SSL Part 2 - An Overview of Security-Related Packages

An Overview of Security-Related Packages

To enable the secure server, you need to have the following packages installed at a minimum:

httpd

The httpd package contains the httpd daemon and related utilities, configuration files, icons, Apache HTTP Server modules, man pages and other files used by the Apache HTTP Server.
mod_ssl

The mod_ssl package includes the mod_ssl module, which provides strong cryptography for the Apache HTTP Server via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols.
openssl

The openssl package contains the OpenSSL toolkit. The OpenSSL toolkit implements the SSL and TLS protocols and also includes a general purpose cryptography library.

Additionally, other software packages included with Red Hat Linux can provide certain security functionalities (but are not required by the secure server to function):

httpd-devel

The httpd-devel package contains the Apache HTTP Server include files, header files and the APXS utility. You will need all of these if you intend to load any extra modules, other than the modules provided with this product. See the Red Hat Linux Reference Guide for more information on loading modules onto your secure server using Apache's DSO functionality.

If you do not intend to load other modules onto your Apache HTTP Server, you do not need to install this package.
httpd-manual

The httpd-manual package contains the Apache Project's Apache User's Guide in HTML format. This manual is also available on the Web at http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/.
OpenSSH packages

The OpenSSH packages provide the OpenSSH set of network connectivity tools for logging into and executing commands on a remote machine. OpenSSH tools encrypt all traffic (including passwords), so you can avoid eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks on the communications between your machine and the remote machine.

The openssh package includes core files needed by both the OpenSSH client programs and the OpenSSH server. The openssh package also contains scp, a secure replacement for rcp (for copying files between machines).

The openssh-askpass package supports the display of a dialog window which prompts for a password during use of the OpenSSH agent.

The openssh-askpass-gnome package can be used in conjunction with the GNOME desktop environment to display a graphical dialog window when OpenSSH programs prompt for a password. If you are running GNOME and using OpenSSH utilities, you should install this package.

The openssh-server package contains the sshd secure shell daemon and related files. The secure shell daemon is the server side of the OpenSSH suite and must be installed on your host if you want to allow SSH clients to connect to your host.

The openssh-clients package contains the client programs needed to make encrypted connections to SSH servers, including the following: ssh, a secure replacement for rsh; sftp, a secure replacement for ftp (for transferring files between machines); and slogin, a secure replacement for rlogin (for remote login) and telnet (for communicating with another host via the Telnet protocol).

For more information about OpenSSH, see Chapter 15 OpenSSH, the Red Hat Linux Reference Guide, and the OpenSSH website at http://www.openssh.com.
openssl-devel

The openssl-devel package contains the static libraries and the include file needed to compile applications with support for various cryptographic algorithms and protocols. You need to install this package only if you are developing applications which include SSL support — you do not need this package to use SSL.
stunnel

The stunnel package provides the Stunnel SSL wrapper. Stunnel supports the SSL encryption of TCP connections, so it can provide encryption for non-SSL aware daemons and protocols (such as POP, IMAP and LDAP) without requiring any changes to the daemon's code.