Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 10 Dec 1998 10:59:34 -0500 (EST)
From:      Robert Watson <robert@cyrus.watson.org>
To:        "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>
Cc:        Jay Tribick <netadmin@fastnet.co.uk>, Mark Newton <newton@camtech.com.au>, FREEBSD-SECURITY@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: append-only devices for logging 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.981210105622.18096A-100000@fledge.watson.org>
In-Reply-To: <30042.913284025@zippy.cdrom.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

One also, of course, needs to make sure that all the CAM SCSI devices
(pass-through, etc) obey securelevel semantics, etc.  I would guess that
at least some hardware drivers on the system might allow the circumventing
of the higher securelevel prohibition on writing directly to disk devices,
or all manipulation of the device such that it allows access to portions
of memory that it should not.  For example, it may be that some bus
mastering devices can be pursuaded to do things on the bus that they
should not, or incorrectly treat memory as mapped into their address
space, etc.  I assume that direct io port access is restricted in high
securelevels?  

In the normal case, only root can do these things, so it is assumed to be
ok, but in securelevels, root is suddenly a restricted user also.

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:

> > True but if they have root then they can quite easily alter /etc/rc.local
> 
> Anyone setting their securelevel to 2 and *meaning* it will have also
> chflag'd many of the files in / (including this one) to be effectively
> read-only. There's no point in locking all your doors and leaving a
> window open, after all, and anyone clueful enough to run at such a
> high secure level should also be clueful enough to know where all the
> obvious doors and windows (like this one) are. :-)
> 
> - Jordan
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
> 


  Robert N Watson 

robert@fledge.watson.org              http://www.watson.org/~robert/
PGP key fingerprint: 03 01 DD 8E 15 67 48 73  25 6D 10 FC EC 68 C1 1C

Carnegie Mellon University            http://www.cmu.edu/
TIS Labs at Network Associates, Inc.  http://www.tis.com/
SafePort Network Services             http://www.safeport.com/


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.3.96.981210105622.18096A-100000>