My first times today:
First time a droplet on Digital Ocean.
First time Nginx.
First time trying to separate mail and website servers.
First time using UFW firewall.
First time Ubuntu webserver.
First try all alone configuration of my webserver.
First time installing all the stuff I need on my own, like MySQL, PHP and so on.
First time only SSH access from the beginning.
First time deployment from bitbucket.

Do you have any advise what I should think about. Or what software I will need. Or what I should think about.

First time trying uncomplicated firewall (ufw) on Linux

Why did no one ever tell me configuring a fire wall was this easy

Why the fuck did i set UFW default outgoing to deny?

I deployed docker on a VPS a few weeks ago as a sort of learning experience since I haven't really worked with containers much before. Today I learned that docker doesn't like firewalls.

Or, to be more specific, it adds rules to iptables that are applied prior to ufw rules, allowing external connections that I really didn't want to allow. If I don't explicitly specify that a port is to be published only to localhost, then it punches a hole through my firewall without telling me.

Which means that all of my containers running behind an nginx reverse proxy that auto-redirects to HTTPS... were also accessible directly via HTTP.

I'm... trying to think of a reason why this kind of default behavior was a good idea, but I'm drawing a blank.

Fucking Docker.

Hi guys, i have a serious question

I have added port 22777 to UFW to allow ssh through that port then i notice that it wouldn't work, after some time wasting, i added the same rule to iptables, then it worked, why do I have to add the same rules here and there twice? Is Ufw just a decorative app? WTF is going on? How to get rid of iptables and use only ufw? why should i allow the port twice, I need your answers please

Dev sin: when you're too lazy to configure ufw (uncomplicated firewall) so you just shut it down instead 😓

Goddammit,
today, my laptop crashed while shutting down.
I just switched it in again, and boom, Hostname-Resolution isn't working anymore.
I also already checked UFW, iptables and the hosts-file.
Guess I'll reinstall it tomorrow.

I've been wondering about renting a new VPS to get all my websites sorted out again. I am tired of shared hosting and I am able to manage it as I've been in the past.

With so many great people here, I was trying to put together some of the best practices and resources on how to handle the setup and configuration of a new machine, and I hope this post may help someone while trying to gather the best know-how in the comments. Don't be scared by the lengthy post, please.

The following tips are mainly from @Condor, @Noob, @Linuxxx and some other were gathered in the webz. Thanks for @Linux for recommending me Vultr VPS. I would appreciate further feedback from the community on how to improve this and/or change anything that may seem incorrect or should be done in better way.

1. Clean install CentOS 7 or Ubuntu (I am used to both, do you recommend more? Why?)
2. Install existing updates
3. Disable root login
4. Disable password for ssh
5. RSA key login with strong passwords/passphrases
6. Set correct locale and correct timezone (if different from default)
7. Close all ports
8. Disable and delete unneeded services
9. Install CSF
10. Install knockd (is it worth it at all? Isn't it security through obscurity?)
11. Install Fail2Ban (worth to install side by side with CSF? If not, why?)
12. Install ufw firewall (or keep with CSF/Fail2Ban? Why?)
13. Install rkhunter
14. Install anti-rootkit software (side by side with rkhunter?) (SELinux or AppArmor? Why?)
15. Enable Nginx/CSF rate limiting against SYN attacks
16. For a server to be public, is an IDS / IPS recommended? If so, which and why?
17. Log Injection Attacks in Application Layer - I should keep an eye on them. Is there any tool to help scanning?

If I want to have a server that serves multiple websites, would you add/change anything to the following?
18. Install Docker and manage separate instances with a Dockerfile powered base image with the following? Or should I keep all the servers in one main installation?
19. Install Nginx
20. Install PHP-FPM
21. Install PHP7
22. Install Memcached
23. Install MariaDB
24. Install phpMyAdmin (On specific port? Any recommendations here?)

I am sorry if this is somewhat lengthy, but I hope it may get better and be a good starting guide for a new server setup (eventually become a repo). Feel free to contribute in the comments.

Here's your Friday fun fact!

Too lazy to look up your current public IP?

ufw allow from `echo $SSH_CLIENT | awk '{ print $1}'` to any port 8080

A lifesaver for opening up the firewall when I'm too lazy to look the public IP of the coffee shop I'm at.