I went through the article and then read every single post on this thread. I am not a security expert so I won't even try to contribute except to say that I se

I went through the article and then read every single post on this thread. I am not a security expert so I won't even try to contribute except to say that I see a lot of people offering criticism without taking the extra step of explaining how they would go about hardening a fresh Linux install (or a pile-o-servers in a rack, whatever is applicable). It'd sure be nice for those of us who are not security experts to read alternative approaches rather than, paraphrasing and not picking on anyone, "using a firewall is dumb" or "blocking ssh is pointless". I like isolated ideas such as using a script to completely automate the provisioning of new boxes. Kind of a no-brainer if you ask me. The problem is that such recommendations are not followed by something like "Here's the script I use on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS". How about it guys? Would you care to attempt to produce a canonical HN "How to harden your server" reference? Maybe one of the security experts on HN can start a repository on Github to evolve a canonical script. I'm pretty much 100% Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, so it is my hope that this is one of the platforms that is addressed. I did some looking around and this is what I found (I am in no position to evaluate the merits of any of these at anything beyond an intermediate level): https://github.com/bluedragonz/server-shield https://github.com/bluedragonz/server-shield https://github.com/eglimi/linux_hardening https://github.com/eglimi/linux_hardening http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-security.html http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-security.html http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1002167 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1002167 http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how-secure-ubuntu-1204-lts-server-part-1-basics http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how-secure-ubuntu-1204-lt... http://www.andrewault.net/2010/05/17/securing-an-ubuntu-server/ http://www.andrewault.net/2010/05/17/securing-an-ubuntu-serv... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1919111 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1919111 https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/security.html https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/security.html http://www.sans.org/score/checklists/linuxchecklist.pdf http://www.sans.org/score/checklists/linuxchecklist.pdf http://nvd.nist.gov/scap/content/stylesheet/scap-rhel5-document.htm http://nvd.nist.gov/scap/content/stylesheet/scap-rhel5-docum... http://blogs.csoonline.com/ubuntu_lts_vulnerability_scrub_against_national_vulnerability_database_nvd_nist_gov http://blogs.csoonline.com/ubuntu_lts_vulnerability_scrub_ag... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=510812 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=510812