Re: secure UNIX log server

From: Nick Maclaren (nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk)
Date: 05/29/02 

From: nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren)
Date: 29 May 2002 14:14:15 GMT

In article <ad2n9f$ofj$4@sapa.inka.de>, Bernd Eckenfels <ecki-news2002-05@lina.inka.de> writes:
|> Trueblood <trueblood@lonegunmen.org> wrote:
|> > One possibility would be to take away root from the admins, but give them
|> > sudo access. The good news about this is with sudo, every command can be
|> > logged. That way, they can do whatever they need to do, but if something
|> > happens you'll have a better audit log.
|>
|> It is more secure to not allow any network access to the system at all.

Not necessarily. While that is more secure against some problems,
it is much less against others. For example, if we did it, there
would be a very high chance that the log server would die and the
failure not get noticed for a long time. Our machine room is run
dark, and often not visited for weeks at a stretch.

That approach is all very well for staffed machine rooms, but not
all sites run like that. Or even could do! We couldn't.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679