Re: severe security issue on dom0/xend/xm/non-root users

[David Hopwood <david.nospam.hopwood@blueyonder.co.uk>]

Tommi Virtanen wrote:
> Kurt Garloff wrote:
> 
>> The frontend (that would acquire the privileged socket) would need
>> to be setuid root for this and then could enforce whatever policies,
>> much more flexible than the Unix group membership model if you want.
> 
> Oh, the group-restricted UNIX domain socket wins there, too.
> 
> Your model:
> 
>   - setuid client that only lets certain users open ports <1024
> 
> My model:
> 
>   - setgid client that only lets certain users connect to the protected
>     socket
> OR
>   - just add the certain users to the group, and let them access the
>     protected socket.
> 
> The UNIX domain socket way is both more flexible and _more secure_
> -- it only needs setgid where the port<1024 thing needs setuid.

Agree 100%. There are no advantages to the port<1024 method over using
Unix domain sockets.

Kurt Garloff wrote:
> You're very flexible in your setuid root client.
> 
> 1. You may restrict the set of users that is able to call the client,
>    e.g. it might be root:trusted 4750. This would impose the same 
>    restrictions as your group protection mechanism. 
> 2. The first thing the client does it to acquire the privileged 
>    port and then drop capabilities immediately afterwards. Security
>    flaws in the client will thus at most grant the exploiter a
>    privileged socket. (This has nothing to do with xen, just a
>    general rule for setuid root apps.)
> 3. The client can impose whatever restrictions it likes, e.g.
>    checking SSL certificates, asking for passwords, checking
>    a configuration file, whatever.

You can 1 and 3 just as easily with the Unix domain socket method.
Although you could also do 2, there's no need (2 is not a flexibility
advantage, it's just something you have to do to make the port<1024
method secure).

-- 
David Hopwood <david.nospam.hopwood@blueyonder.co.uk>



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