Re: Need some security advice for systemtap

[David Smith <dsmith at redhat dot com>]

grundy wrote:
> I think a good way to handle it would be to have a configuration file
> like /etc/sudoers and setuid root stap (or staprun). The access control
> would then be built into systemtap. 
>
> Here are my ideas of what would make a "good" set of controls:
>
>  - level of tap script they can run, e.g. guru mode code or not
>  - sections of the kernel they can access (maybe this is
>    better represented as what tapsets may they use)
>  - how much overhead are they allowed to put on the system
>  - are they allowed to look at data for other user's processes
>  - are they allowed to reference line #'s or direct memory addrs

That sounds nice, but I'm worried about implementing such a feature 
correctly, on at least two levels.  First, you assume that systemtap can 
correctly characterize the effects a script will have on the system. 
Then you want to add an ACL system into systemtap based on those effects.

One advantage the proposed system has is that there *is* a human in the 
loop, a root user who will (hopefully) look at a script and check it out 
before "blessing" it.

--
David Smith
dsmith@redhat.com
Red Hat
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