Rick Root wrote: > That's not really what a "three tiered security" model is though.... I > thought it referred to having the web server and coldfusion engine on > separate hosts, so that the web server passes requests for coldfusion > processing to the server running coldfusion... which processes the > CFML and hands the result back to the web server. > > I've always thought this was more for load distribution though than security.
Let's for a second assume that your first tier has been compromised, for instance through an exploit in your webserver (even though that is already much harder because if the server only has static data it has naturally been configured with a completely read-only filesystem). How is the attacker going to jump to the second tier? The only communication the second tier accepts from the first tier is forwarded HTTP requests on one specific port. And on that specific port there is different software from your webserver, so they can't use the same exploit. And only when they have compromised your second tier can they start messing with queries and getting access to the data in the third tier. Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Get involved in the latest ColdFusion discussions, product development sharing, and articles on the Adobe Labs wiki. http://labs/adobe.com/wiki/index.php/ColdFusion_8 Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:289354 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
