Hardening a Small Server Without Making It Unusable
A single box running a couple of sites does not need a security programme. It needs about a dozen specific things done, and two of them are traps that look done when they are not.
A Git Server Is Two Packages and a Location Block
Self-hosting git needs no forge. git ships the server, nginx already speaks CGI, and the whole thing is about twenty lines of config. The one hard part is file ownership, and it will not tell you clearly that it is the problem.
Recon Is a Loop, Not a Pass
Enumeration is not something you finish and move on from. Every credential and hostname you find sends you back to enumerate something new, so the surface grows as you work.
Defending Yourself With What You Know About Attackers
The attacks I read about for work arrive at ordinary people every day. What I actually do about that, in the order the effort pays back.
Turning a Dumb Shell Into a Real TTY
A raw reverse shell has no tab completion, no arrow keys, no job control, and dies the moment you press Ctrl-C. The upgrade takes three steps, and it is worth doing before anything else.
Tests Cannot See the State the Machine Already Has
Code that creates a precondition stops being exercised the moment it succeeds. On the machine where setup already ran, the setup path can break completely and stay green.
Encryption Gives Confidentiality, Not Integrity
Hiding data is not the same as proving nobody changed it. Treating the first as the second is the root of a whole class of real vulnerabilities.
Counting Your Shell History Can Execute It
In zsh, an array subscript inside arithmetic context is evaluated as an arithmetic expression, so it performs command substitution. Tallying strings into an associative array runs them.
Thorough Enumeration Beats Clever Exploitation
When a box is stuck, the answer is almost never a more advanced technique. The winning path was usually visible at hour one and dismissed.
Vulnerabilities Cluster at Trust Boundaries
Name the point where data crosses into more trust and you have usually named the missing defence. Where that lens covers almost everything, and where it stops working.
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