In a message dated: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 11:57:01 EDT
Bob Bell said:
> Understandable in most cases, just not in mine. When I screw up a
>system I've been working on, the sys admins don't really care. It's
>my job to figure out what went wrong and fix it.
>
> As I believe Derek said, in my case I really do need the root
>password. As stated, the most secure way for such as setup is to make
>machines on which I have root access not connected to the primary
>network. Due to the huge inconvenience this could cause, all machines
>are connected to the production environment anyway. Care is taken as
>much as possible to prevent root on my machine from giving me root on
>another. I know that may not technically be the best setup security
>wise, but I believe any other setup would cramp productivity. If
>someone were to cause serious security issues on unauthorized
>machines, they would have to have serious malicious intent.
>Fortunately, such instances appear to be few around here.
With linux, at least the liberal use of root_squash can help :) Additionally,
keep in mind, the most damage is usually done from the inside (Los Alamos
anyone!).
I readily admit that security is inversely proportional to productivity,
however, there is no reason why a reasonable level of security can't be met
provided that people be willing to be flexible. Unfortunately, I often found
that as a sysadmin, we automatically seen as the bad guys (or girls) as soon
as we mention anything about security, and that engineers (in general) seem
quite reluctant to change anything with respect to the way they work.
In your particular case, where you are doing OS development I can see the need
for root access to your machine. However, do you really *need* NFS access?
Could you not ssh into a trusted/secure machine and access the necessary files
that way? Can a web browser not be employed to let you view the necessary
documents? If you need a particular file, and ftp or scp not be used as an
alternative to get just what you really need? Full NFS access to corporate
central data seems a little unnecessary to me, and a huge risk as well when
speaking of a completely untrusted, non-secure host.
There are ways of enabling people in your position to work productively *and*
securely. It just takes communication and a willingness to co-operate.
Unfortunately, those 2 things are too often replaced with inflexibility and
resistance to change.
--
Seeya,
Paul
----
"I always explain our company via interpretive dance.
I meet lots of interesting people that way."
Niall Kavanagh, 10 April, 2000
If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!
**********************************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the
*body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter:
unsubscribe gnhlug
**********************************************************
