Re: which distribution to choose

Göran Sandahl <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.security.linux
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi Jochen.

> My question is, which distribution to choose for such a
> setup.

I would recommend for you to run Debian, http://www.debian.org. 
The services you mention are no problem to have running on a Debian-box, and 
there are lots of documents on how to further secure a Debian-installation. 

> I would prefer a standard distribution for easy updates and
> community support. 

This _is_ Debian you are talking about. I would say it has the strongest 
community and I have never ever failed to get support. The ways to go are 
either joining Debian-mailing-lists, hanging in Debians irc-channels or of 
course, use google. When it comes to updates, this is too one of Debian 
strong points. Using the package-manager APT is easy for new users but can 
also be advanced if you are in need for that.

> A specific "security-enhanced" distribution would do it 
> also, if it is not too "pure" :)

Applying security-patches to the kernel and hardening Debian and its services 
should be enough to call it "secure". Im not familiar with any 
"security-enhanced" distribution, that also run the services you request. 
Often these boxes are built for one purpose, like firewalling or routing etc. 

This is just my 2 cents.. 
Hope it helps :)

Cheers 
Göran


On Thursday 02 December 2004 17.31, Jochen Witte wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I would like to set up a firewall to protect a small company network. What
> I would like to have is some kind of VPN solution (OpenVPN and ipsec),
> iptables firewalling and a secure distribution with some additional
> sec-related sofware (tripwire etc.). Also I need to run an Apache for
> proxy-requests.
>
> My question is, which distribution to choose for such a
> setup. I would prefer a standard distribution for easy updates and
> community support. A specific "security-enhanced" distribution would do it
> also, if it is not too "pure" :)
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Regards
> Jochen

-- 
Göran Sandahl
location:    stockholm, sweden
mail:        [email protected]
web:         http://gsandahl.net
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