Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 19:15:25 +0200 From: "Julian H. Stacey" <jhs@berklix.com> To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Subject: Re: / owned by bin causes sshd to complain bad ownership Message-ID: <201206221715.q5MHFPJW052099@fire.js.berklix.net> In-Reply-To: Your message "Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:59:28 EDT." <20120622155928.GA9983@DataIX.net>
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Jason Hellenthal wrote: > > On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 03:43:47PM +0200, Julian H. Stacey wrote: > > Hi freebsd-security@freebsd.org > > On an 8.3-RELEASE running sshd, /var/log/auth.log > > Jun 22 12:54:06 lapr sshd[57505]: Authentication refused: > > bad ownership or modes for directory / > > Until I did > > chown 0:0 / > > ( It was previously > > drwxr-xr-x 25 bin bin 1024 Jun 20 19:53 ./ > > ) > > The chown is consistent with all of 8.3 /bin also being root & not bin, > > > > BUT > > > > Over use of Root seems Bad. > > Our ownership scheme has degraded compared to early 1980s Unix, where > > most bin & lib files & dirs were owned by bin, except for > > - a few SUID bins that Needed root > > - occasional administrator droppings, > > temporary accidental files that glared at the eyeball, > > as root, cos near all else was just bin. > > > > IMO very little in a system should be user root. > > > > Apologies, but to guide replies : > > (after threads burnt by a troll on another list) > > I'd not appreciate replies just along the lines of > > "It has to be to satisfy existing software". > > I'd much rather receive replies along lines of > > "What would be best ownership scheme, advantages & > > disadvantages + should we change anything ?" > > > > What are you currently using this in that is the cause of the problem ? > > Is this a jail, physical system, VM ... Physical. > It is not really clear why you would want to change the permissions of > root:wheel of / on any of these. To Increase security. More visual prompting of when juniot admins blunder& cerate junk as root A SUID with bin has less power than a SUID with uid=root Currently every binary in the system is one bit away from the jackpot, SUID root, why not convert most binaries to uid=bin, thenmost binaries are 2 bits away from jackpot, more safety in event of a blunder too. > root is the owner of the system ... it Only because it currently is, & you'r used to it ;-) Remember back a few decades, Think more deeply, Why do you think it _needs_ to be ? Unix didnt used to Want that, it was usualy a blunder when it occured. look at /etc/passwd root: entry has the shell, bin: entry is more limited, just has /sbin/nologin The question is WHY did FreeBSD switch to promote everything to root ? That it did so Way back proves nothing, Cos further back Unix was bin. It used to be a junior admin blunder to make everything root ;-) IMO it still smells suspiciously like it. I'd like to derate most binaries to have less privelige - bin not root. > is pretty much a standard if not already that root owns everything so I > am not really following why. > > openssh in itself... I am glad it does this. If a system has been > compromised by changing owner:group of / then it denies access to the > whole system. This is a security benefit. > > Security principles are well laid out and have not changed in a long > time. Vering away from those principles will cause a LOT of > administrative overhead as most software out there can expect a sane > environment if / is root:wheel Why FreeBSD needs everything root is beyond me, reduces security a bit IMO. Sure FreeBSD currently wants everything root, but want != need. Cheers, Julian -- Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com Reply below not above, cumulative like a play script, & indent with "> ". Format: Plain text. Not HTML, multipart/alternative, base64, quoted-printable. Mail from @yahoo dumped @berklix. http://berklix.org/yahoo/
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