Re: [9fans] a few Q's regarding cpu/auth server

[John Floren <slawmaster@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM, John Floren<slawmaster@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Oh, if we're just protecting against people wandering by who are
> obviously there by mistake--since we're discounting anyone coming
> prepared for serious maliciousness--how about just not having a
> terminal connected to your file server? My cpu/auth/file servers don't
> have anything connected except an ethernet cable and a remote serial
> console. Oh, sure, there's a crash cart over in the corner that you
> could drag over and plug in, but you've decided that we're only
> talking about opportunists who see a prompt and decide to type some
> stuff, so it's not a problem.
>
> The whole friggin' point of a colo is that you trust the people
> running it--also, that they don't leave terminals connected to every
> single one of their hundreds of customer machines. It's a locked room
> in a corporate building... this ain't your little brother banging on
> keys (a far more realistic reason for password-protecting a cpu
> server, if you're going to be dumb enough to leave the head attached).
>
> I have a Plan 9 server sitting in a lab at my university. Over the
> last 2+ years, it has been in the same place, powered on, connected to
> a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The only deterrent to unauthorized
> users has been that I keep the monitor off, and in those 2 years I
> have not found a single sign that anyone has so much as touched the
> keyboard, much less done "rm -r /" or whatever it is you're afraid of.
> I'm afraid you'll have to forgive me if I find the probability of
> someone improperly accessing your headless colo'd box rather low.
>
> I invite you, though, to create some form of logging protection system
> for the box. Put the box in a colo, and then in 3 years send us your
> logs. I guess we'll see how many people tried to get into your cpu
> server.
>
>
> John

A note, please don't take this as a flame. I asked exactly the same
sort of thing in 2005/2006, and what I wrote here is the synthesis of
my experiences and changing viewpoints since then, shaped to apply to
the specific situations posed. Basically, even in the environment of a
university lab, considerably more hostile than a trusted colo, your
house, or your corporate machine rooms, I haven't had a problem, which
I attribute partially to the monitor/keyboard/mouse all being old
scruffy refugees, and partially to the fact that I keep the monitor
off. Realistically, I should have the peripherals unplugged and moved
away from the server, because it's *not* a particularly safe place--it
should either be headless, or indeed use some form of locker.

Everybody asks these questions, I think, if only to themselves. The
answers usually become evident, though--in my case, I had to get
grouched at by the curmudgeonly 9fans before I "got" it.

hasta~

John
--
"Object-oriented design is the roman numerals of computing" -- Rob Pike