stanford.edu/twiki/bin/view/SCCS/ConfigurationManagementSLAC Password Policy
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/computing/security/password/passwordpolicy.htmCIS Benchmarks
CIS_Ubuntu_Linux_16.04_LTS_Benchmark_v1.0.0.pdf
CIS_CentOS_Linux_7_Benchmark_v2.1.1.pdf
CIS_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_7_Benchmark_v2.1.1.pdf
CIS_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_6_Benchmark_v2.0.2.pdf
CIS_CentOS_Linux_6_Benchmark_v2.0.2.pdf