You're reading from Moodle 4 Security

Product type Book

Published in Mar 2024

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781804611661

Pages 288 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

PHP

Concepts

Learning Management System

Author (1):

Ian Wild

Table of Contents (18) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Moodle Security Primer

2. Chapter 1: Moodle Security – First Steps

3. Chapter 2: Moodle Threat Modeling

4. Chapter 3: Security Industry Standards

5. Part 2: Moodle Server Security

6. Chapter 4: Building a Secure Linux Server

7. Chapter 5: Endpoint Protection

8. Chapter 6: Denial of Service Protection

9. Chapter 7: Backup and Disaster Recovery

10. Part 3: Moodle Application Security

11. Chapter 8: Meeting Data Protection Requirements

12. Chapter 9: Moodle Security Audit

13. Chapter 10: Understanding Vulnerabilities

14. Part 4: Moodle Infrastructure Monitoring

15. Chapter 11: Infrastructure Monitoring

16. Index

Why subscribe?

17. Other Books You May Enjoy

Moodle Security Audit

We have come a long way in securing our new Moodle installation. For example, in Chapter 4, we learned how to build a secure, Linux-based Moodle server – including deploying a protective firewall. Then, in Chapters 5 and 6, we hardened our Moodle server with antivirus and rootkit detection tools. With these steps complete, we should now test our cybersecurity defenses.

In general, your Moodle security audit should take as its scope your entire organization. However, in this chapter, we will focus on identifying weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our technical infrastructure.

By carrying out regular security audits, you will have a developing understanding of your security posture, reduce the risk of cyber threats and data breaches, and be better able to maintain your organization’s reputation and business continuity.

In this chapter, you will do the following:

Learn how we can use the defense in depth strategy to ensure our Moodle...

Technical requirements

To follow the examples in the first part of this chapter, you will need SSH access to a server running a Moodle instance, and site administration access to this Moodle instance. In the second part of this chapter, we will be using a version of Linux that comes pre-installed with a wide variety of cybersecurity testing tools called Kali Linux. Given the types of tools this contains and the nature of what they can do – for good or ill – Kali Linux is best installed as a sandboxed virtual machine (VM). Details on how to install Kali Linux are given later in this chapter, in the Using Kali Linux section.

The defense in depth strategy

From previous chapters, you will have recognized that no single security measure can provide absolute protection for our Moodle instance, so we are implementing a combination of safeguards to mitigate the risks of various types of cyber threats.

Defense in depth is a cybersecurity strategy that involves implementing security controls and recovery plans at as many of the different layers in our organization’s information systems as possible. Any online framework that allows users to upload or embed content is at risk from cyberattacks, and Moodle is no exception. The Moodle framework does provide internal functions to sanitize input – assuming the plugin author is using them. However, it is possible even for sanitized input to deploy malicious code to a Moodle user’s computer via their browser. To mitigate this risk, our Moodle web server can be configured to instruct the browser to restrict the web domains from which it should download...

Exploring Moodle security checks

Among the reports that are provided in a default Moodle installation, the Security checks report provides a variety of system security checks. To access the report, select Site administration | Reports | Security checks:

Figure 9.3 – The Security checks report displays details from the built-in security checks

Details on each security check that is reported on the Security checks page are given in Figure 9.4:

Using Kali Linux

Kali Linux (see https://www.kali.org/) is a version of Linux built specifically for cybersecurity professionals. It is used by penetration testers, ethical hackers, and security specialists to evaluate and improve the security of computer systems and networks. Kali Linux comes pre-installed with a wide range of security tools and software applications that are useful for various aspects of cybersecurity, including the following:

Web application testing – Tools for assessing the security of web applications, including scanning for vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and XSS
Penetration testing – Tools for simulating cyberattacks to test the security of systems and networks, helping organizations identify and address potential weaknesses
Digital forensics – Tools for digital forensics and incident response, making it valuable for investigating cybercrimes and analyzing digital evidence
Reverse engineering – Tools for...

Summary

It is not enough to implement robust security controls. We need to confirm that our security controls are active and doing the job for which they are intended. In this chapter, we explored a variety of different tools we can use to audit the security of our Moodle instances, starting with verifying a newly installed TLS/SSL certificate. Related to the HTTP protocol, we then confirmed our CSP and HTTP protocol standard settings.

We saw how Moodle implements its own security checks via an internal Security API. We learned more about how Moodle initiates these checks and how to update our server configuration to ensure all checks are passed.

We then investigated the Kali Linux platform, exploring just three of the many categories of cybersecurity testing tools available to us in Kali – information gathering tools, vulnerability scanning tools, and exploitation tools.

We ended by testing the Mathaholics Moodle installation against known vulnerabilities using the...

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Published in: Mar 2024 Publisher: Packt ISBN-13: 9781804611661

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Authors (1)

Ian Wild

Ian Wild is a technologist and lead developer for AVEVA. Ian's work is currently focused on designing and developing solutions to integrate AVEVA's portfolio of cloud-based simulation applications into the AVEVA Unified Learning training platform. Ian has traveled the world working as an eLearning consultant and trainer, helping educators develop and deliver inspiring and engaging online learning. Ian is the author of the popular textbooks for teachers Moodle Course Conversion and Moodle 1.9 Math. As a developer, he is the author of Moodle 3.x Developer's Guide. He was also a technical reviewer for Science Teaching with Moodle 2.0, Moodle Multimedia, and Practical XMPP. All of the aforementioned books are available from Packt Publishing.

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Check	Details
Displaying of PHP errors	Confirms that PHP errors are not being displayed on the screen, as errors often contain sensitive information.
Insecure dataroot	Checks to ensure that the dataroot directory is not accessible from the web. Ensures your dataroot directory is not in a directory your web server can serve from. ...