Is DO LAMP secured by default?

Posted on January 15, 2015

hi Guys,

I’m a pretty seasoned applications developer but I’m so not a server administrator, i usually just get shared hosting and let the experts handle the hassles.

But at the moment I do find the need to get a Cloud Server myself (reasons not needed to clutter here). Having barely touched *nix systems, I’m in a bit of a noob-basket on this one.

All I really need is a basic LAMP w/ FTP, and phpmyadmin and ioncube decoders, and i’m pretty much good to go on my own… I just needed the environment setup.

Anyway my question is, I can pretty much figure out how to setup these things myself but my concern is SECURITY.

so:

Is DO’s instant LAMP install (w/c i just did and was a breeze!) secured from hackers as is?
What about UBUNTU + LAMP? Im thinking of setting up my environment around UBUNTU instead because it’s GUI based and it’s much much easier for me at the cost of some resources i can bare with. And with Ubuntu i can pretty much play w/ more things like FIREWALL and stuff <- now that I think about it, i think this is the way to go for me.

so what do you guys think?

Thank you guys.

This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

Nick

January 15, 2015

Hi,

You’re responsible for the security of your own server, there are many easy to follow tutorials regarding the security of a lamp or lemp stack and server security. The basics are locking down ssh (using keys and shutting off root access), closing off ports you don’t need by firewall (iptables, UFW, CSF, etc), not running services you don’t need, and lots of other things.

As for wanting to use Ubuntu for a GUI, typically most people manage their servers via command-line as installing xorg or a GUI on a server adds unnecessary security risks (among other reasons). If you are not comfortable using command-line then you could always install a web control panel such as Webmin/Virtualmin or VestaCP which are both free or you could purchase a cPanel license and use that.