Hello …
I am new to Interworx and already in the processing of setting up a test server…
However, i am a little worried about security as i am trying to escape from cPanel due to the security holes which in most cases won’t make you sleep at night …
Does anyone know how secure interworx is in terms of hackers/spammers , e,t,c?
Just to get a heads up on whether i’m heading in the right direction or not…
Hi Sonofgoogle
Welcome, and I hope you enjoy Interworx, and I’m sorry, your question is very open ended, but in general terms, Interworx does a very good job at setting up initial parameters for hosting, but allows the owner to make changes to any files as they see fit, and to install programs etc from repo’s etc as they would like too, but please be aware that certain programs interworx use may be broken if changed, or updated away from Interworx distro’s, as an instance, apache. If OS is a concern, you could always use Cloud Linux, or ASL, RHEL, Centos etc but please check Interworx website for a list of OS which Interworx support. (http://docs.interworx.com/interworx/install/index-InterWorx-Installation-Requirements.php#toc-Section-1.1)
The email system is very configurable, and you can change or add too as you need, as an example, you can add srbl’s to check upon first connection etc… and it has spamassassin, domain or server wide, so you can set server wide rules and allow users to set on their domain.
As for billing systems you may install/use, security for these are defined and looked after by the billing developers/companies. (http://www.interworx.com/partners/software-partners/)
The hosting can use apache or litespeed, and can be tweaked as you see fit.
Support is excellent from Interworx, and the forums here, they are a lot of very experienced users who do help, but you may need to be patient.
I think one of the maor issues with hacking/spammers etc which you have no real control over, is the websites which are hosted, and out of your control to a large degree, but I think most install Maldet, which does a pretty good job, but ofcourse, cannot detect weak passwords, which a user sets I believe, but it is still a good tool to look for weaknesses which may have been uploaded.
However, they are still areas which can be improved, and Interworx are constantly working on developing/improving Interworx, and do release updates periodically throughout the year, and you can add feature requests either here on the forum or on the ideas page of the interworx website. (http://www.interworx.com/ideas/)
This though, is my personal opinion so I hope you don’t mind.
Many thanks
John
Thank you for that…
I am going to try interworx for about 6 Months before i make a decision to move permanently …
Thank you once again for your answer 
Hi sonofgoogle
You may want to look through the forums for tweaks etc which will make your test server very professional, as an instance, redirecting interworx login for siteworx accounts to a secure central login.
You may also want to try the clustering features, which if you do, I’m sure interworx will let you have a trial licence, application form is shown on interworx website.
I hope all goes well for you on your test, and I know we have clients who used cpanel but find interworx so easy to use, they prefer it.
Many thanks
John
To me an important email security feature is auto blacklisting like cPanel could do after say 5 attempts via CPHulk.
For cPanel security I turned on questions so even after the username and password was entered questions would be asked from any unknown (first time) IP logins.
As for WHM I locked that down to whitelisted IPs.
With Interworx you can whitelist IPs but from what I see the other two features aren’t offered out of the box.
hey i have some question about shell script etc like c99. how to stop this script function when uploaded to the server. coz this script have some function like readable local disk. etc copy/rename/download
Hi vds
I’m sorry I hope you don’t mind but I’m not too sure what script your referring to in IW.
If the script I think you might mean is correct, it is not part of IW, and any user who has an account could potentially upload it and use it, as could any weak website which has upload capabilities, but that’s why you need to be vigilant, have good T&c etc, and use program’s like rkhunter and malware etc. have a look on forums for some good tips.
If your meaning a script which IW uses, please could you be precise for name and location.
I hope that helps a little and I’m sorry if I’m wrong.
Many thanks
John
To stop that sort of attack you need to edit /etc/php.ini
go to: disable_functions =
add the following: show_source, system, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, popen, proc_open, allow_url_fopen, eval, exec, curl_exec, curl_multi_exec, parse_ini_file, open_base
hi d2d4j nothing everthing is good on my server. only to preventing. how to get rkhunter?
hi Licensecart thank you for sharing you info.
btw disable_functions is not a good choice, coz will be break some script function. do have any tool/plugins can be use with IW
Hi vds
Yes, Michael is really good.
Su yum install rkhunter I think from memory, but if you google rkhunter you should find main website, and please do not forget about maldetect, there’s good instructions for maldetect on IW website.
Also, it is possible to allow user php.ini and I did not want to say too much about c99, just incase it was not what I thought you were posting about sorry.
Many thanks
John
[QUOTE=vds.asia;25517]hi d2d4j nothing everthing is good on my server. only to preventing. how to get rkhunter?
hi Licensecart thank you for sharing you info.
btw disable_functions is not a good choice, coz will be break some script function. do have any tool/plugins can be use with IW[/QUOTE]
You can enable any of the functions by removing them if you need them. We used to have exec enabled due to our billing system, as we can download SQL backups with Blesta via that. However any function you don’t need if they are on that list, disable them because it will stop PHP Shells from working if someone was hacked and one was uploaded. If you tried it with them functions disabled it will be just a white page, on a few others they have broken code because the functions don’t work. I’m not a coder sorry so I can’t do plugins for InterWorx sadly.
[QUOTE=d2d4j;25518]Hi vds
Yes, Michael is really good.
Su yum install rkhunter I think from memory, but if you google rkhunter you should find main website, and please do not forget about maldetect, there’s good instructions for maldetect on IW website.
Also, it is possible to allow user php.ini and I did not want to say too much about c99, just incase it was not what I thought you were posting about sorry.
Many thanks
John[/QUOTE]
Thanks mate so are you 
oh yea… i have found about maldetect at IW and rkhunter at uncle google. tq d2d4j and Licensecart
Hi vds
Your welcome, and please look through the forum, there are some good tips and features, as an example, please see this post, but there’s more in the forum.
http://forums.interworx.com/showpost.php?p=25488
Have a lovely Easter
Many thanks
John
Security is achived with layers. My recommendation is to run CloudLinux and Atomic Secured Linux for a really secure server.
CloudLinux (CentOS fork)
CL have 2 main features that enchances security; LVE and CageFS.
CageFS is basically a Jailkit with custom patches. It lets you virtualize the system in to a kind of VPS lite, each user account have their own root, and all system files are run in a virtualization layer so that if a malicious entity penetrates and gains CLI access, they can only affect that single account, and not breach in to the rest of the server and clients.
All users with UID >99 automatically gets placed in a LVE container. LVE lets you limit the users system resource access based on CPU, RAM, I/O, proc etc, so that a single website can’t starve your server resources.
With both LVE and CageFS in place, you can give your customers /bin/sh shell, without being concerned about your server security.
CL also lets you run php selector, making it possible to run different versions of php (4, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 etc) on a per user basis. Each linux user can also have their own php configuration.
CL also have something they call MySQL governor, that let’s you monitor and restict MySQL usage in shared hosting systems. If you like the ‘top’ command, you will love the ‘dbtop’ command, thats basically ‘top’ for your MySQL server.
Any serious host should run CL, and it’s not that much different then running plain CentOS.
Atomic Secured Linux
A security system used by some of the biggest organizations in the world, including UN, US mint, and NASA.
It comes with rkhunter, mod_secure, maldet, psmonitor, osse, and a lot more tools.
A license cost around $200/year, and it’s one of the best investments I have ever done.
It comes with a WAF based on mod_secure. You get daily rules update to your mod_secure, and a nifty web interface that lets you administer your servers security, view security incidents and administer mod_secure rules on a per domain basis, so if one of your customers require a blacklisted function/feature, you don’t have to disable the rule globaly on your server.
With ASL, you have the ability to configure and certify your server to comply with PCI-DSS standards. I wouldn’t recommend it, but you have the tools you need for it.
I would only recommend ASL if your an experienced linux system administrator, and used to crawling in the command line. There are some issues with ASL, and some times you might have to manually rerun the ASL dailty update, when it hangs your httpd. It happens once or twice a month).
Since getting ASL, we have gone from 1 hacked site a month, to 0 in 9 months, and running…
Despite ASL giving me some extra jobb at times, I rather battle those, then battle hackers.
ASL requires an intermediate systems administrator.
IF you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
cloudlinux… cost :p.
wait someone build security plugins for IW.
Hi vds
I hope you don’t mind but a quick google should bring up cloud Linux website, and price would vary depending upon your quantities.
I personally do not think anyone would build the same security plugins but I could be wrong sorry.
I hope that helps a little
Many thanks
John
cloudlinux starts at $14/month/server, and gets cheaper the more licenses you have.
Hey John, you don’t happen to have a link to that topic (“redirecting interworx login for siteworx accounts to a secure central login”), do you? My search came up empty 
Thanks in advance
Michael
Hi Michael
Please see this post，which shows for redirecting to secure, but also for port 2080 redirect. IW uses and has open 2080, but you can set as you need.
Hope that helps
Many thanks
John