Abstract

Titan is a freely available host-based security tool that can be used to improve or audit the security of a UNIX system. It was written almost completely in Bourne shell, with a master script controlling the execution of many smaller programs. Each of the programs either fixes or detects potential security problem, and its simple and extremely modular design also makes it useful to help check or enforce the adherence of a system against its security policy. Finally, anyone who can write a shell script or program can easily create their own Titan modules.

Titan does not replace other security tools, nor does it fix or patch security bugs; its primary purpose is to improve the security of the system it runs on by codifying as many security tricks to secure an OS that the authors could think of. And when used in combination with other security tools it can help make the transformation of an "out of the box" system into a firewall or security conscious system a significantly easier task.

NOTE: Due to time, resource, and expertise limitations, the first release of Titan is only known to run on Solaris Operating Systems, versions Solaris 2.x and Solaris 1.x. However, many of the small sub-programs within Titan work well with other UNIX's, and other than taking the time to create Titan modules for them, there is nothing Sun specific about Titan that would prevent it working on other UNIX systems.

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