26 May 2005
John Garmany

 Lately I have been dealing with security issues with Application Servers and Databases on Linux Servers.  Most Oracle users use Red Hat, with SUSE following close behind.  Many have development or test servers running FC2/3 or some other Linux distribution.  All of these operating system install in a mode that provides some pretty good security.  Oracle backs up the security of it's products whether it is Web Cache, Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) or the database Listener.  These are the three products normally exposed to the Internet and it is rare to find a breach allowed through any of them.

Normally, the breach is due to BAD PASSWORDS!

The easiest way to get onto the database or the server is to guess the password.  Poor, easily guessed passwords provide the hacker with the entry point. 

Here I want to focus on a security hole in the Linux OS, ssh or the secure shell.  Again the problem is not that ssh is insecure, but that by default it relies on passwords.

The problem with passwords is; if they are easy, they are easy to break, if they are too difficult, the user will write them down somewhere.  You have to find a happy medium, a mix of upper and lower case, numbers and letters that do not spell actual words.

Note to DBA:  oracle/oracle is a bad username/password!

Since ssh is a standard shell for UNIX and Linux, most attacks against it have been automated.  An attacker finds your computer, checks port 22 and finds ssh.  He then tries a set of common passwords and given enough time will eventually break an easy password.

How common is this type of attack?  My home server acts as my mail gateway and runs Linux.  During a three week period about a month ago, my server averaged over 500 attempts to log in as root per day!

Recently a client had a performance issue on a file server and found a root user upgrading operating system packages.  It tuned out that not only had a hacker gotten root privileges on the box, but was actually upgrading the OS to support his new zombie tools.

So what do you do?

1.  Don't open port 22 to the internet unless you need that capability.  I only open that port when someone is logging onto the server from outside the firewall.  Otherwise that port stays protected behind the firewall.

2. Do not allow anyone to log onto the server as root.  This is an easy fix. 
Edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set "PermitRootLogin no".  Restart the service with
# service ssh restart

This will force users who need root access to log on as an unprivileged account and su to root.

3.  Stop using passwords and go to Public Key Authentication.  This is a little more complicated.  Using your ssh client (ssh, SecureCrt, putty. etc) generate a public and private key.  Place the public key on the server for each user.  In the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file set:
 

PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no

This will allow the use of keys and disallow the use of password.  Now the hacker can guess passwords forever.  You aren't using them.

Note: not all keys are the same and some require conversion to work with Linux's OpenSSH.  SecureCrt keys must be converted.  See the documentation for your ssh client to determine it your keys need to be converted.

Make sure your keys contain a passphrase to keep someone from sitting down at your computer and using you private key.

4.  Lastly, keep your system up to date.  When a hole is found in ssh, the community (or distributor) will release an update to close the hole.  You do not have to update the entire OS, but you should keep any program that touches the Internet updated.

Bottom line:  Protect your data!  Don't allow access to the Internet unless necessary.  Use difficult to guess passwords or public key authentication.

Remember, if I can log onto your server as root, I can su to oracle and log onto your database
as "/ as sydba".
 

Don't make it easy!

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