Security Hardening

How to Set Up a Private Docker Registry on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Set Up a Private Docker Registry on RHEL 9

A private Docker registry allows organisations to store and distribute container images internally, without relying on Docker Hub or a cloud registry. This is essential for teams working with proprietary application images that cannot be stored in public registries, organisations with strict data sovereignty requirements, and environments with limited internet access. Docker provides an official […]

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How to Install Docker Engine on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Install Docker Engine on RHEL 9

Docker Engine is the industry-standard container platform that packages applications and their dependencies into portable, isolated containers. A Docker container bundles the application code, runtime, libraries, and configuration into a single image that runs identically on any Linux host with Docker installed, eliminating the “it works on my machine” problem. RHEL 9 does not include […]

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How to Harden PHP 8.3: disable_functions, open_basedir, opcache on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Harden PHP 8.3: disable_functions, open_basedir, opcache on RHEL 9

PHP hardening reduces the attack surface of web applications by restricting what PHP scripts can do at the interpreter level. A default PHP installation exposes powerful functions that can be abused by attackers who exploit code injection vulnerabilities: system(), exec(), and passthru() allow execution of arbitrary OS commands; file_get_contents() with allow_url_fopen can fetch remote files; […]

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How to Install Symfony 7 on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Install Symfony 7 on RHEL 9

Symfony is a mature, enterprise-grade PHP framework built on reusable, decoupled components. Unlike Laravel’s all-in-one approach, Symfony emphasises architectural flexibility — many of its components (HttpFoundation, Console, Validator, Security, DependencyInjection) are used independently by other frameworks including Laravel itself. Symfony’s Dependency Injection Container, event dispatcher, and strict coding standards make it the preferred framework for […]

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How to Install Laravel 11 with Nginx on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Install Laravel 11 with Nginx on RHEL 9

Laravel is the most popular PHP web application framework, providing an expressive, MVC-based structure with built-in features including Eloquent ORM, Blade templating, database migrations, queues, events, broadcasting, and the Artisan CLI. Laravel follows convention-over-configuration to reduce boilerplate and accelerates development with scaffolding tools like Breeze (authentication starter kit) and Jetstream. This guide covers creating a […]

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How to Secure MySQL: Remove Root Remote Login, audit_log on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Secure MySQL: Remove Root Remote Login, audit_log on RHEL 9

A default MySQL installation has several security weaknesses: a root account that may be accessible remotely, anonymous user accounts, a test database anyone can access, and no audit logging of who accessed what data. Securing MySQL is essential before any production deployment and covers four main areas: access control (who can connect from where), authentication […]

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How to Install pgAdmin 4 on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Install pgAdmin 4 on RHEL 9

pgAdmin 4 is the official, full-featured web-based administration and development platform for PostgreSQL. It provides a graphical interface for managing databases, schemas, tables, views, functions, roles, and server connections; a SQL query editor with syntax highlighting and query execution plans; a visual schema designer; backup and restore wizards; and monitoring dashboards for server statistics. pgAdmin […]

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How to Install phpMyAdmin on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Install phpMyAdmin on RHEL 9

phpMyAdmin is a web-based graphical administration interface for MySQL and MariaDB databases. It allows developers and DBAs to manage databases, tables, rows, users, and permissions through a browser without needing to use the command-line MySQL client. phpMyAdmin is especially useful for non-technical users who need to browse data, run queries, import/export CSV or SQL files, […]

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How to Install PostgreSQL 16 on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Install PostgreSQL 16 on RHEL 9

PostgreSQL (often called Postgres) is an advanced open-source relational database with a 35-year development history. Unlike MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL prioritises SQL standards compliance, data integrity, and extensibility over speed-at-any-cost. PostgreSQL excels at complex queries, full-text search, JSONB document storage, geospatial data (PostGIS extension), and write-heavy workloads that require strong ACID compliance. It is the preferred database […]

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How to Harden Nginx: Security Headers, TLS 1.3, OCSP Stapling on RHEL 9 — step-by-step RHEL 9 tutorial on Progressive Robot

How to Harden Nginx: Security Headers, TLS 1.3, OCSP Stapling on RHEL 9

A default Nginx installation serves content, but many security hardening steps are not enabled by default. Hardening Nginx means configuring HTTP security headers to prevent XSS, clickjacking, and MIME sniffing attacks; enforcing TLS 1.3 and strong cipher suites to eliminate outdated protocol vulnerabilities; enabling OCSP Stapling so clients can verify certificate validity without a round-trip […]

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