Hi sifus here, this is like my first post at this section


Wanna get some advice from the pros here, I'm a computing security student and will start my FYP soon.
There's some questions I need to clarify first before submitting the idea.

1. Given months of time, will I be able to learn and compile one hardened linux on my own?
2. For hardening linux, which distribution is recommended to used? openBSD?

I have zero knowledge on linux coding environment, just played with ubuntu before only. Much appreciated for any advice from you guys.

openBSD is a unix-based operating system. If you'd like to choose a Linux distro, i would suggest ubuntu for a starter.

1. as in making a complete distro? hardening an existing distro is possible, but making a complete distro, that's another level. hardening is not that hard if you have all your basics nailed (network and OS security). but making a entire distro requires more knowledge and hard work. i'm not saying it's impossible, it requires experience and that can't really be gained with only a few months of experience, unless you're a genius.

2. all distros can be hardened and BSDs are not linux.

i'd say nail your basic CLI and functionality 1st. there's a lot to be learned. don't just jump over the fence and try to go overboard. if you don't know how an engine works, how can you make a car?

gentoo or sabayon for starter.
slackware if u have noting better to do.
u want easy ? remaster linux mint. mint better than ubuntu.

Thanks for the info guys, will just hardened an existing distro, making a whole new one is not in my capability.

it quite easy to create a distro with revisor

http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Crea...on-101164.shtml


recompile the kernel is also not that hard

http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_fedora

the hard part is building a harden linux from source

but there is also guide for that

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hlfs/view/...-2.6/index.html



This post has been edited by robertngo: Jul 1 2009, 08:52 PM

if you have zero or little knowledge,read the basic first.dont read too hard

http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/