Time & Place: October 14, 2010, 7pm, at Red Hat HQ

Title: Introduction to ModSecurity, the Open Source Web Application Firewall

About this talk:

So your web server listens on port 80 and your firewall blocks most everything else. Secure, right? How about that port 80? Do you trust your application code? Is your server patched? Are your developers really more clever than the folks who want to break in? Is security even on the mind of your developers?

Our traditional firewalls (packet filters) may have narrowed the field to HTTP, but crackers and worms have responded by refocusing their efforts directly at HTTP. Worse yet, most packet filters think all HTTP requests look legitimate. What's your next line of defense?

This presentation introduces ModSecurity, a web application firewall (WAF). ModSecurity is open source, mature, stable, flexible, and updated frequently. It can run embedded in Apache or as a reverse proxy in front of any traditional web server. It is highly discriminating and it definitely understands HTTP at a deeper level than your packet filter.

Come learn how to get started with ModSecurity. You'll be glad that you did.

About the presenter:

Cristóbal Palmer, a long-time member of the TriLUG Steering Committee, just finished his MSIS at UNC Chapel Hill, where he is a Systems Administrator with ibiblio.org. He also works with Caktus Consulting Group, a local django development shop.