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Posted to issues@nifi.apache.org by trixpan <gi...@git.apache.org> on 2017/03/02 11:13:20 UTC
[GitHub] nifi pull request #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create default all default directions a...
GitHub user trixpan opened a pull request:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
NIFI-3054 - Create default all default directions as part of maven-as\u2026
\u2026sembly
Update Admin Guide with recommended directory permissions
Update some minor file permissions
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This closes #1551
----
commit ae16017443b7e59cf6804c1240ef63decd7e3aed
Author: Andre F de Miranda <tr...@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: 2017-03-02T11:11:14Z
NIFI-3054 - Create default all default directions as part of maven-assembly
Update Admin Guide with recommended directory permissions
Update some minor file permissions
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[GitHub] nifi issue #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create all default directories as part of mave...
Posted by PuspenduBanerjee <gi...@git.apache.org>.
Github user PuspenduBanerjee commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
Additionally, can we provide a script, that a sysadmin can use to audit and report any discrepancy in permissions ?
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[GitHub] nifi issue #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create all default directories as part of mave...
Posted by trixpan <gi...@git.apache.org>.
Github user trixpan commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
@joewitt thanks for your comments.
I understand your concerns but isn't the user change of the default settings (we do ship with default location settings after all) a voluntary action that implies further changes?
The way I see is a bit like: should Microsoft not ship Windows with default folder structures and permission just because someone may decide to install an application straight into c:\?
We by now know many users will not read the administration guide before playing with the platform (and sometimes rolling it to prod), what I am trying here is to help those users from harm caused by setting up what is for all intends and purposes a remote execution environment.
The scenario I am trying to address here is: Think of someone who install NiFi in AWS instance, using the default settings as a linux service. That user went far enough to create a nifi user. Any attackers could:
- Find instance
- Add ExecuteScript processor
- Change `$NIFI_HOME/bin/nifi.sh` to obtain persistent control over the node (note that when running as a service, this is still run as root, with the privilege drop happening WITHIN the script, not before)
- Use the machine to launch DDoS against users.
A normal answer would be: Just change the permissions of `$NIFI_HOME/bin`. Fair enough! But the challenge is that due to to the way Unix/Linux ACLs work, in order to truly change the settings of `$NIFI_HOME/bin` you must change the settings of `$NIFI_HOME`, otherwise you can always:
- Move the `bin` to `bin.old`
- Create a new `bin` directory
- Copy all content from `bin.old` the new `bin`
- Modify `nifi.sh`
- Wait for system to restart
Source: [1]
To prevent the simple 3 steps above, we must change the permissions of $HOME_NIFI
And the problem is: We cannot change the permissions of $HOME_NIFI without creating the directories representing the default settings, otherwise would crash on start, unable to start (due to permissions).
So long history short, the idea here isn't to randomly create things where we don't need them, I am just trying to avoid we fall into the MongoDB track of "shipping with insecure default settings" as this can easily tarnish a project reputation (my LinkedIn feed was full of sales rep from competitors spreading the word about MongoDBs ransomware woes).
Hope this helps to clarify what the objective of this PR is.
[1]The first 3 steps of this technique is so old that I can't find references to it anymore, but IIRC, affected the good old SunOS 4.1.3. The two other steps have been used by me many times in PenTests.
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[GitHub] nifi issue #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create all default directories as part of mave...
Posted by joewitt <gi...@git.apache.org>.
Github user joewitt commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
It is prudent to restrict the ACLs of the files and directories we ship with to their most conservative level possible. I'll refer to these as 'SA' (shipped artifacts) for my comments below.
It is also prudent to ensure we restrict the ACLs of the files and directories our code creates to their most conservative level possible. I'll refer to these as 'CA' (created artifacts) for my comments below.
We control the permissions of SA through our build process which specifically is our maven assembly. Your PR shows we have a few areas to tighten and we should. These include, for example, the base install directory, the bin directory, the conf directory, NOTICE, LICENSE, etc..
We do not, until this PR, control the permissions of our CA through our build process/maven assembly. Our CA items should be controlled by the code creating these items in the most restrictive way possible and through honoring operating system settings for things like umask, etc.. And we should have clearly documented and allocated area(s) where CA items under default settings would go in the event that they are actually invoked/created.
For cases where you'd like to make the base directory (an SA) more restrictive than it can presently be due to common/default settings that result in CA of things like flowfile/content/prov repositories then consider changing the default storage location of those CAs to a specifically controlled subdirectory like 'state' or something else. We can then document this 'state' directory as the location accessible to the NiFi process to write to. Keeping in mind of course that we have common practices today such as using conf directory for things like the flow.xml.gz and a directory under it for backup flows and so on. There are some things to think through there.
I think the mongodb lesson is important. We have to continually revisit tradeoffs and decisions we've made regarding out of the box usability to support onboarding new users and the effort required to have a secured system. We need to continually make 'out of the box ease' and 'security' come closer together. I think we're all in agreement there.
In summary, I'm supportive of us finding the most restrictive SA configuration we can. I think we should adjust our code that generates CAs to create things as restrictive as possible. I do think we should avoid pre-generating CA artifacts.
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[GitHub] nifi issue #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create default all default directions as part ...
Posted by trixpan <gi...@git.apache.org>.
Github user trixpan commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
@alopresto may I ask your opinion on this?
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[GitHub] nifi issue #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create all default directories as part of mave...
Posted by trixpan <gi...@git.apache.org>.
Github user trixpan commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
@joewitt. Thanks for the comment. I will go through your notes and adjust the PR accordingly.
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[GitHub] nifi issue #1551: NIFI-3054 - Create all default directories as part of mave...
Posted by joewitt <gi...@git.apache.org>.
Github user joewitt commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/nifi/pull/1551
@trixpan we cannot do this. Several of these directories are configurable by the users and are subject to the selection of specific repository implementations. We must avoid setting these. Restricting the base install dir, the conf dir, license/notice is fine. But the rest of these is a bridge too far.
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