Add cPanel & WHM to CentOS VPS (Log Rotation, Configuring BIND nameserver & Backups...)

-

For this example I added cPanel & WHM to a CentOS VPS I created. Upon installation of cPanel I did a lot of configurations including setting up the log rotations, a BIND nameserver and backups.

The installation from the command line is simple. The syntax is just a little different than most of the other posts where I use Ubuntu because that's my favorite version of Linux. However, I like to use the most efficient tools when I can and in this case it's CentOS. I have done a fair amount of scripting and automation using CentOS and Vagrant boxes so this was a cinch.  

To install the latest version of cPanel from the command line the commands are as follows:

cd /home
wget -N http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/latest
sh latest
/usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt 



From here the most difficult parts are done and the rest is quite intuitive if you've worked with servers and monitoring systems. I added my email and the nameservers to begin with. As you can see below with cPanel it is more about just knowing how to configure the system and you just select your parameters. For example at the bottom of this screen shot you can even select how you want to receive Apache logs. 


Next I was able to configure the Log Rotation. Log rotation is important to not use up all of a system's resources. In this automated process log files are compressed and stored within an archive folder for cPanel.


The cPanel allows for a lot of customization. In a previous blog post I went over how to manually create Cron Jobs: https://jgardnerla.blogspot.com/2020/04/cron-job-daemon-shell-script-to-send.html. However, with cPanel it's very simple to just plug in the days and times you want updates and backups to run. The manual process is good because it allows you to do more customization but this is a good solution if you want simple administration from a GUI.



As simple as cPanel is to use there is a lot it can do. Here I synchronized the server time which is important when serving requests and handling HSTS.

The server is just getting setup but here are the initial server logs. The system is starting up and the daemon's are beginning to listen on their appropriate ports so that they can spring into action when they are needed.


And here is the BIND nameserver starting up successfully.




Now to administer the cPanel I can just return to the secure portal and begin with any customizations or configurations that are required.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Automated Exploitation of a Bluetooth vulnerability that leads to 0-click code execution

-
Image
This blog post covers an interesting vulnerability that was just discovered earlier this year and an open source free tool that was created to automate testing for this vulnerability in Bluetooth devices.  I will preface this with the warning that this is of course done in my personal testing lab environment with my own devices for learning and demonstration purposes. I am in no way encouraging that these tools, snippets of code or techniques be used maliciously as there can be very serious legal consequences for those that use these hacking tricks nefariously. However, in a personal testing lab environment I think this is great for learning and allows someone to quickly be able to confirm or deny if their personal devices are truly standing up to the Bluetooth CVE of CVE-2023-45866 . CVE-2023-45866 is described as an issue where the " Bluetooth HID Hosts in BlueZ may permit an unauthenticated Peripheral role HID Device to initiate and establish an encrypted connection, and accept...
Read more

Sniffing GSM traffic on a private cellphone network

-
Image
Legal Disclaimer: GSM Research and Passive Traffic Monitoring ‘The information provided in this blog is for educational and informational purposes only. The author and publisher of this blog are not responsible for any misuse, illegal activities, or damages that may arise from the use of the information provided herein. The author conducted research using two Samsung phones and a BladeRF with YateBTS to create a small-scale GSM network for the purpose of analyzing and intercepting traffic. It is important to note that intercepting or tampering with wireless communication without proper authorization is illegal in many jurisdictions. The author undertook this research within a controlled and lawful environment, and any techniques or findings described in this blog should not be replicated or applied in unauthorized or illegal activities. The author strongly advises against engaging in any illegal activities, including but not limited to intercepting or tampering with wireless communicat...
Read more

Raspberry Pi WiFi Honeypot 🍯

-
Image
This was a fun project to work on and build out. I learned a few new interesting tricks along the way. I started with this tutorial from 2013 by Andy Smith . However, a few things have changed with hostapd that I had to figure out through debugging. Also, the configuration of the nginx server as well as dnsmasq were slightly different for me using the new Raspbian Buster for Raspberry Pi 4.  This should save you some time if you follow my trick tips later on in the article that I found by searching through various message boards and googling error messages as I did debugging to get this working properly. I have gone over setting up nginx servers in previous articles so if you need help with getting started these may be helpful. So first things first. I started with a canakit and assembled the raspberry pi with the appropriate heat sinks and a little fan set to a standard speed. The speed is adjusted by how you install the wiring. If you haven't done this before you can follow the ...
Read more