RE: Question about DMZ Domain Member and Virus Membership

First of all patch and update religiously, the less vulnerabilities, the
less risk.
Second, plan for the worst. Assume your servers get hacked and fully
controlled, document what information the hacker can obtain, what access
they can exploit, what it will take to rebuild from scratch, etc.
Third, check your system and AV logs and other evidence trails for
suspicious and normal behavior regularly. I include normal behavior
because it helps cut down on false alarms and gives you a baseline for
anomalous behavior.
And fourth, test and audit the servers regularly. It is better to know
your vulnerabilities than to assume your security.

If you wanted, you could wrap 3 & 4 up into creating a
review/maintenance schedule and sticking to it. Servers typically get
hacked right out of the gate due to insufficient patching for known
vulnerabilities or later in the life cycle when patching falls behind
and people forget what services/vulnerabilities are on the server.
Practice due care/diligence, keep reading and keep asking questions.
You're already off to a good start.

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam T [mailto:123security@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:01 AM
To: security-basics@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Question about DMZ Domain Member and Virus Membership

Thank you both for your comments.
Now to follow this up further. If I shut down un-needed services and
restrict access to machine ports from the internet as needed IE port
80 on one machine, port 25 on another. what else is recommended? What
is the next goal/level to try to achieve.

On 20/03/06, Dan Bogda <dan.bogda@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
They should have as few connections into your network as you can
afford.
Ideally you are building a DMZ to insulate your internal network from
external threats. If you are building the DMZ to shield your Domain
from
windows threats it doesn't make sense to extend that Domain into the
DMZ. There are always exceptions based on acceptable risk, budget and
business requirements. This really comes down to a question of the
risks
and benefits the various options present for your company/client and
how
willing they are to accept them.

For example, if you are adding a lot of users or duplicate users it
may
make sense to allow the DMZ hosts to participate in the domain rather
than manually updating two sets of hosts. Or, same scenario, it may
make
more sense to hire a contractor to create an automated event that can
push changes to your DMZ, instead of the DMZ hosts participating in
the
domain and pulling updates. You should really document your options,
the
risk and benefit of each and let management decide what is worth
pursuing.

In short, best practice would be to leverage the DMZ and not allow it
to
connect into your internal network. Instead, configure this as a no
man's land and only allow connections into the environment, not out.
Harden your DMZ boxes, disable unused services and don't put anything
on
there you are worried about losing. If clients are uploading files,
pull
them off as soon as you can. The more valuable data sitting on a DMZ
host the more valuable a target it becomes.

Of course, this is just another opinion and carries no guarantees.
Your
actual mileage may vary. Hope this helps, good luck.

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam T [mailto:123security@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2006 6:01 PM
To: security-basics@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Question about DMZ Domain Member and Virus Membership

I would like to know what is the best practice method to configure
Windows Servers in the DMZ. Should they be a part of the domain and
therefore open ports to allow authentication? Or should they be kept
as standalone servers? I also have my virus scanners on these machines
but they are not in contact with the Primary Virus Server should I
allow these ports through the firewall? Currently they are standalone
virus scanners. Please share with me your thoughts on these
configurations.
Thank you

./Adam


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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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EARN A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION ASSURANCE - ONLINE
The Norwich University program offers unparalleled Infosec management
education and the case study affords you unmatched consulting
experience.
Tailor your education to your own professional goals with degree
customizations including Emergency Management, Business Continuity
Planning,
Computer Emergency Response Teams, and Digital Investigations.

http://www.msia.norwich.edu/secfocus
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EARN A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION ASSURANCE - ONLINE
The Norwich University program offers unparalleled Infosec management
education and the case study affords you unmatched consulting experience.
Tailor your education to your own professional goals with degree
customizations including Emergency Management, Business Continuity Planning,
Computer Emergency Response Teams, and Digital Investigations.

http://www.msia.norwich.edu/secfocus
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