Setting up my new Server - First Steps

Setting up my new Server - First Steps

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I was migrating my current server to a new one + ofc distro change from debian to arch.

Switching from debian to arch on production is highly debatable :D esp for security patches and staying bleeding edge isn't really a normal approach to ensure a calm life.

Also arch tends to solve things in a different way, often even more plain 'linux' than debian or ubuntu. What I mean by that, is that if you want for example run gitlab on arch, you have to build it to some degree from scratch, since they embed it into the default architecture.

This also means they register some processes with systemd and not within the 'gitlab' command system.

So the things I had to do:

  • dovecot + postfix + postfixadmin + letsencrypt - for mails
  • haproxy + nginx + letsencrypt for http
  • nextcloud + pgsql for my 'easy cloud'
  • netdata for monitoring
  • seafile + seahub + sqlite for my 'data sharing'
  • nftables + fail2ban for security
  • openvpn for deployments to other systems
  • gitlab, gitlab-runner for my ticketing, CI/CD
  • mysql, php, rust, python, go, ruby, gcc, git for basic development / build purposes
  • matrix as chat server to get rid of slack

In this blogpost I will just cover my

  • Haproxy + nginx + letsencrypt setup
  • netdata
  • nftables + fail2ban

and even that only in a superficial manner it takes a lot of time and research to build a 'relative' save system and actually I would have to add selinux etc to it.

My basics

first I installed my defaults for every system

pacman -S htop vim strace glances
  • htop is my default process management tool.
  • glances is a new one I am testing at the moment
  • vim is my default editor
  • strace is my default 'lets look what's happening tool'

with these tools I can start building the rest.

HTTP Servers / Proxy / TLS Authority

pacman -S nginx haproxy certbot

systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable haproxy
systemctl start haproxy

I prefer the debian architecture using symlinks in the sites-available / sites-enabled structure.

so I enabled it in nginx by creating the two folders in /etc/nginx

mkdir /etc/nginx/sites-available
mkdir /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

by simply adding

http {
 .....
 include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

in the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

I can now just disable and enable webpages by creating the config in sites-available and use a symbolic link to 'enable' them in sites-enabled

next is my haproxy config

global
    log /dev/log    local0
    log /dev/log    local1 notice
    stats socket /run/haproxy/admin.sock mode 660 level admin
    stats timeout 30s
    user haproxy
    group haproxy
    daemon
    maxconn 50000

    ssl-default-bind-options no-sslv3 no-tls-tickets force-tlsv12
    ssl-default-bind-ciphers EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM
    tune.ssl.default-dh-param 2048

defaults
    log    global
    mode    http
    option  contstats
    option  http-server-close

    option    httplog
    option    dontlognull
    timeout connect 5000
    timeout client  50000
    timeout server  50000
    errorfile 400 /etc/haproxy/errors/400.http
    errorfile 403 /etc/haproxy/errors/403.http
    errorfile 408 /etc/haproxy/errors/408.http
    errorfile 500 /etc/haproxy/errors/500.http
    errorfile 502 /etc/haproxy/errors/502.http
    errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/errors/503.http
    errorfile 504 /etc/haproxy/errors/504.http
    stats enable
    stats uri /haproxy?show
    stats realm Strictly\ Private
    stats auth user:password

userlist basic-auth-list
    group is-regular-user
    group is-admin

    user <myuser> password <my-passwordhash> groups is-admin

frontend http
    bind *:80
    default_backend example-nginx-http
    mode http
    option forwardfor
    option http-server-close
    option httpclose

    acl host_gitlab hdr(host) -i gitlab.example.com
    acl host_nextcloud hdr(host) -i nextcloud.example.com
    acl host_netdata hdr(host) -i netdata.example.com
    acl host_postfixadmin hdr(host) -i postfixadmin.example.com

    redirect scheme https code 301 if { hdr(Host) -i gitlab.example.com } !{ ssl_fc }
    redirect scheme https code 301 if { hdr(Host) -i netdata.example.com } !{ ssl_fc }
    redirect scheme https code 301 if { hdr(Host) -i postfixadmin.example.com } !{ ssl_fc }
    redirect scheme https code 301 if { hdr(Host) -i nextcloud.example.com } !{ ssl_fc }

    acl letsencrypt-acl path_beg /.well-known/acme-challenge/
    use_backend letsencrypt-backend if letsencrypt-acl


frontend https
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/haproxy/ssl/a-cert.pem 
    option httplog
    option forwardfor
    option http-server-close
    option httpclose

    acl host_gitlab hdr(host) -i gitlab.example.com
    acl host_netdata hdr(host) -i netdata.example.com

    acl letsencrypt-acl path_beg /.well-known/acme-challenge/
    use_backend letsencrypt-backend if letsencrypt-acl

    use_backend gitlab-nginx-https if host_gitlab
    use_backend netdata-https if host_netdata

    default_backend example-nginx-http

backend netdata-https
    acl devops-auth http_auth_group(basic-auth-list) is-admin
    http-request auth realm devops unless devops-auth
    server netdata 0.0.0.0:19999 maxconn 1000

backend letsencrypt-backend
    server letsencrypt 0.0.0.0:8888

backend example-nginx-http
    balance leastconn
    option httpclose
    option forwardfor
    # server pool
    server example-nginx 0.0.0.0:8089 check

backend example-nginx-https
    balance leastconn
    option httpclose
    option forwardfor
    option httplog
    option abortonclose

    server example-nginx-tls 0.0.0.0:8444 check ssl verify none

backend gitlab-nginx-https
    balance leastconn
    option httpclose
    option forwardfor
    option httplog
    option abortonclose

    # server pool
    server nginx1 0.0.0.0:8443 check ssl verify none

I prefer haproxy to nginx as a proxy simply because

  • a) I am used to it
  • b) nginx has less options for loadbalancing

it's more of a taste question on my level of performance and system load

I added some acls for my netdata so not everyone can look at my server stats and in theory it would allow me to match acls with frontends on a more global level. But for me this is good enough.

userlist basic-auth-list
    group is-regular-user
    group is-admin

    user <myuser> password <my-passwordhash> groups is-admin

backend netdata-https
    acl devops-auth http_auth_group(basic-auth-list) is-admin
    http-request auth realm devops unless devops-auth
    server netdata 0.0.0.0:19999 maxconn 1000

Also since i only send to local internal sockets I didn't care that much of encrypting the proxy forwards from haproxy to my nginx or other systems. (on a production system with multiple server endpoints it's a must!) also I should point out that actually just fowarding tcp for SSL if you don't need any package matches, above level 4 OSI, makes actually more sense.

in this case I just like my SSL certs in one place.

the clause

frontend http
...
    acl letsencrypt-acl path_beg /.well-known/acme-challenge/
    use_backend letsencrypt-backend if letsencrypt-acl
... 

frontend https
...
    acl letsencrypt-acl path_beg /.well-known/acme-challenge/
    use_backend letsencrypt-backend if letsencrypt-acl
....

backend letsencrypt-backend
    server letsencrypt 0.0.0.0:8888

allows me to refresh all certs via lets encrypt

sudo certbot certonly --standalone --preferred-challenges http -d test.example.com --http-01-port=8888

I could go in details about security headers etc but that would be to much I guess.

for more information please look here:

so I got my

  • haproxy + nginx + letsencrypt running

as you can see I already added my netdata endpoint as well.

Installing netdata

pacman -S netdata
systemctl enable netdata
systemctl start netdata

that's actually it ;D ... now I can realtime monitor my server github.com/netdata/netdata

actually I should add something like Icinga as well for better monitoring since Icinga can be easily integrated with a push client or send emails to notify you about problems. It's on my todo list.

fail2ban

fail2ban is a basic bruteforce protection every IP that failed a certain amount of time at a registered 'jail' service will be blocked for a certain amount of time.

pacman -S fail2ban
systemctl enable fail2ban

per default in arch nothing is enabled so we need to change the config file

vim /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf

the number 1 attack vector is ssh (we also will enable key only) but more later

we add the following line to the sshd

[sshd]
.....
enabled = true
.....

and start the service

systemctl start fail2ban

nftables

pacman -S nftables
systemctl enable nftables
systemctl start nftables

we now can look at our current active rules

nft list tables

my configuration is as follows

lush ruleset

table inet filter {
    chain input {
        type filter hook input priority 0; policy drop;

        # established/related connections
        ct state established,related accept

        # invalid connections
        ct state invalid drop

        # loopback interface
        iif lo accept

        # ICMP & IGMP
        ip6 nexthdr icmpv6 icmpv6 type { destination-unreachable, packet-too-big, time-exceeded, parameter-problem, mld-listener-query, mld-listener-report, mld-listener-reduction, nd-router-solicit, nd-router-advert, nd-neighbor-solicit, nd-neighbor-advert, ind-neighbor-solicit, ind-neighbor-advert, mld2-listener-report } accept
        ip protocol icmp icmp type { destination-unreachable, router-solicitation, router-advertisement, time-exceeded, parameter-problem } accept
        ip protocol igmp accept

        # SSH (port 22)
        tcp dport ssh accept

        # HTTP (ports 80 & 443)
        tcp dport { http, https } accept
        tcp dport 25 accept
        tcp dport 465 accept
        tcp dport 143 accept
        tcp dport 8888 accept
    }

    chain forward {
        type filter hook forward priority 0; policy drop;
    }

    chain output {
        type filter hook output priority 0; policy accept;
    }

}

important is that I block certain ICMP and IGMP packages

ip6 nexthdr icmpv6 icmpv6 type { destination-unreachable, packet-too-big, time-exceeded, parameter-problem, mld-listener-query, mld-listener-report, mld-listener-reduction, nd-router-solicit, nd-router-advert, nd-neighbor-solicit, nd-neighbor-advert, ind-neighbor-solicit, ind-neighbor-advert, mld2-listener-report } accept
        ip protocol icmp icmp type { destination-unreachable, router-solicitation, router-advertisement, time-exceeded, parameter-problem } accept
        ip protocol igmp accept

so for example you cannot ping my server and portscans etc are harder on my machine. Because if you don't use the right ports and packages .... it won't even respond.

for my basic services

        tcp dport ssh accept
        tcp dport { http, https } accept
        tcp dport 25 accept
        tcp dport 465 accept
        tcp dport 143 accept
        tcp dport 8888 accept

I accept the following external port connections.

ssh: 22
http: 80, 443
mail: 25, 465, 143
letsencrypt: 8888

so my databases, etc ares not exposed. most of my services run with different internal ports and are accessible via haproxy.

I have to do more security hardening but as an initial layer this seams okay.