System Administration Guide: Security Services

Part I Security Overview

This book focuses on the features that enhance security in the Solaris^TM operating environment. This book is intended for system administrators and users of these security features. The following is a list of the information in the overview chapter.

Chapter 1 Security Services (Overview)

Introduction to Security Services

To maintain the security of its computing environment, the Solaris operating environment software provides the following features:

Machine Security – The ability to protect machine resources and files from malicious modification or unintentional modification by users or intruders
Authentication – The ability to securely identify a user, which requires the user's name and some form of proof, typically a password
Secure Communication – The ability to ensure that authenticated parties can communicate without interception, modification, or spoofing
Auditing – The ability to identify the source of security changes to the system, including file access, security-related system calls, and authentication failures

For a general discussion of system security, see Chapter 2, Managing Machine Security (Overview).

Machine Security

Machine security ensures that the machine's resources are used properly. Access control enables users or administrators to restrict the users who are permitted access to resources on the system. The Solaris operating environment features for machine security and access control include the following:

Login control – Access to the hardware, files, and processes on a computer. See Chapter 3, Securing Machines (Tasks).
UNIX® permissions – Attributes of a file or directory. Permissions restrict the users and groups that are permitted to read, write, or execute a file, or search a directory. See Chapter 4, Securing Files (Tasks).
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) – An architecture for creating special, restricted user accounts that are permitted to perform specific security-related tasks. See Chapter 5, Role-Based Access Control (Overview).
Security Enhancement Scripts – Through the use of scripts, many system files and parameters can be adjusted to reduce security risks. See Chapter 8, Using the Automated Security Enhancement Tool (Tasks).
Device Allocation – A facility that enables restriction on who can use a device, such as a floppy or CD-ROM drive. The facility ensures that a device is used by only one qualified user at a time. See Managing Device Allocation (Tasks).
SunScreen^TM 3.2 Secure Net –A firewall for selectively controlling the flow of information into and out of an organization's network. The firewall also can control the flow of information between segments of a network. See the SunScreen 3.2 documentation set.

Authentication Services

Authentication is a mechanism that identifies a user or service based on predefined criteria. Authentication services range from simple name-password pairs to more elaborate challenge-response systems, such as smart cards and biometrics. Strong authentication mechanisms rely on a user supplying information that only that person knows, and something that can be verified. A user name is an example of something that the person knows. A smart card or a fingerprint is an example of something that can be verified. The Solaris operating environment features for authentication include the following:

Secure RPC – An authentication technique that is based on the Diffie-Hellman method. This topic is covered in Overview of Secure RPC.
Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) – A framework that enables various authentication technologies to be plugged in without disturbing system entry services, such as login or ftp. See Chapter 10, Using PAM.
Sun Enterprise Authentication Module (SEAM) – A client/server architecture that provides authentication with encryption. See Chapter 13, Introduction to SEAM.
Smart Card – A plastic card with a microprocessor and memory that can be used with a card reader to access systems. See Solaris Smartcard Administration Guide.
Login Administration Tools – Various commands for administering a user's ability to log in or to abort a session. See Chapter 3, Securing Machines (Tasks).

Secure Communication

The basis of secure communication is requiring authentication with encryption. Authentication helps ensure that the source and the destination are the intended parties. Encryption codes the communication at the source, and decodes the communication at the target. Encryption prevents intruders from reading any transmissions that the intruders might manage to intercept. The Solaris operating environment features for secure communication include the following:

Sun^TM Enterprise Authentication Module (SEAM) – A client/server architecture that provides encryption with authentication. See Chapter 13, Introduction to SEAM.
Internet Protocol Security Architecture (IPsec) – An architecture that provides IP datagram protection. Protections include confidentiality, strong integrity of the data, data authentication, and partial sequence integrity. Partial sequence integrity is replay protection. See “IPsec (Overview)” in System Administration Guide: IP Services.
Solaris Secure Shell – A protocol for protecting data transfers and interactive user network sessions from eavesdropping, session hijacking, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Strong authentication is provided through public key cryptography. X windows services and other network services can be tunneled safely over Secure Shell connections for additional protection. See Chapter 11, Using Solaris Secure Shell (Tasks).

Auditing and Device Management

Auditing is a fundamental concept of system security and maintainability. Auditing is the process of examining the history of actions and events on a system to find out what happened. Auditing entails keeping a log of what was done, by whom, when the action was done, and what was affected. Device management controls the allocation of peripheral devices, such as diskettes and CD-ROMs. For more information on Solaris auditing and device management, see Chapter 20, BSM (Overview).