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ITS 421 - Tactical Perimeter Defense
Chapter 8, Access Control for Information Systems
Objectives:
This lesson discusses uses and application of access controls in various
environments. Objectives important to this lesson:
- How access controls protect data and file systems
- How access controls protect executables
- Implementing access controls on Windows computers
- Implementing access controls on UNIX computers
- Implementing access controls on SCADA and process control systems
Concepts:
Chapter 8
Protecting Data and File Systems
This chapter starts out with some general concepts about data. The classic
view is that data can be in one of two states: data at rest (DAR) or data
in motion (DIM). The second concept is also called data in transit (DIT).
The text explains that data stored on a hard drive, a tape, a disc, or
other medium is data at rest. Data in motion means data flowing across
a network, or data being copied from one location to another. This becomes
confusing when you think about carrying a disk or a memory stick from
one location to another. Which state describes the data then? That's tricky.
We are certainly moving a copy of the data, but that copy is vulnerable
to physical theft, not electronic theft, which is what the text is worried
about on page 158.
In fact, we should be concerned about several things:
Data
at Rest - People, companies, and organizations often sell their
older equipment when they buy upgrades or replacements. If they do not
remove the data at rest on those
devices, they create the problems discussed on pages 157 and 158. Once
a device like a hard drive is mounted in a new system, the access controls
on its data in the old system are irrelevant.
The storage devices and media we use, the backup devices and media we
use, the temporary copies of files on workstations are all at risk of
theft unless we have a reliable encryption system that requires authentication
to view the data.
- Data in Motion - The text gives us the example of web pages
being sent over the Internet as packets of data in motion. Data traveling
across any network, such as
a file being stored or copied, is also data in motion. It is different
from the concept of putting a file on a memory stick and taking the
stick somewhere. The electronic transfer
of data across a network is typically something that a hacker lurking
on that network can capture, copy, and use just as well as the owner
of that data. Any rights that a user needs to access a file must be
satisfied before the packets
start to fly to their destination. Once they are in motion, no rights
are needed. The text comforts us with the idea that packets can take
multiple paths to reach a destination, so it is less likely that a hacker
with a sniffer would be able to harvest all the pieces of a file. Maybe.
Or maybe the hacker only has to be on a choke point that leads to the
requester. Two ideas are proposed to fight this problem:
- The text proposes that we should always be using encryption
when transferring data, such as using the SSL and TLS
protocols found in HTTPS transfers.
- Also, using VPN encrypted tunneling more often would add
security to any connection.
- The text backs up a step, to offer the idea that we should also use
rules to protect data as an object, which is often done with
Active Directory permissions. I have been assuming that we are
doing this already, so it's nice to know we are on the same page with
the authors. The text points out that we can use this feature with Application
Layer firewalls and Web content filters.
Moving ahead on page 160, the text discusses control features for data
at rest in file systems. The features it discusses are available
in a Windows system through Active Directory. In a UNIX
file system, they can be implemented through Portable Operating System
Interface for UNIX (POSIX) or through Network File System
version 4 (NFSv4).
- Access Control List (ACL) - The text makes a fairly
simple idea complex by introducing an unnecessary label. Every object
in a file system can have an access control list, which tells
us two things. First, the list contains the names of entities
that have permissions to the object. Second, it contains the
specific permissions each of those entities has been granted.
The right to edit an object's access control list is the right
to add and remove entities (typically users) to and from this list.
It also includes the right to edit each entity's permissions. The discussion
on Wikipedia uses different words, telling us that an ACE is an
Access Control Entry, which is just a line in the List.
This is also the way it is explained
by Microsoft, so I think we can assume the text has had a proofreading
event that we should ignore. The Microsoft discussion tells us that
there can be two kinds of ACLs.
- Discretionary Access Control List (DACL) - The DACL
is like a composite of the access rights granted to an entity
by the a personal entry in an object's ACL, by rights set on
the object or its container by an administrator, or by rules
set for the system. Microsoft tells us that these rights are
all set separately, but we should remember that an entity's rights are
always a combination of those granted and those inherited.
- System Access Control List (SACL) - The SACL is like
an auditing version of the ACL. It is generated by the
file system, and does not contain entries unless auditing rules
have been set for the object in question.
Page 162 takes us to access controls for executables. Executables
are files, so it should not be a surprise that they can have ACLs. There
can also be internal permissions granted to data and to functions within
applications, but the concept of an ACL is most easily displayed by two
facts. An executable may be granted rights to particular files
and folders that it must manipulate. Also, users must be
granted permission to execute an executable, or they cannot use
it.
The text touches on another aspect of rights that are granted to entities
on page 162.
- Explicitly delegated rights - This occurs when rights are granted
directly to a user, a system, or another entity that can receive
them.
- Implicitly delegated rights - This occurs when rights are granted
to a container object, such as a folder or a group
object, that can be considered the parent of the objects it contains.
The child objects receive rights implicitly.
The text moves on to discuss the file permissions found in Window systems
and those found in UNIX and Linux systems.
Windows
The list of commonly available basic access rights in a Windows
file system appears on page 163.
Permission |
Meaning for Folders |
Meaning for Files |
Read |
Permits viewing and listing of files and subfolders |
Permits viewing or accessing of the file's contents |
Write |
Permits adding of files and subfolders |
Permits writing to a file |
Read & Execute |
Permits viewing and listing of files and subfolders as well as executing
files; inherited by files and subfolders |
Permits viewing and accessing of the file's contents as well as
executing the file |
List Folder Contents |
Permits viewing and listing of files and subfolders as well as
executing files; inherited by folders only |
Does not apply to files |
Modify |
Permits reading and writing files and subfolders; allows deletion
of the folders |
Permits reading and writing of the file; allows deletion of the
file |
Full Control |
Permits reading, writing, changing, and deleting of files and subfolders |
Permits reading, writing, changing and deleting the file |
Advanced rights appear on page 164, and the text discusses applying
rights on the next two pages.
All rights are authorized by default to three ID concepts on Windows
systems.
- domain administrator - This is a default group in Windows domains.
Members have full control to all computers, and all parts of
their file systems unless the group has explicitly been denied
permissions to some part.
- enterprise administrators - This group has full control over
all domains in a Windows forest.
- Super Administrator - This is an account that exists but must
be activated to be used. The text does not mention whether this
account exists in Windows 10. The screen shot below was taken on my
Windows 10 computer, showing that it does. As the text mentions, the
command to activate this account must be run "as administrator".
UNIX and Linux
UNIX files (and directories) have three basic permissions assigned
to them. That's usually all you get, and by the way there is no inheritance:
- read - you can see what is in a file
- write - you can change what is in a file
- execute - you can run a file, if it contains commands
UNIX also divides the world into three categories, with regard
to files. First, you should know that users on a UNIX system are classified
as belonging to groups. A user on the system must fall into one of three
categories with respect to any particular file:
- user - person who owns the file, and probably wrote
it
- group - people in the same group as the user who owns
it
- other - everybody else in the universe
Think of permissions as being in three groups of three when seen
on a list of files. A file's permissions might look like this:
-rwxr-xr--
The first hyphen means this is a file, not a directory (folder). Ignore
that hyphen. The rest of the string is three sets of three letters (or
hyphens).
- The first set is for the User (owner), and rwx
means he/she can read, write and execute that file.
- The second set of three is for the Group the User belongs to.
The combination r-x would means they can read it and execute
it, but not write to it (the w is missing).
- The third set is for anybody else wandering across this file in the
system. They have r-- in this example. That means they can read
the file but not write to it or execute it (unless they know a trick
to do it anyway.)
There are several ways to set or change the permissions assigned to a
file. Only the owner, a system administrator, a superuser, or a semi-talented
hacker can do so. I usually use the chmod command with the decimal
equivalents of those nine positions turned on or off in binary. You summarize
the permissions down to three digits. Each digit represents the
rights you grant one category above. Use this chart to decide what
number to give each kind of person:
0 - no rights (000 in binary)
1- execute only (001 in binary)
2 - write only (010 in binary)
3 - write and execute (011 in binary)
4 - read only (100 in binary)
5 - read and execute (101 in binary)
6 - read and write (110 in binary)
7 - all three: read, write and execute (111 in binary)
Issue the command like this:
chmod 751 filename
This sets the owner's permissions to full (7=111), the
group's permissions to read and execute (5=101), and common
people's rights to execute only (1=001). You might want to
do this to protect shell scripts you write, while still allowing all people
to run them.
The text mentions two special cases in UNIX and Linux. As seems to be
a habit in this text, the features are discussed in the wrong order. Let's
fix that:
- Root - Root is a user ID on these systems that has all permissions
to all objects. It is recommended never to sign on as this ID, due to
the potential damage you could potentially do to the system. The text
mentions that there is another way to run a command with root permissions.
Precede the command with sudo, which either stands for substitute
user do, or superuser do, which means to do run the command
that follows as a superuser.
- Linux Intrusion Detection System (LIDS) - This is a
patch that can be applied to Linux which includes a port scanner, an
extension to the file system permissions, and inheritance. LIDS adds
deny and append to the file system permissions. The real
purpose of LIDS is to monitor activity, particularly root activity,
but the file system changes are useful.
The last concepts to cover in this chapter are Supervisory Control
and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Process Control Systems
(PCS) . As usual, they define their second term first.
We are told that a Process Control System is like the feedback loop
between a thermostat and a furnace. In this example, it is meant to control
the process of maintaining the temperature in a room. It measures the
output of the system, and runs it as needed to reach and stay in the range
of desired output. As you can see, this kind of control system takes a
setting from an operator, but runs automatically once it is set,
A SCADA system is a large PCS. Examples are the systems
that monitor and control the flow of power and water to
customers. Systems that adjust traffic lights to accommodate changing
traffic flow during a day are also examples. You may see that this kind
of system is used to make social infrastructure work, making it a target
for politically motivated hackers. The text does not explain this concept
well, so take a trip to this article
from TechNewsWorld. It should be clear that the access controls for
these systems must be very secure, and that they must be limited
to only the people meant to access them.
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