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Validator Security Checklist

Conduct a security checklist survey to go through the security measures of a validator

Pre-requisite Readings

Conduct Survey on General Controls of Hosting Data Centre

Perform a survey on the hosting data centre, and compare your result with the best practice suggested below

For example, your hosting data centre should have following features

Controls CategoryDescription of Best Practice
Data CenterRedundant Power
Data CenterRedundant Cooling
Data CenterRedundant Networking
Data CenterPhysical Cage/Gated Access
Data CenterRemote Alerting Security Camera

Current Status of Node Setup

Perform a survey on your current status of node setup, and compare your result with the best practice suggested below

Controls CategoryDescription of Best Practice
General System SecurityOperating system appropriately patched. Kernel is updated to latest stable version. The node should be operated in x86_64 environment
General System SecurityAuto-updates for operation system is configured. Toolkit for automatic upgrades exists (e.g. auter, yum-cron, dnf-automatic, unattended-upgrades)
General System SecuritySecurity framework enabled and enforcing. SELinux / AppArmor / Tomoyo / Grsecurity Enabled
General System SecurityNo insecure and unnecessary services Installed. (e.g. telnet, rsh, inetd, etc ...)
General System SecurityGRUB boot loader password is configured. Grub2 configured with password
General System SecurityOnly root permissions on core system files
File Directory SecuritySecure the directory ~/.haqqd to be accessible by owner only
Binary ConfigurationRecommend the following settings in config.toml for both performance and security - For sentry nodes: max_num_inbound_peers = 500, max_num_outbound_peers = 50, flush_throttle_timeout = "300ms" - For validator node: max_num_inbound_peers = 100, max_num_outbound_peers = 10, flush_throttle_timeout = "100ms"
Account Security & Remote AccessFollowing Password policies are enforced: No Blank Passwords; Weak Passwords Not Allowed
Account Security & Remote AccessFollowing SSH configurations are enabled: PermitRootLogin: no; PasswordAuthentication no; ChallengeResponseAuthentication no; UsePAM yes; AllowUsers Necessary user only; AllowGroups Necessary group only.
NetworkingNetwork throughput test using speedtest. Recommend to have at least 5 Mbps upload, 5 Mbps download)
NetworkingHost-based (e.g. iptables) or cloud-based (e.g. AWS Security Group) firewall is enabled to protect all the involved nodes. Remote management ports (e.g. SSH - TCP 22) should only be exposed to selected IP instead of the internet. No overly permissive rules (e.g. wide range of allowed ports 1-65535) should be set. For internal communication channels between nodes, they should be set with specific source and destination addresses. For internet reachable nodes, set TCP 26656 to be the only incoming port, if possible.
NetworkingIntrusion Detection / Prevention System (e.g. Fail2Ban, Snort, OSSEC) is installed and enforcing
NetworkingSetup sentry node architecture to protect validator node, and set firewall rules to restrict direct internet access to it.
NetworkingThe Remote Procedure Call (RPC) provides sensitive operations and information that is not supposed to be exposed to the Internet. By default, RPC is on and allow connection from 127.0.0.1 only. Please be extremely careful if you need to allow RPC from other IP addresses.
RedundancyHot standby node is setup with the same configuration as main node
RedundancySystem monitoring and alerting is setup to alert owners on anomalies
Key ManagementSetup Tendermint KMS with HSM or equivalent online service, which should replace the static key file.
DDOSSetup validator in accordance with sentry architecture. Kindly refer to the setup instruction and detailed description.