Re: Fwd: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-07 Thread Lowell Gilbert
"Norman Maurer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Norman Maurer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 2008/5/7
> Subject: Re: Question about a recent installation
> To: Mario Vazquez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
> 2008/5/6 Mario Vazquez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
>>
>  >  On May 5, 2008, at 6:17 PM, doug wrote:
>  >
>  >
>  > > To give limited priviledges I think sudo (as in linux??) would be
>  >  > used.
>  >
>  >
>  > I concur that sudo is really a very good way of managing privileges.
>  >  I don't even know the root passwords on the systems that I administer
>  >  (OK, I do have them stored in a nice secured place if I ever do need
>  >  them).
>  >
>  >  Cheers,
>  >
>  >  -j
>  >
>  >
>  >  --
>  >
>  >  In fact, I use sudo for managing too.  My question is not about
> sudo itself, it's about the possible risks (if any) of having a
> default installation (FreeBSD7-RELEASE) which assigns ownership of the
> root folder to root:wheel, thus allowing anyone with wheel privileges
> be able to see (and copy btw) root folder contents.
>  >
>
>  I still not get the point.. If the files are create the default is a
>  umask of 022 anway. So if you want to protect your files in the root
>  folder to get accessed, use umask 066 and maybe chmod 700 /root.

Perhaps more to the point of the question, there is nothing in /root
on a default system which has any need of being kept secret.  

-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area
http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/
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Fwd: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-07 Thread Norman Maurer
-- Forwarded message --
From: Norman Maurer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2008/5/7
Subject: Re: Question about a recent installation
To: Mario Vazquez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


2008/5/6 Mario Vazquez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

>
 >  On May 5, 2008, at 6:17 PM, doug wrote:
 >
 >
 > > To give limited priviledges I think sudo (as in linux??) would be
 >  > used.
 >
 >
 > I concur that sudo is really a very good way of managing privileges.
 >  I don't even know the root passwords on the systems that I administer
 >  (OK, I do have them stored in a nice secured place if I ever do need
 >  them).
 >
 >  Cheers,
 >
 >  -j
 >
 >
 >  --
 >
 >  In fact, I use sudo for managing too.  My question is not about
sudo itself, it's about the possible risks (if any) of having a
default installation (FreeBSD7-RELEASE) which assigns ownership of the
root folder to root:wheel, thus allowing anyone with wheel privileges
be able to see (and copy btw) root folder contents.
 >

 I still not get the point.. If the files are create the default is a
 umask of 022 anway. So if you want to protect your files in the root
 folder to get accessed, use umask 066 and maybe chmod 700 /root.

 Cheers
 Norman
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Re: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-06 Thread Mario Vazquez

On May 5, 2008, at 6:17 PM, doug wrote:
 
> To give limited priviledges I think sudo (as in linux??) would be  
> used.
 
I concur that sudo is really a very good way of managing privileges.   
I don't even know the root passwords on the systems that I administer  
(OK, I do have them stored in a nice secured place if I ever do need  
them).
 
Cheers,
 
-j


--

In fact, I use sudo for managing too.  My question is not about sudo itself, 
it's about the possible risks (if any) of having a default installation 
(FreeBSD7-RELEASE) which assigns ownership of the root folder to root:wheel, 
thus allowing anyone with wheel privileges be able to see (and copy btw) root 
folder contents.

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RE: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-06 Thread doug



On Mon, 5 May 2008, Mario Vazquez wrote:



I have been using different Linux distributions for some years, and decided to
give FreeBSD a try.  The install was successful, but have a question about how
the root account is made.  Found that the root folder was created with the
user/group privileges root:wheel.  Is not that a kind of security risk?  I
know that usually only the account used by the administrator is the one, in
addition to root, that belongs to the wheel group.  But also I know that
sometimes admins get lazy and give for limited time extra privileges just to
allow someone to do something, and that's where the danger can come.  Btw,
that's just my opinion.
_


To give limited priviledges I think sudo (as in linux??) would be used.
If that does not provide enough security then kerberos could be used.

In general I don't see how you main concern is unique to FreeBSD.

DougD


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yeah, sudo is.  I don't have any issue in terms of functionality.  But the 
doubt I have is if having the root folder created with ownership root:wheel 
can become a security issue or not.  Also would like to know if there is no 
problem changing my root folder ownership to root:root (which will require a 
root group btw).


Please do not top post.

There is no reason for a root group. I think best practice is to have each admin 
keep their data in their accounts which are either allocated as name:wheel or 
they are defined as being in the wheel group. I do not know if sudo requires 
wheel membership.


I do not understand the need for a root group. I think security liabilities from 
having a wheel group have long been worked out. What do you see as a problem? Is 
BSD different from linux in this regard? perhaps the latter question is an 
off-list topic.



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Re: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-05 Thread Jonathan McKeown
On Tuesday 06 May 2008 00:08, Mario Vazquez wrote:
> I have been using different Linux distributions for some years, and decided
> to give FreeBSD a try.  The install was successful, but have a question
> about how the root account is made.  Found that the root folder was created
> with the user/group privileges root:wheel.  Is not that a kind of security
> risk?  I know that usually only the account used by the administrator is
> the one, in addition to root, that belongs to the wheel group.  But also I
> know that sometimes admins get lazy and give for limited time extra
> privileges just to allow someone to do something, and that's where the
> danger can come.  Btw, that's just my opinion.

Not sure why it would be a security risk. wheel is the group for people who 
are allowed to su to root, so you should probably expect members of group 
wheel to have (or be able to get) root privs anyway.

I'm not sure whether by ``root folder'' you mean / or /root , but in either 
case the wheel group doesn't have write access, at least on my system,and 
root's umask is 022, so created files aren't writable by members of wheel 
either.

Lazy admins, of course, are a security risk. No-one should ever be given more 
privileges than they need, and as others have pointed out, sudo is a good 
answer to this problem. (In fact the first four ports that go on every box I 
set up, before I even think about what the box is for, are www/lynx, 
sysutils/screen, ports-mgmt/portupgrade and security/sudo ).

Jonathan
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Re: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-05 Thread Jeffrey Goldberg

On May 5, 2008, at 6:17 PM, doug wrote:

To give limited priviledges I think sudo (as in linux??) would be  
used.


I concur that sudo is really a very good way of managing privileges.   
I don't even know the root passwords on the systems that I administer  
(OK, I do have them stored in a nice secured place if I ever do need  
them).


Cheers,

-j


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Re: Question about a recent installation

2008-05-05 Thread doug

On Mon, 5 May 2008, Mario Vazquez wrote:



I have been using different Linux distributions for some years, and decided to 
give FreeBSD a try.  The install was successful, but have a question about how 
the root account is made.  Found that the root folder was created with the 
user/group privileges root:wheel.  Is not that a kind of security risk?  I 
know that usually only the account used by the administrator is the one, in 
addition to root, that belongs to the wheel group.  But also I know that 
sometimes admins get lazy and give for limited time extra privileges just to 
allow someone to do something, and that's where the danger can come.  Btw, 
that's just my opinion.

_


To give limited priviledges I think sudo (as in linux??) would be used. 
If that does not provide enough security then kerberos could be used.


In general I don't see how you main concern is unique to FreeBSD.

DougD
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Question about a recent installation

2008-05-05 Thread Mario Vazquez

I have been using different Linux distributions for some years, and decided to 
give FreeBSD a try.  The install was successful, but have a question about how 
the root account is made.  Found that the root folder was created with the 
user/group privileges root:wheel.  Is not that a kind of security risk?  I know 
that usually only the account used by the administrator is the one, in addition 
to root, that belongs to the wheel group.  But also I know that sometimes 
admins get lazy and give for limited time extra privileges just to allow 
someone to do something, and that's where the danger can come.  Btw, that's 
just my opinion.
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