Description

This cookbook aims to normalize setup of a fresh server and set sane
defaults for global settings, and work with various initial
environments (tested on EC2 images, Hetzner "minimal" installations,
and debootstrap-created LXC images). At the moment it supports only
Ubuntu, Debian support is planned.

This cookbook is developed on GitHub at
https://github.com/3ofcoins/chef-cookbook-sanitize

Requirements

• apt
• build-essential
• iptables

Attributes

• sanitize.iptables -- if false, does not install and configure
  iptables; defaults to true.

• sanitize.install_packages -- a list of packages to install on all
  machines; defaults to an empty list.

Usage

Include recipe[sanitize] in your run list after your user accounts
are created and sudo and ssh is configured.

sanitize::default

This is the default "base settings" setup. It should be called
after shell user accounts and sudo are configured, as it locks
default login user and direct root access.

1. Deletes ubuntu system user
2. Locks system password for root user (assumes that only sudo is used to elevate privileges)
3. Ensure all FHS-provided directories exist by creating some that have been found missing on some of the installation (namely, /opt)
4. Sets locale to en_US.UTF-8, generates this locale, sets time zone to UTC
5. Changes mode of /var/log/chef/client.log to 0600 -- readable only for root, as it may contain sensitive data
6. Deletes annoying motd.d files
7. Installs vim and sets it as a default system editor
8. Installs and configures iptables, opens SSH port (optional, but enabled by default)
9. Installs can-has command as a symlink to apt-get

Roadmap

Plans for future, in no particular order:

• Depend on and include openssh-server; configure SSH known hosts, provide sane SSH server and client configuration defaults
• Provide hooks (definitions / LWRP / library) for other cookbooks for commonly used facilities, such as opening up common ports, "backend" http service, SSL keys management, maybe some other "library" functions like helpers for encrypted data bags