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Understanding Red Hat Server Hardening – RH413

Posted on March 15, 2014

Ever since Red Hat announced the discontinuation of the well-in-demand certificates, EX423 (Directory Services) and EX333 (Network Security) on December 31 2013, along with the official phase out of RHCSS certification program on February 28 2014, we have seen plenty of professionals curious to know what has happened to the security certification line of Red Hat training services, and what is new with the new RH413 – Server Hardening expertise certificate.

IPSR Trainers Lead, Mr. Sanju Raj, who is an RHCA himself prepares to explain the story behind –

“As we all believe, it is a pity that RH423 and RHS333 has vanished. However, what is new is amazing. The following contents has been merged from the super certificates EX423 & EX333 to form the new Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Server Hardening – EX413” :-

i) Firewall configuration (RHS333).
ii) Cryptography (RHS333) – Building of CA, CSR, CRT.
iii) Identity Management (IdM) Server (RHS333 & RH423) – Kerberos.
iv) System Logging (RHS333)
v) PAM (RH423 & RHS333)
vi) Monitoring for File System Changes (RHS333)

What is new in RH413? :-

i) CVEs and Errata
ii) Pro-active thinking required for Security Updates
iii) Package Validity for Integrity and Scripts
iv) Encrypted Partitions – for Secure Access
v) Permissions to the filesystem and their impacts (SUID, SGID, Stickybit)
vi) Auditing the user accounts
vii) Security to Gnome Desktop Environment
viii) Sudo privileges
ix) Auditing the system (This has been from the RHS429 – SE Linux Policy Administration)

RH413 seems to be very neat along the security line. Having been in the training delivery for over 15 years now, we must tell you, this module is certain to test your system administration skills to a fair bit. Good Luck!

IPSR has already delivered 5 training batches, and 25 examinations for Red Hat Server Hardening since December last year. Please feel free to write to bootcamps@ipsr.org or check out our regular schedules at EXAM SCHEDULES