Course Name: Fedora Security Spin and HTTPing Test Configuration

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of Fedora Security Spin, a security-focused Linux distribution, and its application in web server testing using HTTPing. It begins with an introduction to Fedora Security Spin, highlighting its features, community support, and use in security auditing, system rescue, and forensics. The assignment then focuses on HTTPing, explaining its purpose in measuring web server latency and throughput. It details the configuration of an HTTP server, including checking installation, starting the service, and testing the server. The core of the assignment covers various HTTPing test cases, such as testing against a web server, an alternative port, HTTPS, and basic authentication. Each test case includes specific commands and explanations of the options used, providing practical guidance for security professionals and learners. The assignment concludes with a list of references.

Name of University
Cyber Security: Fedora Security Spin
Student Name
Course Name
Submission Date

Table of Contents
Fedora Security Spin........................................................................................................................3
Test cases: HTTping....................................................................................................................3
How to configure HTTP SERVER..............................................................................................3
Installing HTTPing package........................................................................................................6
How to test...................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................9

Fedora Security Spin
Fedora Security Spin also called Fedora Security Lab is a collection of security-related tools built
off the Fedora Linux distribution. The distribution is maintained by a community of Security
Testers and Developers. Security professionals use Fedora Security Spin for security auditing,
system rescue and forensics (Petersen, 2013). In addition, it also offers a safe environment to
teach security testing. It is also possible to put the security spin on an usb-drive which allows
security expert to install and update software and save the results permanently
(Fedoraproject.org). The read-write rootfs (root file system) feature makes it possible for security
professionals to install software on a broken or corrupt system while the live CD is running.
Moreover, the fact that it can be ran from a livecd or an usb-stick means the spin is light weight.
The community of security testers and developers allows interested people to come together and
package new tools for the spin. In addition, the there are other industry partners who are
interested to contribute too. This provides a good platform to showcase security features and a
good toolset for proper security testing to security professionals and learners as well.
Test cases: HTTping
Httping is used to measure the latency and throughput of a webserver (Michael et al, 2014).
Latency is the time required to process a request, as perceived by the user. It includes response
time, network transmission time and the time required to process the response by the user's web
browser. On the other hand, throughput is the measure if the number of transactions or data units
processed per unit time. It can also be used to measure network traffic either in bits per second or
packets per second as processed by the network components.
How to configure HTTP SERVER
Check if apache2 is installed
apt list –installed apache2

If apache is installed start the service.
service apache2 start
If apache is not installed, run the below command
apt-get install apache2
After installation start apache
service apache2 start
Then run service apache2 status

To test the server, we open the browser using 127.0.0.1

Installing HTTPing package
sudo apt-get install -y httping
How to test
1. Run HTTPing against WEBSERVER : httping -g http://WEBSERVER/
Option –g selects the web URL to probe
2. Run HTTPing against WEBSERVER_ALTPORT: httping -h WEBSERVER_ALTPORT
-p 8000
Option -h is used instead of the -g which selects the URL -h selects the hostname to probe.
That is instead of http://localhost/ we use just localhost. -p is used to select the port number
to probe

3. Run HTTPing against WEBSERVER_HTTPS: httping -l https://WEBSERVER_HTTPS/
Option -l connects using SSL. For it to work one need to provide a URL with https or a 433 port
number.
4. Run HTTPing against WEBSERVER_BASIC_AUTH: httping -g
http://WEBSERVER_BASIC_AUTH/ -A -U USERNAME -P PASSWORD
Options -A, -U and -P activates the basic authentication, Username follow the -U, Password
the -P

References
fedoraproject.org (2017). Security Lab. Retrieved from:
https://labs.fedoraproject.org/en/security/ Retrieved on Jan 1st 2020
Michael G. S., David K., Jeffrey L. C. (2014). Fundamentals of Communications and
Networking. Burlington, Jones & Bartlett Publishers
Petersen R. (2013). Beginning Fedora Desktop: Fedora 18 Edition. Apress