Apache Server Setting Mistakes Can Aid Hackers

This article from Michael J. Schwartz on InfomationWeek titled Apache Server Setting Mistakes Can Aid Hackers

According to a study of 10 million websites released last week, more than 2,000 sites -- including big-name businesses such as Cisco, Ford and Staples -- have left the status pages for their Apache servers visible, which could give attackers information that would help them penetrate corporate networks.
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According to Apache documentation, the Apache mod_status module "allows a server administrator to find out how well their server is performing," via an HTML page that delivers up-to-date server statistics. "It is basically an HTML page that displays the number of [processes] working, status of each request, IP addresses that are visiting the site, pages that are being queried and things like that. All good," said Cid in a related blog post. 

"However, this feature can also have security implications if you leave it wide open to the world. Anyone would be able to see who is visiting the site, the URLs and sometimes even find hidden -- obscure -- admin panels or files that should not be visible to the outside," he said. "That can help attackers easily find more information about these environments and use them for more complex attacks." 

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For more information, I encourage to read the full article on Apache Server Setting Mistakes Can Aid Hackers

Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 6

This tutorial is very similar to Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 5 and the steps are very similar for CentOS 6 except that the tcl/tk 8.5.x used in CentOS repository does not have tclConfig.sh which is needed when you compile the Modules packages. I used 8.4.x which is similar to the version used in the CentOS 5 repository. You can use more more updated version of tcl.

See Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 6.

Further Information

1. Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 5
2. Usage of Environment Modules on CentOS and in Cluster

Usage of Environment Modules on CentOS and in Cluster

This is the 2nd Part continuation of Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 5


In the write-up, Usage of Environment Modules on CentOS and in Cluster, Basic Usage of Module commands like module avail, module load, module unload and module switch.

Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 5

Here a short tutorial on how to install and configure Environmental Modules on CentOS. See
Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 5 for more details.
In the short tutorial,  I have document steps how to

1. Tools of managing User Environment in Linux
2. Unpacking, Installing and Configure Environment Modules. The Environment Modules Package can be taken from Environment Modules Project
3. Creating a sample Module File for Intel Compilers

Tools of managing User Environment in Linux

As far as I know there are 2 tools used to manage the environment.

1. One tool is SoftEnv Manual

• Softenv is a system used to build the user's environment. Each user has a ".soft" file in which they specify groups of applications that they're interested in. Softenv reads a central database when necessary to update the user's PATH, MANPATH and other variables. This version of SoftEnv is currently being used at MCS. 
• Current version 1.6.2. The last time it was updated is 12 March 2007
• Download Site - Sotftenv

2. The other tool is Modules - Software Environment Management

• The Environment Modules package provides for the dynamic modification of a user's environment via modulefiles.
  
  Each modulefile contains the information needed to configure the shell for an application. Once the Modules package is initialized, the environment can be modified on a per-module basis using the module command which interprets modulefiles. Typically modulefiles instruct the module command to alter or set shell environment variables such as PATH, MANPATH, etc. modulefiles may be shared by many users on a system and users may have their own collection to supplement or replace the shared modulefiles. 
• Current Version modules-3.2.9c. The last update was 19th Nov 2011
• Download Site - Environment Modules

Further Information

• Module vs SoftEnv
• Installing and Configuring Environment Modules on CentOS 5
• Usage of Environment Modules on CentOS and in Cluster