Re: NFS Security Question

From: Thorsten Sideb0ard (thorsten@robot6.com)
Date: 08/14/01 

Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 15:20:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Thorsten Sideb0ard <thorsten@robot6.com>
To: Neil Dickey <neil@geol.niu.edu>
Subject: Re: NFS Security Question
Message-ID: <Pine.BSO.4.33.0108131518470.23792-100000@maria.gaffle.com>

One other solution would be to use
TCFS, the Transparent Cryptographic Filesystem

http://tcfs.dia.unisa.it/

-thor

On Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Neil Dickey wrote:

>
> McGee Olson <molson@crystal.cirrus.com> wrote asking:
>
> >So, the scenario goes like this. You have two users "joe" and "bob".
> >You have two machines "foo" and "bar". "foo" and "bar" both satisfy
> >(3) and (4) above, and each has a different root password. "joe" has
> >root on "foo", and "bob" has root on "bar". "joe" logs in as root on
> >"foo", and then he executes the line "su - bob". Now, "joe" is logged
> >in as "bob" and has all the permissions associated with the "bob"
> >account.
> >
> >Is there anyway to stop this from happening?
>
> I don't claim to be an expert, just a sysop for a number of years,
> but I don't think there's a way to do that with NFS. We've had a
> problem like this that involved violation of AUPs, rather like your
> hypothetical situation, and the only fix possible under the circum-
> stances was to eliminate the NFS connection, among a number of other
> things. Briefly stated, the offending machine was isolated from the
> rest of our network.
>
> The only other possible solutions, as I see it, are to replace "joe"
> with someone you can trust, or get rid of the "su" command, or both.
> These options were either not available or were insufficiently secure
> in our situation.
>
> If anyone has a better approach, I'd sure like to know it.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Neil Dickey, Ph.D.
> Research Associate/Sysop
> Geology Department
> Northern Illinois University
> DeKalb, Illinois
> 60115
>
>
> 

-- 
[thorsten@interphaze.org ]#

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