streisand VS ansible-collection-hardening

https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

Streisand sets up a new server running your choice of WireGuard, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, or a Tor bridge. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists.

Unfortunately, that's to the Great Firewall of China, there has been a lot of resources put in to fingerprint VPNs and block them by state actors.

Fortunately, however, there is equally years of some of the smartest minds on the planet working to bypass Chinese censorship, so there are some great OpenVPN alternatives.

I really encourage you to look into something like Shadowsocks which Chinese people have found great success in using over the last several years.

It's quite sad that projects like Streisand[0] were archived, but I'm sure there are other alternatives that might make it just as easy to roll onto a server.

[0] https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

The Streisand Project[0] provided easy installation of well-configured certs, VPNs and various other software on cloud instances. It was great for travelling internationally: run the script and after a few minutes one had a cloud instance and everything one needed to securely access the Internet through one’s own country.

Unfortunately, it was archived in 2021. Is there anything in 2023 which approaches it? I’ve seen Algo[1], but I don’t believe it does as much to help one to avoid packet filtering. It’s also based on Ubuntu rather than Debian, which seems like a mistake with security-conscious server software.

0: https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

1: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo

It basically works like any normal VPN. Setting it up is quite easy, you just need a VPS and setup Streisand by following their guide.

You are better off renting a cloud server and rolling your own, e.g. using Streisand, Algo or my own Edgewalker

I currently use https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand which was extremely simple to set up.

What are the main advantages over Streisand?

For a VPN, I use Streisand (https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand) running on a box in a datacenter in Iceland. I also occasionally use other VPNs. I turn off the VPN on my gaming PC when playing specific games.

An ansible collection for hardening Linux systems I mostly wrote: https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening

Another ansible collection to manage Icinga: https://github.com/T-Systems-MMS/ansible-collection-icinga-d...

And the yunohost app for invoice ninja: https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/invoiceninja5_ynh

i have some packer builds where itll install ansible, run playbooks locally, then uninstall ansible. such as the the devsec os hardening role: https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening

This collection is also interesting https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening/

Second you want to ensure the os is secure and up to date. Take a look at os hardening best practices, for example this ansible playbook for linux: https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening

To ensure SSH and other security related things are configured correctly, you can take a look at DevSec which helps you to apply proven security configuration principles. Also there is guides like "Secure Secure Shell" which can help you to better understand what you can do to increase the security of your servers (this one is from 2015 but many aspects are still relevant).

I learned a lot by using and reading through the source code of these ansible roles: https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening

Have a look at https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening

You can do much more https://github.com/dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening/tree/master/roles/ssh_hardening