Skip to content

External Resources

Curated list of authoritative resources for Ubuntu Server security and administration.

Official Ubuntu Resources

Canonical/Ubuntu

Resource URL Description
Ubuntu Server Guide https://ubuntu.com/server/docs Official documentation
Ubuntu Security https://ubuntu.com/security Security notices and tools
Ubuntu Pro https://ubuntu.com/pro Extended security and Livepatch
Ubuntu CVE Tracker https://ubuntu.com/security/cves Vulnerability database
Launchpad https://launchpad.net/ubuntu Bug tracking and packages
Ubuntu Wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com Community documentation
Ubuntu Discourse https://discourse.ubuntu.com Community forums

Security Notices

Resource URL Description
USN https://ubuntu.com/security/notices Ubuntu Security Notices
Ubuntu Security Podcast https://ubuntusecuritypodcast.org Weekly security updates

Security Standards and Benchmarks

CIS (Center for Internet Security)

Resource URL Description
CIS Benchmarks https://www.cisecurity.org/benchmark/ubuntu_linux Ubuntu hardening guide
CIS Controls https://www.cisecurity.org/controls Security best practices
CIS-CAT https://www.cisecurity.org/cybersecurity-tools/cis-cat-pro Assessment tool

NIST

Resource URL Description
NIST CSF https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework Cybersecurity Framework
SP 800-123 https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-123/final Server Security Guide
SP 800-53 https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-53/rev-5/final Security Controls
NVD https://nvd.nist.gov National Vulnerability Database

DISA STIGs

Resource URL Description
DISA STIGs https://public.cyber.mil/stigs/ Security Technical Implementation Guides
STIG Viewer https://public.cyber.mil/stigs/srg-stig-tools/ STIG viewing tool

OWASP

Resource URL Description
OWASP https://owasp.org Web security resources
OWASP Top 10 https://owasp.org/Top10/ Top web vulnerabilities
OWASP Cheat Sheets https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org Security cheat sheets

Linux Security Resources

General Linux Security

Resource URL Description
Linux Security https://linuxsecurity.com News and tutorials
Kernel Security https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/security.html Kernel documentation
systemd Security https://systemd.io systemd documentation

Hardening Guides

Resource URL Description
Lynis https://cisofy.com/lynis/ Security auditing tool
OpenSCAP https://www.open-scap.org SCAP security scanner
Tiger https://www.nongnu.org/tiger/ Security audit tool

Networking and Firewall

Resource URL Description
Netplan https://netplan.io Network configuration
nftables Wiki https://wiki.nftables.org Firewall documentation
UFW Documentation https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UncomplicatedFirewall UFW guide

SSH Resources

Resource URL Description
OpenSSH https://www.openssh.com Official OpenSSH site
SSH Audit https://www.ssh-audit.com SSH security scanner
Mozilla SSH Guidelines https://infosec.mozilla.org/guidelines/openssh SSH best practices

Logging and Monitoring

Resource URL Description
auditd https://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/audit/ Linux audit framework
rsyslog https://www.rsyslog.com/doc/ rsyslog documentation
journald https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/journald.conf.html Journal configuration

Tools Documentation

Package Management

Tool Documentation
APT https://wiki.debian.org/Apt
dpkg https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/dpkg.1.html

Security Tools

Tool Documentation
Fail2ban https://www.fail2ban.org
AppArmor https://gitlab.com/apparmor/apparmor/-/wikis/home
AIDE https://aide.github.io
rkhunter https://rkhunter.sourceforge.net

Encryption

Tool Documentation
LUKS/cryptsetup https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup
GnuPG https://gnupg.org/documentation/

Learning Resources

Online Courses

Platform Course Description
Linux Foundation Linux Security Professional certification
Cybrary Linux Security Free security training
Pluralsight Linux Administration Comprehensive courses

Books

Title Author Topic
The Linux Command Line William Shotts Linux fundamentals
Linux Administration Handbook Nemeth et al. System administration
Linux Security Cookbook Barrett et al. Security recipes

Practice Environments

Resource URL Description
OverTheWire https://overthewire.org/wargames/ Security challenges
HackTheBox https://www.hackthebox.com Penetration testing labs
TryHackMe https://tryhackme.com Security training

Community Resources

Forums and Q&A

Resource URL Description
Ask Ubuntu https://askubuntu.com Ubuntu Q&A
Unix & Linux SE https://unix.stackexchange.com Linux Q&A
Server Fault https://serverfault.com Sysadmin Q&A

Reddit

Subreddit Description
r/ubuntu Ubuntu community
r/linuxadmin Linux administration
r/netsec Network security
r/sysadmin System administration

Mailing Lists

List URL Description
ubuntu-security-announce https://lists.ubuntu.com Security announcements
oss-security https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/ Open source security

Vulnerability Resources

Databases

Resource URL Description
CVE https://cve.mitre.org Common Vulnerabilities
NVD https://nvd.nist.gov National Vulnerability Database
Exploit-DB https://www.exploit-db.com Exploit database

News and Alerts

Resource URL Description
The Hacker News https://thehackernews.com Security news
Krebs on Security https://krebsonsecurity.com Security journalism
Schneier on Security https://www.schneier.com Security analysis

Tool Downloads

Security Scanners

Tool URL Description
Lynis https://github.com/CISOfy/lynis Security auditing
OpenSCAP https://github.com/OpenSCAP/openscap Compliance scanning
Nmap https://nmap.org Network scanner
Nikto https://github.com/sullo/nikto Web scanner

Monitoring

Tool URL Description
OSSEC https://www.ossec.net Host intrusion detection
Wazuh https://wazuh.com Security platform
Prometheus https://prometheus.io Monitoring system
Grafana https://grafana.com Visualization

Keeping Current

Subscribe To

  • Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)
  • CIS mailing list
  • NIST vulnerability alerts
  • Your distribution's security announce list

Check Regularly

  • Ubuntu security notices weekly
  • CVE databases for your software
  • Security news sites
  • Tool update announcements

Review Periodically

  • CIS Benchmark updates (new versions)
  • NIST publications
  • Industry best practices
  • New security tools and techniques

Most Used

Resource Direct Link
Ubuntu Security Notices https://ubuntu.com/security/notices
CIS Ubuntu Benchmark https://www.cisecurity.org/benchmark/ubuntu_linux
Ubuntu Server Docs https://ubuntu.com/server/docs
Lynis Docs https://cisofy.com/documentation/lynis/
SSH Best Practices https://infosec.mozilla.org/guidelines/openssh

Emergency

Situation Resource
Ubuntu CVE https://ubuntu.com/security/cves
Incident Response Your organization's IR plan
Ubuntu Support https://ubuntu.com/support