This is a subject I've found very little on and while there are theory-based articles out there, I can't find anything with specifics. I also wasn't sure whether this should live on stack overflow or serverfault, but since most of this is probably a form of linux administration, serverfault felt the best to me.
How would I 'black box' an OS while still allowing the required services to run?
Rephrasing the details I had before just to better explain. I have a linux-based virtual machine appliance that I've deployed at multiple locations and is designed to fulfill a specific purpose, but doesn't require the user access the server OS itself; everything they need can be configured from a custom shell and web interface and now that it is deployed, there isn't a reason for anyone (even myself) to be able to access the internals of the system. After the system is deployed, it may have private data on it and copyrighted code and so for security, I want to 'black box' this environment. How would I do this?
Essentially I want to ensure that even a power user can't get into the innards of the OS, whether by command line or booting the system from a live disk (thinking encryption of some kind).
This process would be similar to that of a Dell iDRAC, HP ILO, VMware ESXi, Cisco switches where the internals of the Linux or Unix OS can't be accessed by the person the product is sold to.
