Questions on Securing Debian Howto

["nddias" <nathan.d.dias@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I am setting up a Debian (sarge) webserver to run over my home DSL
connection. I've been using my best common sense and a whole lot of
googling to follow along with the "Securing Debian Howto, but I still
have some questions/need clarifications on some points. The numbers in
parentheses refer to the sections of this guide:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/

4.2 Executing a security update

Is the NAT/firewall in my wireless router (WEP enabled) sufficient
protection when doing the security update during installation?

4.2.2 Security update of the Kernel

I recompiled and installed a 2.6.8 kernel w/ local APIC support
disabled because I was getting "spurious interrupt" messages. I also
enabled Athlon support. Will apt/dpkg still be able to detect when
kernel updates are necessary according to this section? Or am I on my
own to maintain my custom kernel?

4.7 Restricting console login access

The section talks about "login.defs" and securetty (PAM) config files,
but both are installed on my system (default Debian install). Which one
takes precedence, or are both in effect?

4.9.1, 4.9.2

These sections refer to modifying apt.conf, but this file doesn't
exist...instead there is an /etc/apt/apt.conf.d directory and in it a
70debconf file. I can't find any docs on how this directory structure
works or the proper way to modify it. The apt man page says that apt
first reads the file in APT_CONFIG but this env var is not set. I have
found plenty of docs on using apt, but none on configuring it.

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but that's it for now.

Thanks!

Nathan