LINUX FUNDAMENTALS -
Many servers and security tools use Linux. Learn how to use the Linux
operating system, a critical skill in cyber security.
What Is SSH (Secure Shell)?
Secure Shell or SSH simply is a protocol between devices in an encrypted form. Using
cryptography, any input we send in a human-readable format is encrypted for travelling
over a network -- where it is then unencrypted once it reaches the remote machine.
Common Directories:
1. /etc
Location: Found directly under the root / directory.
Purpose: Stores system configuration files (e.g., user permissions, network
settings).
2. /var
Location: /var — under root.
Purpose: Contains variable data like logs, mail, and databases that change
frequently.
3. /root
Location: /root — not to be confused with /home.
Purpose: It's the home directory of the root user (administrator).
4. /tmp
Location: /tmp — under root.
Purpose: Stores temporary files. Data here is deleted on reboot. Useful for short-
lived storage.
Managing Processes:
You can send signals that terminate processes; there are a variety of types of signals
that correlate to exactly how "cleanly" the process is dealt with by the kernel. To kill a
command, we can use the appropriately named kill command and the associated PID
that we wish to kill. i.e., to kill PID 1337, we'd use kill 1337.
Below are some of the signals that we can send to a process when it is killed:
- SIGTERM - Kill the process, but allow it to do some cleanup tasks beforehand
- SIGKILL - Kill the process - doesn't do any cleanup after the fact
- SIGSTOP - Stop/suspend a process
Maintaining Your System - Automation:
Users may want to schedule a certain action or task to take place after the system has
booted. Take, for example, running commands, backing up files, or launching your
favourite programs on, such as Spotify or Google Chrome.
We're going to be talking about the cron process, but more specifically, how we can
interact with it via the use of crontabs . Crontab is one of the processes that is started
during boot, which is responsible for facilitating and managing cron jobs.
A crontab is simply a special file with formatting that is recognised by the cron process
to execute each line step-by-step. Crontabs require 6 specific values:
Value Description
MIN What minute to execute at
HOUR What hour to execute at
DOM What day of the month to execute at
MON What month of the year to execute at
DOW What day of the week to execute at
The actual command that will be
CMD
executed
An interesting feature of crontabs is that these also support the wildcard or asterisk (*).
Crontabs can be edited by using crontab -e, where you can select an editor (such as
Nano) to edit your crontab.
