In this post, I will explain how to solve this problem by a few tricks.

You need to open the file mountkernfs.sh

# vi /etc/init.d/mountkernfs.sh


Inside this file, look for this line:

domount proc "" /proc proc -onodev,noexec,nosuid


Please insert directly below the line above this following statement. You need to replace xxx with the groupID of the vboxuser. You can find this ID in your /etc/groups file

domount usbfs usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs -onodev,noexec,nosuid,devgid=xxx,devmode=664


Furthermore, open your fstab file:

# vi /etc/fstab


and add this line as the very first statement. Replace xxx like above.

none /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto,busgid=122,busmode=0775,devgid=xxx,devmode=0664 0 0


That’s it. Have a lot of fun. Please don’t hestitate to add any comments to this post.

Change to user root:

# su


Mounting the ISO image to a directory or your choice, for example /mnt

# mount -o loop disk1.iso /mnt


Don’t forget to umount the ISO image after using:

# umount /mnt


More about loop device
A loop device is a virtual network device which makes a file accessible as a block device. Loop devices are typically used for CD ISO images. Mounting a file containing a whole filesystem by a loop mount makes the files within that filesystem accessible. The content of the ISO image appears in the mount point directory using above commands.


localhost:/# su
localhost:/# vmware-uninstall.pl


Or directly by the sudo command:

localhost:/# sudo vmware-uninstall.pl


Don’t forget to delete your images from disk if you want to. Typically the images will be stored in /var/lib


export PS1='\e[0;32m\u\e[0;32m@\h:\e[0;0m\w\e[0;0m$\e[0m '


Just put the lines above in your /etc/profile and in the ~/.bashrc

The color codecs are:

GRAY="\[\033[1;30m\]"
LIGHT_GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]"
CYAN="\[\033[0;36m\]"
LIGHT_CYAN="\[\033[1;36m\]"
NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]"
BLUE="\[\033[0;34m\]"
LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"
RED="\[\033[0;31m\]"
LIGHT_RED="\[\033[1;31m\]"
GREEN="\[\033[0;32m\]"
LIGHT_GREEN="\[\033[1;32m\]"
PURPLE="\[\033[0;35m\]"
LIGHT_PURPLE="\[\033[1;35m\]"
BROWN="\[\033[0;33m\]"
YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]"
BLACK="\[\033[0;30m\]"
WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"


So, it’s not easy to choose an apropriate system. In this article I will present a few free webhosting control panels, which runs on linux. In a future post, I will also present some commercial panels.

• ASM Account Service Manager
• DTC Domain Technology Control
• Web-CP
• SysCP
• VHCS

The ASM (Account Service Manager) project

The ASM project is a nice control panel to serve some relatives or friends. The panel is well sorted and offers the most required features. Because of the styling and layout, I would disadvice that panel for commercial services.

The last activities are long time ago, so I suppose the developer has stopped the project. What a shame.

 
Finding project here: http://www.acctmgr.com/

The DTC (Domain Technology Control) project

This project seems to be more active than the above one. DTC is a nice looking control panel and supports the most required features and is sponsored by at least two companies. It’s advisable for commercial environments.
 
DTC can delegate the task of creating subdomains, email, ssh, database, mailing lists, and FTP accounts to users for the domain names they own.
 
Furthermore you can find a comprehensive wiki and install instructions.

 
Finding project here: http://www.gplhost.com/software-dtc.html

• FTP account management
• htaccess menue
• error page management
• mysql management (create and backup databases) / You can create customer databases only in the serverCP section, but not as customer. phpMyAdmin is available
• SSL management

Maybe there are some more features in the future. The current version is more useful for own website projects on a vserver / dedicated server, than for commercial webhosting control panel.

 
Finding project here: http://www.web-cp.net/

The SysCP project

SysCP and VHCS are the most popular free webhosting control panels. With SysCP I have a lot experience – I’ve used this for a few hundred customers in several environments.
 
SysCP is very flexible an easy to adapt to your own needs. But be carefully, because of update compatibility. The system doesn’t have a template engine and is divided into typical three sections: Admin, Reseller, User.
I can advise the system for commercial use, it’s supports all necessary features.

 

 
Finding project here: http://www.syscp.org/home.html

The VHCS project

VHCS is also an very common control panel and often used in commercial hosting environments. Without any doubt, I can advise this project.
 
The panel contains the three typical sections for admins, resellers and users. In addition to SysCP, VHCS contains an own WebFTP and WebMail interface. The project is well documented.

 
Finding the project here: http://www.vhcs.net/new/

Please feel free to comment any further free control panels or forgotten features if you know.

First thing you need is an appropriate mysql schema that belongs your needs. This is my example:

CREATE TABLE ftp_users (
username varchar(60) binary default NULL,
uid int(11) default NULL,
gid int(11) default NULL,
password varchar(30) default NULL,
homedir varchar(250) default NULL,
count int(11) default NULL,
ui bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
shell varchar(60) default NULL,
last datetime default NULL,
allow char(1) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (ui)
) TYPE=ISAM PACK_KEYS=1;

CREATE TABLE xfer_stat (
username tinytext,
filename text,
size bigint(20) default NULL,
host tinytext,
ip tinytext,
action tinytext,
durability tinytext,
local_time datetime default NULL,
success char(1) default NULL,
ui bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
PRIMARY KEY (ui)
) TYPE=MyISAM;


Be sure to have installed all required linux packages:

apt-get -y install mysql-client-5.0
apt-get -y install mysql-server-5.0
apt-get -y install mysql-common
apt-get -y install proftpd-mysql

Last thing to do is adapting the /etc/proftpd.conf for acessing mysql tables. You will find the lines at end of the configuration file. Please insert your passwords:


DefaultRoot ~
RequireValidShell off

SQLAuthTypes Plaintext Crypt
SQLAuthenticate users* groups*
SQLConnectInfo mysqluser@127.0.0.1 mysqluser mysqlpassword
SQLUserInfo ftp_users username password uid gid homedir shell
SQLGroupInfo ftp_groups groupname gid members
SQLUserWhereClause "login_enabled = 'Y'"

SQLLogFile /var/log/ftp/proftpd.sql.log

SQLLog PASS login
SQLNamedQuery login UPDATE "last_login=now(), login_count=login_count+1 WHERE username='%u'" ftp_users

SQLLog RETR download
SQLNamedQuery download UPDATE "down_count=down_count+1, down_bytes=down_bytes+%b WHERE username='%u'" ftp_users

SQLLog STOR upload
SQLNamedQuery upload UPDATE "up_count=up_count+1, up_bytes=up_bytes+%b WHERE username='%u'" ftp_users


Helpful link:
http://www.proftpd.de/HowTo-SQL.29.0.html

The message will be shown prompltly after authentification:

To get these basic messages, just put it into /etc/motd (and in /etc/motd.tail for Debian and Ubuntu). For example the /etc/motd:

_______________________________________________________
WELCOME TO LOCALHOST

[localhost.org] FILE SERVER
To start or stop fileserver:
/etc/init.d/nfsd start/stop


Finding ascii art at:
http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/index2.shtml
http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/def/demon.txt

Open your /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Changing the port:

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See sshd(8)
# for more information.

# change the port configuration – for example to 2233
Port 2233
Protocol 2

And blocking user root

#
PermitRootLogin without-password
PermitRootLogin no
#

You need to restart the sshd script with /etc/init.d/sshd restart Please stay logged in as root, before you’ve tested the new ssh – connect with a second console.

Now create an user account with lower permissions than root. Use this account to connect your server via ssh, followed by the “su” command to get root permissions.


useradd -u 999 -g 100 remotessh -d /home/remotessh -s /bin/bash


Connecting your server with the new port:

ssh -P 2233 yourserver.com -l remotessh


Setting up a firewall with iptables to improve systems security will bei shown in this article

Helpful links:

• Using keychains to avoid typing passwords again and again.
  http://blog.synatic.net/2008/3/29/easy-ssh-authentication-with-keychain.
• A nice how-to for creating strong passwords:
  http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/06/the-ultimate-guide-for-creating-strong-passwords/

First thing to do is installing neccessary packages, for Ubuntu / Debian:
apt-get update
apt-get install iptables

When the package is installed, create a file inside /etc/init.d/ called iptables (or whatever you want). Copy paste the lines below into.


########################################
#!/bin/sh
# iptables start/stop script
# location /etc/init.d/iptables
########################################

if ! [ -x $TABLEBIN ]; then
echo "IPTABLES does not exists"
exit 0
fi


With the INPUT/OUTPUT section, you’re able to define your services like http or smtp for remote access. Chmod file to 755 and ensure root to be the owner.


chmod 755 /etc/init.d/iptables
chown root:root /etc/init.d/iptables

Check and try the script. If iptables isn’t installed correctly, you wil get an error statement. Next step, calling iptables statements. Append following lines into the iptables script:


#
# start firewall
#
fw_start ()
{
# deny all
$TABLEBIN -P INPUT DROP
$TABLEBIN -P OUTPUT DROP
# common
$TABLEBIN -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
$TABLEBIN -A OUTPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

if [ -n "$OUT_UDP_SERVICES" ] ; then
for PORT in $OUT_UDP_SERVICES; do
$TABLEBIN -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport ${PORT} -j ACCEPT
done
fi
}


The ssh port is binded to another one, because of improving security.
The last step to complete the script is the stopping call:


#
# stop firewall
#
fw_stop ()
{
$TABLEBIN -F
$TABLEBIN -t nat -F
$TABLEBIN -t mangle -F
$TABLEBIN -P INPUT ACCEPT
$TABLEBIN -P FORWARD ACCEPT
$TABLEBIN -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
}

case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "starting firewall.."
fw_stop
fw_start
echo "done."
;;
stop)
echo -n "stopping firewall.."
fw_stop
echo "done."
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0


Now you start your iptables script with
/etc/init.d/iptables start
/etc/init.d/iptables stop

To start the script on booting process, put into the runlevel configuration (Debian/Ubuntu):


update-rc.d timWall start 40 S . stop 89 0 6 .


Be careful!! Test it before manually, because you could block yourself out of the system. Firewall architecture with a DMZ:

Source: http://www.basic-security.com/MEDIA/US/RESEAU-DMZ.jpg

Useful links:

• (iptables – Die Firewall des Kernel 2.4 von Wolfgang Kinkeldei)
  http://www.pro-linux.de/NB3/artikel/2/print/761/6,6iptables-die-firewall-des-kernels-24.html
• (iptables script generator from Tarjei Mandt)
  http://www.mista.nu/iptables/