CentOS5 and PHP52 upgrade rpms

We encounter many scenarios where using the latest version of PHP is required. No great way, aside from downloading the PHP5 source and compiling, is available. That is, until you discover then IUS Community Project.

Great security and auditing resource for your network

The Center for Internet Security  has a great list of security configuration and audit guidelines.
A great resource comprised of 40+ consensus Security Configuration Benchmarks for Operating Systems, Middleware, Software Applications and Network Devices.
The Benchmarks are:

Recommended technical control rules/values for hardening operating systems, middleware and software applications, and network devices;
Unique, because the recommendations are defined via [...]

Securing your Linux server

We deal with security related issues nearly every day. Many of these issues could be prevented with a few minor changes to php.ini along with the installation of mod_security. It is simply amazing how many machines are hacked, and then used for the sole purpose of sending spam, denial of service (DoS) attacks or [...]

HTTP to HTTPS via mod_rewrite

To redirect a website from http -> https I utilized mod_rewrite. And created a .htaccess file with the following contents.
$ cat .htaccess
Options FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://your_server.com/$1
This can be useful if you need to ensure all access to your site, is done via HTTPS.

Removing a passphrase from an SSL Key

The typical process for creating an SSL certificate is as follows:
# openssl genrsa -des3 -out www.key 2048
Note: When creating the key, you can avoid entering the initial passphrase altogether using:
# openssl genrsa -out www.key 2048
At this point it is asking for a PASS PHRASE (which I will describe how to remove):
Enter pass phrase [...]