When One Witness Isn't Enough: Remote Verification for AIDE

Traditional AIDE setups trust the system they’re monitoring — which is exactly what attackers exploit. This article shows how to extend AIDE with remote verification, using standard Linux tools to build a tamper-evident, distributed integrity system.

🔗 Read the full article:
👉 Remote Verification for AIDE

🧩 The Problem

AIDE is great — but it's only as trustworthy as the system it runs on. If an attacker gains root access, they can:

• Modify files and regenerate the AIDE database
• Forge GPG signatures (if keys are stolen)
• Rewrite the ledger chain to cover their tracks

In other words: local-only verification doesn’t cut it.

🔐 The Solution: Remote Verification

Move the trust boundary off the compromised system. Here's how:

1. Use rsync + SSH to securely push AIDE results to a remote server.
2. Harden SSH with restricted keys + forced commands (no shell access).
3. Validate AIDE artifacts using cryptographic chains (GPG + ledger files).
4. Compare with archived baselines to detect tampering or rollback attempts.

🧪 Tools Used

All open-source, nothing exotic:

• AIDE for local integrity monitoring
• rsync for minimal, efficient syncing
• OpenSSH with forced commands for transport security
• GPG for signing and verification
• tar, diff, and bash for archive handling

🔄 What’s in the Article

• Architecture overview with diagrams
• SSH configuration examples (restricted keys)
• Sample rsync command with filters
• Ledger chaining concept explained
• Commands you can test in your own environment

🧠 Who It's For

This is ideal for:

• Linux sysadmins managing critical infrastructure
• DevOps/SREs with compliance or audit needs
• Security engineers building defense-in-depth systems
• Anyone running AIDE and wondering, “what stops an attacker from faking it?”

📌 Takeaway

This isn’t about making systems unbreakable — it’s about raising the bar. By verifying AIDE results remotely, you make it harder for attackers to hide, and easier for defenders to detect.

👉 Full article: Remote Verification for AIDE

Tags:
#linux #security #aide #devops #sysadmin #cybersecurity #opensource