Basic security considerations?

[Naffer]

I set up my first gentoo (first linux too) box last week and have spent a few days setting it up as I like. I'm currently running sshd, a bittorrent client, apache, samba, and proftpd. The FTP server only allows anonymous logins and no writes.
My question is simply, how do I keep my box from turning into a mail zombie? The box sits behind a nat with a few essential low ports and some high ones (for pasv ftp) forwarded to it. Am I safe as is?

[Valhlalla]

A few things to look at.

* Make sure you arnt running any services you don't need, as in if you don't use ftp often, turn it off. Also check with netstat to see if there are any services running that you didn't know about.

* Set up a decent iptables script, and block everything that isn't being used, including all the ports that are not forwarded through the nat.

* Make sure every thing is kept up to date and configured properly.

* Read you log files.

* Set up and run a tripwire/snort type program.

This is what I do for my machine, do more or less depending on how paranoid you are
_________________
Pork Chop Sandwiches, Oh Sh*t!

[lwithers]

Sounds pretty safe to me, but I would suggest:
- set up a simple firewall on the machine (I know you're behind NAT, but "defense at multiple depths" is an old and well-proven adage).
- not using FTP. Use scp and/or SFTP instead. This is because there have historically been many exploits of FTP servers and because the FTP protocol itself is (or can be) open to abuse.