RFC and ICANN Compliance

  • CoCCA supports all the RFC’s required by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers - the peak body for co-ordination of the Internet naming and numbering system (ICANN). Compliant with standards in Specifications 6 and 10 of the ICANN base agreement.
  • List of supported RFCs
  • Anycast DNS using PCH Anycast. Additional Anycast using AfriNIC or LAC TLD also recommened - depending on region and TLD manager preference.
  • Support for WHMCS.
  • European GDPR Compliant.

Infrastructure

WHMCS module

WHMCS v8+ required. Simplifed install and configuration, support for premium domains and DNSSEC.

Changelog

Prerequisites - Updated September 2024

  • Ubuntu Server LTS 24.04.X LTS (server install, basic - no GUI or other options), 16GB RAM, 8 core, 120GB HDD
  • Latest postgreSQL 17, JDK 1.8 (8.0.432+6), Resin 4.0.67
  • Tips

Basics:

  • sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
  • sudo apt install zip unzip
  • sudo touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled
  • sudo apt purge cloud-init -y
  • sudo rm -Rf /etc/cloud
  • sudo systemctl disable --now unattended-upgrades
  • sudo apt remove unattended-upgrades
  • sudo apt install bind9 bind9utils bind9-doc -y
  • sudo apt install dnsutils
  • sudo apt install whois
  • sudo apt install yamllint
  • sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
  • sudo apt-get install fontconfig
  • sudo fc-cache -f -v
  • sudo apt install build-essential checkinstall zlib1g-dev -y
  • sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
  • sudo timedatectl set-timezone UTC
  • sudo timedatectl set-ntp on
  • sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
  • sudo apt autoremove
  • sed -i 's/# set linenumbers/set linenumbers/g' /etc/nanorc

Basic Security

Ubunutu firewall basic configuration, handy commands:

  • sudo ufw enable | disable
  • sudo ufw status numbered ( see rules )
  • sudo ufw delete X ( delete a rule by number )
  • sudo ufw reload ( after rule changes )
sudo ufw allow from [trusted IP] to any port 22 ( if sshd is on non-standard port use that port )
sudo ufw allow 53/tcp comment 'Open port DNS tcp port 53'
sudo ufw allow 53/udp comment 'Open port DNS udp port 53'
sudo ufw allow from any to any port 80
sudo ufw allow from any to any port 443
sudo ufw allow from any to any port 700

Use fail2ban to protect against brute force/dictionary ssh attacks and mal-formed http requests. - tutorial

sudo apt install fail2ban

Basic sshd refinements. (we recommend using ssh keys tutorial)

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Protocol 2
Port XXX ( change port, config ufw to allow the selected port )
ListenAddress x.x.x.x ( if multiple IP, bind to one IP )
LogLevel VERBOSE
AllowUsers user_1 user_2 ( list logins that are allowed to ssh )
LoginGraceTime 30
PermitRootLogin no
MaxAuthTries 3
HostbasedAuthentication no
IgnoreRhosts yes
PermitEmptyPasswords no
AllowTcpForwarding no
X11Forwarding no
ClientAliveInterval 300
ClientAliveCountMax 0
MaxStartups 2
sudo systemctl restart ssh

PostgreSQL

Installation Instructions: https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/ubuntu/

Create the file repository configuration:

sudo apt install -y postgresql-common
sudo /usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.sh

Update the package lists:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y install postgresql-17
Tune postgresql: https://pgtune.leopard.in.ua/

File to edit when tuning PG:

sudo nano /etc/postgresql/17/main/postgresql.conf

Set password for user "postgres" and create empty db to import backup.

sudo -u postgres psql postgres
\password postgres ( enter desired password when prompted )
CREATE database registry;
\q (to exit the posgreSQL command interface )

Edit pg_hba.conf to force password confirmation for postgres commands
Look for --- "Database administrative login by Unix domain socket", replace "peer" with "md5"

sudo nano /etc/postgresql/17/main/pg_hba.conf

Restart PG for changes to take effect:

sudo pg_ctlcluster 17 main restart

Import CoCCA database from a pg binary backup:

pg_restore -U postgres -Fc -d registry < CoCCA-Backup.dump

Java

Install Java JDK 1.8

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/jvm
cd /usr/lib/jvm
Direct from Adoptium https://adoptium.net
sudo wget --inet4-only https://github.com/adoptium/temurin8-binaries/releases/download/jdk8u442-b06/OpenJDK8U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_8u442b06.tar.gz --no-check-certificate
Extract download
sudo tar -xvzf OpenJDK8U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_8u442b06.tar.gz

Append the following command to open the environment variables file.

sudo nano /etc/environment
JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/jdk8u442-b06"

Run from command line.

sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk8u442-b06/bin/java" 0
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk8u442-b06/bin/javac" 0
sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/jdk8u442-b06/bin/java
sudo update-alternatives --set javac /usr/lib/jvm/jdk8u442-b06/bin/javac

Check Version

java -version
sudo update-alternatives --config java
sudo update-alternatives --display java

Resin

The http server used with CoCCA https://caucho.com

Before installing resin, install the JDK.

Recomended : Create a host name for your instance with an A record to match the server IP

cd /opt
sudo wget --inet4-only http://caucho.com/download/resin-4.0.67.tar.gz --no-check-certificate
tar -vzxf resin-4.0.67.tar.gz
cd resin-4.0.67
./configure --enable-64bit --prefix=/opt/resin/ --with-resin-root=/opt/resin --with-resin-log=/opt/resin/log --with-resin-conf=/opt/resin/conf
sudo make && sudo make install

Post Install Configuration:
Download the CoCCA lab jks from CoCCA ( needed for EPP and https ).

cd /opt/resin/conf/keys/
Contact CoCCA

Download the latest CoCCA ROOT.war file

cd /opt/resin/webapps/
Contact CoCCA

Get postgreSQL jdbc driver

cd /opt/resin/lib/
wget --inet4-only https://jdbc.postgresql.org/download/postgresql-42.7.7.jar --no-check-certificate

Rename default resin.xml and download resin config file for CoCCA:

cd /opt/resin/conf
mv resin.xml resin.backup

Edit default resin config file:

  • replace default IPs with 127.0.0.1 or server private IPs if you use NAT ( line 28 and 42 )
  • replace default host registry.example.tld with your host name (line 75 and 83 ).
  • insert postgreql password you created in postgesql section above ( line 92 )
sudo nano /opt/resin/conf/resin.xml

Start ( or restart ) resin and login to portal. If restart does not work, try stop then start.

/etc/init.d/resin stop | start | restart

Go to your host name URL- https://registry.example.tld ( or https://ipaddress - will take ±15-20 seconds to load )

letsencrypt

Optional The CoCCA lab jks downloaded above will enable https connections but with a browser warning. If you want a free https certificate to match your host name, we suggest https://letsencrypt.org

sudo apt install certbot

Stop resin webserver to release port 80 and 443 temporarily.

/etc/init.d/resin stop

Request a new certificate

sudo certbot certonly --standalone

Create p12 (one long srting/command)

openssl pkcs12 -export -name sslcertificate -in /etc/letsencrypt/live/registry.example.tld/fullchain.pem -inkey /etc/letsencrypt/live/registry.example.tld/privkey.pem -out registry.example.tld.p12

Create Java keystore and import p12 (one long string/command):

/usr/lib/jvm/jdk8u442-b06/bin/keytool -importkeystore -destkeystore registry.example.tld.jks -srckeystore registry.example.tld.p12 -srcstoretype pkcs12 -alias sslcertificate

Move newly created jks to the resin keys folder

mv registry.example.tld.jks /opt/resin/conf/keys/registry.example.tld.jks

Edit resin config file to enable new http certificate:

sudo nano /opt/resin/conf/resin.xml

Add the path, jks file name and password for the custom jks created above (lines 45 & 46)

Start ( or restart ) resin and login to portal. If restart does not work, try stop then start.

/etc/init.d/resin stop | start | restart

NGINX proxy

To improve security install nginx as a reverse proxy.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx
systemctl status nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/registry.nic.tld

When creating or edting the config files, replace "registry.nic.tld" with whatever host name is appropriate for your registry. Paste and then edit the content below.

# HTTP redirect
server {
listen 80;
# listen [::]:80;
server_name registry.nic.tld;
location / {
return 301 https://registry.nic.tld$request_uri;
}
}

# HTTPS
server {
listen 443 ssl;
#listen [::]:443 ssl;
keepalive_timeout 300s;
proxy_read_timeout 300s;
send_timeout 300s;

ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/registry.nic.tld/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/registry.nic.tld/privkey.pem;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
server_name registry.nic.tld;
location / {
proxy_pass https://127.0.0.1:8443;
include proxy_params;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains; preload";
add_header Permissions-Policy "interest-cohort=()" always;

# . files
location ~ /\.(?!well-known) {
deny all;
}
}
}

Save and exit, with nano you can do this by hitting CTRL+O then CTRL+X.

Next, enable this configuration file by creating a link from it to the sites-enabled directory that Nginx reads at startup:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/registry.nic.tld /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

NGINX uses the default linked configuration file. Creating a reverse proxy requires creating and linking a custom file. To avoid any potential conflicts, use the following command:

sudo unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

To configure NGINX to launch on reboot automatically, enable the service with:

sudo systemctl enable nginx

Create a non-root user

sudo useradd -m -d /opt/nginxuser -U -s /bin/false nginxuser

Grant nginxuser Necessary Permissions

sudo chown -R nginxuser:nginxuser /var/log/nginx
sudo chown -R nginxuser:nginxuser /var/lib/nginx

Now, Open the Nginx configuration file in a text editor.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Within the configuration file, locate the user directive (top of the conf file), and set it to the non-root user you created.

  • user nginxuser;
  • worker_connections 1024;
  • uncomment server_tokens off;

Save and exit, with nano you can do this by hitting CTRL+O then CTRL+X.

Test the Configuration

sudo nginx -t

Edit resin.xml config file /opt/resin/conf/resin.xml

Change listen IPs to 127.0.0.1 and ::1 ( if you use Ipv6 )

Change ports from 80 and 443 to 8080 and 8443

sudo nano /opt/resin/conf/resin.xml
/etc/init.d/resin stop | start
sudo systemctl stop | start nginx

Check the process using the following command to ensure that Nginx is running with the non-root user.

ps aux | grep nginx