full-disclosure - Re: (Psexec on *NIX)

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Message-ID: <9f08cff0702041611m359d20e9g96b132e08f24f70c@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 11:11:08 +1100
From: Q-Ball <qballus@...il.com>
To: "Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu" <Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu>
Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Subject: Re: (Psexec on *NIX)

On 2/2/07, Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu <Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu> wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:40:47 +0530, Raj Mathur said:
> > I believe we have had this discussion before, but I'll iterate my
> > beliefs in favour of allowing direct root access again:
>
> > - Key-based root logins are quite secure.  I don't see any reason why
> > key-based root login would be any less secure than permitting a user
> > login followed by an sudo.
>
> It's not the security of the login itself - it's the ability to create
> an audit trail of which userid performed an action.  If you can find
> some other way to...
>

Yes ability to audit is important, and you can still retain
accountably with direct root logons depending upon configuration but
there are two major security problems
with direct root logons:
- Remote brute forcing. Personally I'd rather someone crack 2 accounts
rather than just one, but maybe that's just me ;-)
- Security should be implemented on a least privilege basis. Logging
on as root as opposed to a user, isn't always required and just
increases your window of opportunity eg. SSH channel attacks, key
loggers, brute forcing, etc.Quite often sudo should suffice for
regular tasks.

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