How To Install libapache2-mod-security2 on Ubuntu 18.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install libapache2-mod-security2 on Ubuntu 18.04. libapache2-mod-security2 is Tighten web applications security for Apache

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install libapache2-mod-security2 on Ubuntu 18.04.

What is libapache2-mod-security2

libapache2-mod-security2 is:

Modsecurity is an Apache module whose purpose is to tighten the Web application security. Effectively, it is an intrusion detection and prevention system for the web server.

At the moment its main features are:

  • Audit log; store full request details in a separate file, including POST payloads.
  • Request filtering; incoming requests can be analysed and offensive requests can be rejected (or simply logged, if that is what you want). This feature can be used to prevent many types of attacks (e.g. XSS attacks, SQL injection, …) and even allow you to run insecure applications on your servers (if you have no other choice, of course).

There are three methods to install libapache2-mod-security2 on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install libapache2-mod-security2 Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install libapache2-mod-security2 using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install libapache2-mod-security2

Install libapache2-mod-security2 Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install libapache2-mod-security2 using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install libapache2-mod-security2

Install libapache2-mod-security2 Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install libapache2-mod-security2 using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install libapache2-mod-security2

How To Uninstall libapache2-mod-security2 on Ubuntu 18.04

To uninstall only the libapache2-mod-security2 package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove libapache2-mod-security2

Uninstall libapache2-mod-security2 And Its Dependencies

To uninstall libapache2-mod-security2 and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove libapache2-mod-security2

Remove libapache2-mod-security2 Configurations and Data

To remove libapache2-mod-security2 configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge libapache2-mod-security2

Remove libapache2-mod-security2 configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove libapache2-mod-security2 configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge libapache2-mod-security2

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install libapache2-mod-security2 package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.