Host Security: Basic
Notions
Applied Security
What is host security?
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A host is any computer, including
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Workstations
Network servers
Laptops
Wirelessly networked devices
...
Isn’t host security everything, then?
Host security measures
 Host-centric:
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Tailored to host architecture:
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Comprehensive:
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Takes into account not only type of
operating system but also configuration
protect installed applications
Complex, costly, protects single host
Secure host
configuration
Unix-like systems
Common Unix Configuration
Weaknesses
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Password
management issues:
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weak passwords
default passwords
re-used passwords
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Exploitable services
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FTP/TFTP
Sendmail
other services
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Improper file and
directory permissions
Improper use of setuid
Improper network file
configuration
Unpatched known
vulnerabilities
Basic UNIX access control
In Unix, there are three levels of access control
 Individual (user): Each user has a unique id (uid) in the system.
 Group: All users by default belong to the “user” group (some
distributions), or to a singleton group containing only that
individual user.
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Users can belong to more than one group (most modern versions).
Usually a group is defined for access control category. E.g:
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root/wheel (general administration)
www/web (web server administration)
mail (mail server administration)
adhoc groups can be used to facilitate collaboration such as directory and
file sharing
World (or all): The universe of all users.
File permissions
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File ownership: Each file and directory in UNIX (including programs) is
“owned” by a specific user, a specific group, and the world.
To each level of ownership there is an associated set of permission values:
read, write and execute. These values can be true (permission
granted) or false. Only the owner of a file (or the special user root) can
change the file permission settings.
Example:
drwxr-xr-x
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11 brenodem
brenodem 374 30 Aug 13:39 .
Indicates that the file ‘.’ (the current directory) is owned by user brenodem,
who belongs to the singleton group brenodem. The directory was last
modified on Aug. 30th at 13:39. The user brenodem is granted read, write,
and execute privileges to the file. The group and world are granted read
and execute (but not write) privileges to the files.
Meaning of file permissions
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The meaning of permissions for files is clear, but can be complex
for directories.
For instance, if a world-accessible file is located deep within a
directory structure, all the parent directories of the file must grant
execute permissions to the whole world.
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This is because, in order to traverse a directory structure, UNIX
executes cd on each directory (starting from the lowest common
directory, for instance ‘/home’ ). On the other hand, it is NOT
necessary that the same directories be world-readable.
If a directory is not readable by a principal, its contents cannot be
listed. However, it may well contain files that are readable by that
principal, and these can be opened if their name are known.
Proper file and directory
permissions
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Any UNIX system contains several directories that are world executable,
where most of the OS services reside:
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/bin (commands)
/etc (configuration files for the above)
/usr (utilities and applications)
/usr/local or /local (extra utilities and applications)
These directories are not required to be world readable, only their content
files need to be world readable. If the directories are not world readable
(and owned by root) then only the system administrator will be able to
have a global view of the system configuration and capabilities.
These directories should be writable only by root to prevent the
installation of programs without the administrator’s knowledge. In particular
they must be “owned” by root.
Changing ownership and
permissions
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The root user can change ownership and permissions on files at
will.
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In some distributions, a user may change ownership of its own files
to other users.
To change group ownership of a file, you must own the file and you
must belong to the new group the file will be assigned to:
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chown username filename
chgrp groupname filename
To change permissions, you must be the file’s owner
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chmod [o|g|a|u][+|-][r|w|x] filename
example: chmod og+wx filename adds permissions to write and
execute the file to both the file owner and file group owner.
Effective ID
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When a user tries to execute a program
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When the program is initiated, its effective ID is set to the
ID of the user (or program) calling it.
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The UNIX system decides whether the user is authorized to
execute (for instance, the user may belong the the file group
owner, and the file may be executable by the group).
For instance, if a utility program is owned by root (typical), but
called by a regular user, the effective id of the running program
will equal that of the caller (user), not root.
This standard mechanism is not sufficient in some cases.
For instance, the login program.
SUID
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The login program is invoked by regular users, but must have root
privileges in order to access the protected password files (/etc/shadow),
and to authenticate the user. (Effectively spawning a program under a
particular user name even if called by another.)
This is called a “set user id” program (suid).
-r-sr-xr-x
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1 root
wheel
26756 16 Aug 10:32 /usr/bin/login
Note the ‘s’ in the list of privileges. That means that the caller (could be
anybody, as the file is world executable) will spawn a program with the
privileges of the group wheel (which can access the password file, and
spawn programs (shell) under arbitrary user identities.)
Proper configuration of file
permissions
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The system of file access permissions underscores most of
the access control decisions of the UNIX operating system.
It is a flexible mechanism that enables different
configurations to accommodate different usage needs.
Improper configuration of file and directory permissions can
create serious vulnerabilities.
The use of SUID programs is a powerful mechanism that
should be utilized only when necessary. For instance, a
fragile program with SUID permissions can be easily
exploited to grant administrative privileges to an attacker.
RPC Utilities
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Most Unix systems include
the RPC utilities suite for
remote command execution:
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rlogin (remote login)
rsh (remote shell)
rcp (remote copy)
Two modes of authentication:
host-based and passwordbased
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RPCs originating at a trusted
host (i.e., a host listed in
/etc/hosts or
/etc/hosts.allow or
/etc/hosts.equiv),
identified by network packet
source address, are
accepted and given uid equal
to the claimed username.
•RPCs called from non-trusted computers must provide both username
and password. (Both sent as cleartext over the network.)
Disabling RPC utilities
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The use of RPC utilities has been deprecated in favor of the ssh
and scp programs, both built onto the SSH protocol, which
provides encryption.
For backward compatibility the SSH program supports host-based
authentication. (This is stronger than in the RPC case, as hosts
have SSH keys with which they can mutually authenticate their
identities.)
It is important to ensure that the configuration of the /etc/hosts files
reflects the trust policies of your network, and that the RPC utilities
are disabled whenever possible.
The UNIX password
system
Past and present
Early Unix Password System
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In early versions of Unix,
the password was
processed using a “secure
hash” function derived
from the DES cipher.
The salt was restricted to
12 bits, resulting in 4096
possible hash values for
each password.
Passwords were restricted
to 8-character length.
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8-character passwords
converted into 56-bit DES
keys
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Password shorter than 8
characters long padded w/
zeros.
Longer passwords truncated
in some systems.
Salt used to change the DES
cipher, which is applied 25
times.
Results stored in world
readable /etc/passwd file
Unix crypt()
DES: IP and FP stand for initial and
final permutations, respectively.
F: Round function
E: Expansion function 3248 bits,
is changed on crypt3() using the salt.
Old /etc/passwd file
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An entry in the /etc/passwd file has the following form:
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Name:Password:UserID:PrincipleGroup:Gecos: HomeDirectory:Shell
smith:Ep6mckrOLChF.:100:100:John
Smith/home/smith:/usr/bin/sh
guest:*:200:0::/home/guest:/usr/bin/sh
An entry ‘*’ for password means that the account has been
disabled, while an empty password means that password is not
required for login!
When shadow passwords are used, ‘!’ or ‘x’ substitutes for the
password.
New /etc/passwd file
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nobody:*:-2:-2:Unprivileged User:/:/usr/bin/false
root:*:0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh
daemon:*:1:1:System Services:/var/root:/usr/bin/false
smmsp:*:25:25:Sendmail
User:/private/etc/mail:/usr/bin/false
lp:*:26:26:Printing Services:/var/spool/cups:/usr/bin/false
sshd:*:75:75:sshd Privilege
separation:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
qtss:*:76:76:QuickTime Streaming
Server:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
/etc/shadow file
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Entries of the form:
smithj:Ep6mckrOLChF.:10193:0:99999:5:::
Where the password is followed by:
The date when the password was last changed, measured in
elapsed days since Jan. 1st, 1970.
The number of days before the password can be changed again
The number of days after which the password must be changed
The number of days to warn user of an expiring password
The number of days after password expires that account is disabled
The number of days since January 1, 1970 that an account has
been disabled
A reserved field for possible future use
Other changes
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Since the introduction of shadow
passwords, and the new crypt(), other
modifications have been introduced, such
as the use of MD5 passwords, and also
Blowfish-encrypted passwords.
Blowfish is an interesting choice: The
algorithm is very slow to change keys,
making hashing password expensive (good
for security).
Reading assignment for 01/16
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Use of a Taxonomy of Security Faults, by T. Aslam, I. Krsul,
and E. H. Spafford
M. Bishop and D. Klein, Improving System Security
Through Proactive Password Checking,Computers and
Security 14(3) pp. 233-249 (May/June 1995)
http://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/~bishop/papers/1995c+s/proact.pdf