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Full Discussion: scripts access
Special Forums Cybersecurity scripts access Post 738 by Neo on Saturday 13th of January 2001 11:39:04 PM
Old 01-14-2001
First of all, all scripts/code should be written to use encrypted passwords when possible. However, this is often not practical due to time and other resource constraints. I assume you have these constraints and need a solution.

First of all, make sure that your web server executes as a distinct user and group. For example, the web server should run as 'web' and the group 'webgroup' with no others in that group.

You then change the ownership of the files/scripts to that of the web user (certainly not root, UID 0). You then set the permissions of the scripts to not be readable by other users, etc. and you do not give access to the directories by other users of the system.

It is best not to have users on the machine and to have shell accounts for casual users on another machine.

If this is not possible for some reason, then you should set the users up with a different root file system using the 'chroot' (change root) utilitity so the users will not have access to the filesystem, etc.

The best thing to do is to run the web server in production mode and not to have users on the platform (except trusted users). If users are needed to support the web application then do that in a development box without the scripts (or with bogus scripts/passwords to test) and then move the work to the production environment.

In the final analysis, the choice is based on operational risk-management. If you are doing credit card, personnel files, financial tranactions, etc. then the risk is great. If you are just running a small, not critical site, the risk is lower. The compensating controls are based on the degree of risk you are willing to take. No system can be made 100 percent 'unbreakable' and there will always be a way for a malicious user with good computer skills (and access to the platform) to read a shell script with unencrypted passwords.

In other words, there cannot be a good answer without knowing the nature of the application(s) on the server and the risk profile of the system(s).
 

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newgrp(1)						      General Commands Manual							 newgrp(1)

NAME
newgrp - switch to a new group SYNOPSIS
[group] DESCRIPTION
The command changes your group ID without changing your user ID and replaces your current shell with a new one. If you specify group, the change is successful if group exists and either your user ID is a member of the new group, or group has a pass- word and you can supply it from the terminal. If you omit group, changes to the group specified in your entry in the password file, Whether the group is changed successfully or not, or the new group is the same as the old one or not, proceeds to replace your current shell with the one specified in the shell field of your password file entry. If that field is empty, uses the POSIX shell, (see sh- posix(1)). If you specify (hyphen) as the first argument, the new shell starts up as if you had just logged in. If you omit the new shell starts up as if you had invoked it as a subshell. You remain logged in and the current directory is unchanged, but calculations of access permissions to files are performed with respect to the new real and effective group IDs. Exported variables retain their values and are passed to the new shell. All unexported variables are deleted, but the new shell may reset them to default values. Since the current process is replaced when the new shell is started, exiting from the new shell has the same effect as exiting from the shell in which was executed. EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
International Code Set Support Characters from the 7-bit USASCII code set are supported in group names (see ascii(5)). DIAGNOSTICS
The command issues the following error messages: Your user ID does not qualify as a group member. The group name does not exist in If a password is required, it must come from a terminal. Standard input is not a terminal file, causing the new shell to fail. EXAMPLES
To change from your current group to group without executing the login routines: To change from your current group to group and execute the login routines: WARNINGS
There is no convenient way to enter a password into The use of group passwords is not recommended because, by their very nature, they encourage poor security practices. Group passwords may be eliminated in future HP-UX releases. If the specified group to has multiple inconsistent entries (i.e. the group id or/and password are different) in the group database, will consider the group id and password of the first matched group entry as the correct group id and password for the group. FILES
System group file System password file SEE ALSO
csh(1), ksh(1), login(1), sh-posix(1), group(4), passwd(4), environ(5). STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
newgrp(1)
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