Solaris

[npoe1]

I know that this doesn?t make sense, but I want to make a Proxy Server, the problem here is that I do not know which OS to use, I was thinking on Debian or Slackware, after think a lot I thought that Solaris could be a good option in order to make it somewhat exotic, I don?t really know about the proxys and which OS should I use, I just want to practice and get experience, I want something stable.

Anyone have a suggestion?

I?m making research and thought that this forum was a good place to start any opinion is welcome.


BTW, Squid for proxy?

 

[Nothinman]

Yes, squid is the defacto standard on unix systems and Debian will probably be the simplest since after the installation you can simply run 'apt-get install squid' to install it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I don't consider solaris to be perimeter ready. Debian should be relatively easy.

 

[thesix]

What do you mean "perimeter ready"? Solaris is not "exotic" for you?

To OP, go for Squid. I don't have much experience either, but was able to download Squid source, compile, config and run it on Solaris in no time recently.
Just follow the documentation.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Exotic in what sense? In the sense that it's a pretty popular operating system? Exotic in that no matter how much I try not to use it, I get stuck with it somewhere? Or exotic in the fact that plenty of exploits are released for it?

Generally Solaris isn't the most secure OS, and making it more secure can be difficult thanks to relatively obscure choices made by sun.

 

[thesix]

I thought the OP meant "It (or the combination) is not used by many people, therefore it will be more secure.", which we know is not true,
or, "It's not used by average Joes, therefore it would be cool to use it.", which is Ok.

Solaris isn't the most secure OS out of box ("secure by default" policy is only recently adopted).
However, it can be configured to be very secure, which really depends on your skill.
And all the security projects on OpenSolaris will only make hardening Solaris much easier.
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/security/

 

[npoe1]

Then I will try with Solaris and if it doesn?t work, I will use Debian, but I understand that from your point of view Debian is a better option for easiness, but what about a very secure OS for a Proxy server?

 

[Nothinman]

Then I will try with Solaris and if it doesn?t work, I will use Debian, but I understand that from your point of view Debian is a better option for easiness, but what about a very secure OS for a Proxy server?

Both can be secured just fine, but I believe that Debian ships with a more secure configuration out of the box.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Then I will try with Solaris and if it doesn?t work, I will use Debian, but I understand that from your point of view Debian is a better option for easiness, but what about a very secure OS for a Proxy server?

Both can be secured just fine, but I believe that Debian ships with a more secure configuration out of the box.

Despite Linux's many annoyances, it's generally easier to work with and lock down than Solaris.

 

[Sunner]

If you go with Solaris, have a look at JASS for locking it down.
Linky.
Handy tool, comes with some predefined rule sets(or well, drivers as they're called in JASS) that may or may not make sense for you, but there's one that's generally pretty suitable for perimeter boxes, I think it's the one called "server"...not sure though, might be "hardened"...or neither.
In either case, before you run any of the predefined drivers, make sure to have console access since some of the stricter ones will close pretty much all remote access, including SSH.

 

[npoe1]

Ok , thank you very much for your help, I will being the work the Tuesday. I hope that everything work like it should.