It is a known fact that an out of the box WAS installation with security enabled is not entirely secure. There is a number of steps that has to be taken in order to “harden” the installation. Most of the steps are documented in the WebSphere hardening guide, which should be closely studied and followed by any WAS administrator or developer. The hardening guide, however, is a little light on the specifics regarding how to secure WAS at the OS level. For example, hardening should normally include changing file and directory permissions to restrict access to sensitive configuration files.

Why bother hardening the installation at the OS level? This helps defend against external threats, i.e., a server hosting the installation is compromised and against internal threats, i.e., an unauthorized access from inside.

Here are some of the things you can do to secure your installation on a Unix/Linux platform:

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