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Date:      Sun, 20 Jun 1999 01:03:16 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Cliff Skolnick <cliff@steam.com>
To:        "Brian W. Buchanan" <brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Cc:        Darren Reed <avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au>, freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: proposed secure-level 4 patch
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.9906200059110.6218-100000@lazlo.internal.steam.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9906192235070.70357-100000@smarter.than.nu>

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On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Brian W. Buchanan wrote:

> In the proposed case, people who are paranoid about having a root
> compromise lead to someone binding a modified version of sshd or other
> login daemon to steal passwords can bring the system to securelevel 4
> after daemon startup and ensure that the attacker cannot simply kill sshd
> and replace it.  Well-written daemons should *not* die unless killed, and
> if you're running with a positive securelevel, you've already given up the
> luxury of live upgrades.  To minimize downtime due to dead daemons, just
> spawn everything from inetd and make darn sure that inetd won't die unless
> root decides it should.

And be sure to understand what code they will load, like a shared library or
an external excutable as innocent as "ls".  Most paranoid people I know
don't run inetd anyways, they like their daemons in stand alone mode.

Yes, this stuff is nasty.  It also has limited use in non-general purpose
systems like firewalls.

Cliff

--
Cliff Skolnick          | "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain
Steam Tunnel Operations |  a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty
cliff@steam.com         |  nor safety."
http://www.steam.com/   |                   -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759




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