2015 OSCON - Security Best Practices as Code

Assimilation Presentation at OSCON featuring security best practices. Video at https://youtu.be/SsiKLqxz3Yo

The statistics on system management are alarming - 30% of all break-ins come through systems people have lost track of, 90% of all organizations have failures of services they aren’t monitoring, 80% of all organizations are unable to keep their systems in compliance after getting them there initially, and 30% admit that they rarely start monitoring until after they have a problem, 30% of all systems are doing nothing useful, and admins of larger sites often don’t know the inter-dependencies between systems, services, and switches.

The Assimilation System Management Suite helps you deal with these problems by creating a detailed graph database and driving audits, monitoring, and security policies from it in a way that scales like nothing else, and providing detailed data of what changed and what happened, and each piece relates to the other to help determine the root cause of an outage.

Event Link: http://assimilationsystems.com/events/oscon-2015/

Transcript

1. Security Best Practices As Code
   Security Best Practices As Code
   #AssimProj @OSSAlanR
   http://assimproj.org/
   Alan Robertson
   Assimilation Systems Limited
   http://AssimilationSystems.com
   

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   Biography
   Biography
   ●
   35+ years in IT/development – 10 years in system
   management (SysAdmin)
   ●
   Founded Linux-HA project - led 1998-2007 – aka “Heartbeat” -
   now called Pacemaker
   ●
   Founded Assimilation Project in 2010
   ●
   Founded Assimilation Systems Limited in 2013
   ●
   Alumnus of Bell Labs, SuSE, IBM
   

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   Assimilation Project Evolution
   Assimilation Project Evolution
   ●
   Inspired by 2 million core computer (cyclops64)
   ●
   Concerns for extreme scale
   ●
   Topology aware monitoring
   ●
   Topology discovery w/out security issues
   =►Discovery of everything!
   ●
   Take actions based on discovery!
   

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   A 6-dimensional overview
   A 6-dimensional overview
   1.System Management Suite Overview
   2.Basic Technology
   3.Best Practice Analyses
   4.“Toy” Best Practice Demo
   5.Current Status
   6.What You Need To Do!
   

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   What's in the Suite?
   What's in the Suite?
   ●
   Graph CMDB
   ●
   Exception Monitoring
   ●
   Security
   ●
   Network Connections
   

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   Disturbing Trends...
   Disturbing Trends...
   ●
   30% of all break-ins come through “lost” systems (Verizon)
   ●
   90% have had failures of unmonitored services (Turnbull)
   ●
   80% are unable to keep systems in compliance (Verizon)
   ●
   30% start monitoring only after a problem (Turnbull)
   ●
   30% of all systems are doing nothing useful (Koomey)
   ●
   Larger site admins often don’t know dependencies
   

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   Why
   Why the Assimilation Suite?
   the Assimilation Suite?
   ●
   Provides insight and details through a graph-model CMDB
   ●
   Helps you understand and automate your environment
   – Reduce Errors
   – Speed up problem resolution
   ●
   Reduces Manual Documentation
   ●
   Discovery-driven configuration => near-zero configuration
   ●
   Automates Monitoring
   ●
   Enhances Security
   ●
   Designed for Extreme Scale (≈100K systems)
   

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   Complexity
   Complexity
   “Complexity is the enemy of reliability”
   ●
   Complexity likely your single biggest problem
   – Near-zero configuration reduces complexity
   – Seamless integration reduces complexity
   – Accurate detailed view improves complexity management
   

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   Highly Scalable Discovery-Driven Automation
   Highly Scalable Discovery-Driven Automation
   ●
   Continuous extensible discovery (CMDB)
   ●
   Extensible exception monitoring
   ●
   Discovery Drives (Security) Best Practice Analyses
   ●
   All data goes into central graph CMDB
   

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    This all sounds unreasonable...
    This all sounds unreasonable...
    ●
    Huge scalability without complexity.
    ●
    Discovery without pings or port scans.
    Really?
    

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    S
    Simple Scalability
    imple Scalability
    I can explain how we scale so your grandmother
    would understand...
    istockphoto
    ©bowdenimages
    

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    Massive Scalability –
    Massive Scalability – or
    or
    “I see dead servers in
    “I see dead servers in O
    O(1) time”
    (1) time”
    ●
    Adding systems does not increase the monitoring work on any system
    ●
    Each server monitors 2 (or 4) neighbors
    ●
    Each server monitors and discovers its own services
    ●
    Ring repair and alerting is O(n) – but a very small amount of work
    Current Implementation
    

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    Service Dependency Graph
    Service Dependency Graph
    

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    Assimilation Architecture
    Assimilation Architecture
    ●
    Central Collective Management Authority
    – written in Python
    – delegates most work to nanoprobes
    ●
    Fully distributed “nanoprobe” agents
    – Simple, policy-free
    – Written in 'C'
    – Invoke scripts for monitoring or discovery
    – Send/receive heartbeats
    – Listen for ARP, LLDP, CDP packets
    ●
    Neo4j graph database
    

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    Switch Discovery Graph from LLDP / CDP
    Switch Discovery Graph from LLDP / CDP
    

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    Security questions
    Security questions
    ●
    Do you think good security staff is easily available?
    ●
    Do you think security is going to get better soon?
    ●
    Do you think you have enough staff for security to keep up
    with changes at DevOps / Agile rates?
    

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    Sample Security Features
    Sample Security Features
    ●
    Discovery of “forgotten” IP addresses
    ●
    Monitoring of Open Ports and Services
    ●
    Collection of network-facing app checksums
    ●
    Nmon OS profiling of new MAC addresses
    ●
    Checksum outlier analysis
    ●
    Security Best Practice Analyses
    

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    B
    Best Practice Analyses
    est Practice Analyses
    This is next major planned capability
    ●
    Triggered by Discovery Updates
    – Analysis occurs within seconds of change
    – No change => No analysis
    ●
    We can analyze anything discovered
    ●
    Expect to create alerts and reports
    

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    Sample Security Best Practices
    Sample Security Best Practices
    ●
    Inappropriate OS settings (hardening)
    ●
    Security Patch Coverage
    – OS vendor (RedHat, SuSE, Canonical, etc)
    – Application (Oracle, IBM, WordPress, etc)
    ●
    Inappropriate services (telnet, etc)
    ●
    Inappropriate Application Settings (hardening)
    

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    IT Best Practices Project
    IT Best Practices Project
    ITBestPractices.info
    ●
    IT-Bestpractices GitHub project
    ●
    Apache 2 License
    ●
    Initial Sources
    – NIST STIGs
    – Lynis project
    – Individual contributions
    

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    IT Best Practices Goals
    IT Best Practices Goals
    ●
    Make Best Practice rules available in JSON
    – Curate potentially mechanically-verifiable practices
    – Human-readable descriptions of issues and remedies
    – Multiple language support
    – Not limited to security best practices
    – Eventually available through a web server
    – Source text may change to YAML for readability
    

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    Sample NIST STIG-based short description
    Sample NIST STIG-based short description
    The system must limit the ability of processes to
    have simultaneous write and execute access to
    memory.
    

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    Sample NIST STIG Security Rule check
    Sample NIST STIG Security Rule check
    The status of the "kernel.exec-shield" kernel parameter can be
    queried by running the following command:
    $ sysctl kernel.exec-shield
    $ grep kernel.exec-shield /etc/sysctl.conf
    The output of the command should indicate a value of "1". If this value
    is not the default value, investigate how it could have been adjusted
    at runtime, and verify it is not set improperly in "/etc/sysctl.conf".
    If the correct value is not returned, this is a finding.
    

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    Sample NIST STIG-based long description
    Sample NIST STIG-based long description
    ExecShield uses the segmentation feature on all x86 systems
    to prevent execution in memory higher than a certain
    address. It writes an address as a limit in the code segment
    descriptor, to control where code can be executed, on a per-
    process basis. When the kernel places a process's memory
    regions such as the stack and heap higher than this address,
    the hardware prevents execution in that address range.
    

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    Assimilation /proc/sys Rule
    Assimilation /proc/sys Rule
    Disallow executing code on writable pages
    “nist_V-38597”:
    {“rule”: “EQ($kernel.exec-shield, 1)”}
    

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    Assimilation Networking Rule
    Assimilation Networking Rule
    Buffer bloat prevention
    “itbp-0001”:
    {“rule”: “IN($kernel.core.default_qdisc,
    fq_codel, codel)”
    }
    

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    “
    “T
    Toy” Assim. Best Practices Demo
    oy” Assim. Best Practices Demo
    ●
    Demo is of test code in our source tree
    ●
    Test data was discovered from a real system
    ●
    This code was written for feasibility testing
    

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    Current Status
    Current Status
    ●
    1.0 (Independence Day) release out 4 July 2015
    ●
    Strongly encrypted communication
    ●
    Security is next future emphasis (best practices, etc)
    ●
    Discovery => Automatic Monitoring + Network-Facing Checksums
    ●
    Compatible with Nagios remote monitoring agent API
    ●
    REST + Command Line Queries
    ●
    Great unit and system tests
    ●
    Licenses: Commercial or GPLv3
    

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    Get Involved!
    Get Involved!
    ●
    Early adopters – customers!
    ●
    Contributors
    – Testers, Continuous Integration
    – Best practice experts
    – Designers
    – Developers (C,Python, Shell, PowerShell, JavaScript)
    – Porters (esp Windows)
    – Promoters, Publicists, Packagers, etc.
    

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    Assimilation BOF TONIGHT!
    Assimilation BOF TONIGHT!
    ●
    Get All Your Questions Answered
    ●
    TONIGHT!
    ●
    7-8 PM (1900-2000)
    ●
    Room E145
    

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    Resistance Is Futile!
    Resistance Is Futile!
    These slides: bit.ly/AssimOSCON15
    Mailing List: bit.ly/AssimML
    @OSSAlanR
    #assimilation on irc.freenode.net
    Project Web Site: assimproj.org
    Company Web Site: assimilationsystems.com
    Download: assimilationsystems.com/download
    

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    Minimizing Network Footprint (in roadmap)
    Minimizing Network Footprint (in roadmap)
    ●
    Support diagnosing switch issues
    ●
    Minimize network traffic
    ●
    Ideal for multi-site arrangements
    

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    D
    Discovery / Monitoring Demo
    iscovery / Monitoring Demo
    ●
    Demonstrate basic capabilities
    – Discovery
    – Discovery-driven monitoring configuration
    – Discovery-driven 'tripwire-like' checksums
    – Monitoring – failures / successes
    – Host down notification
    ●
    No configuration was supplied
    – everything comes from discovery
    http://assimilationsystems.com/90_second_demo/
    

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    Risk Management/Mitigation
    Risk Management/Mitigation
    ●
    Intrusions
    ●
    Vulnerable Software
    ●
    Licensed Software
    ●
    Audit Risk
    ●
    Outages
    ●
    System management
    

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    Why a graph database? (Neo4j)
    Why a graph database? (Neo4j)
    ●
    Humans describe systems as graphs
    ●
    Dependency & Discovery information: graph
    ●
    Speed of graph traversals depends on size of subgraph, not
    total graph size
    ●
    Root cause queries  graph traversals – notoriously slow in
    relational databases
    ●
    Visualization is Natural
    ●
    Schema-less design: good for constantly changing
    heterogeneous environment
    ●
    Graph Model === Object Model
    

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    Monitoring Pros and Cons
    Monitoring Pros and Cons
    Pros
    Simple & Scalable
    Uniform work distribution
    No single point of failure
    Distinguishes switch vs
    host failure
    Easy on LAN, WAN
    Multi-tenant approach
    Cons
    Active agents
    Potential slowness
    at power-on
    

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    Sixth Dimension: Graph Schema
    Sixth Dimension: Graph Schema
    Two Schema subgraphs
    ●
    Client / server
    dependency
    ●
    Switch interconnect
    

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    "sshd": {
    "exe": "/usr/sbin/sshd",
    "cmdline": [ "/usr/sbin/sshd", "-D" ],
    "uid": "root",
    "gid": "root",
    "cwd": "/",
    "listenaddrs": {
    "0.0.0.0:22": {
    "proto": "tcp",
    "addr": "0.0.0.0",
    "port": 22 },
    sshd
    sshd Service
    Service JSON Snippet (from netstat and /proc)
    JSON Snippet (from netstat and /proc)
    

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    "ssh": {
    "exe": "/usr/sbin/ssh",
    "cmdline": [ "ssh", "servidor" ],
    "uid": "alanr",
    "gid": "alanr",
    "cwd": "/home/alanr/monitor/src",
    "clientaddrs": {
    "10.10.10.5:22": {
    "proto": "tcp",
    "addr": "10.10.10.5",
    "port": 22 },
    ssh
    ssh Client
    Client JSON Snippet(from netstat and /proc)
    JSON Snippet(from netstat and /proc)
    

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    First Dimension
    First Dimension:
    :
    Problems Addressed
    Problems Addressed
    ●
    Discovering and maintaining documentation (CMDB) using
    continuous discovery
    – Services, Systems, Dependencies, Switches, Interconnects, Configuration
    ●
    Monitoring and alerting: services, systems and compliance
    ●
    Managing compliance
    ●
    Mitigating risk
    

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    Why Discovery? (DevOps)
    Why Discovery? (DevOps)
    ●
    Documentation: incomplete, incorrect
    ●
    Dependencies: unknown
    ●
    Planning: Needs accurate data
    ●
    Best Practices: Verification needs data
    ●
    ITIL CMDB (Configuration Management
    Data Base)
    Our Discovery: continuous, low-profile
    

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    Second Dimension:
    Second Dimension:
    Unique Powerful Features
    Unique Powerful Features
    1. Continuous Discovery
    2. Discovery: Zero network footprint
    3. Centralized graph database
    4. We know everything that changes
    5. Discover and update dependency information
    6. Discovery and monitoring tightly integrated –
    discovery drives automation
    

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    (even more) Features...
    (even more) Features...
    7. Discovery and monitoring easily extensible
    8. Naturally scalable to > 100K systems
    9. Minimal network load
    10.Server failures distinguishable from switch failures
    11.Best practice and vulnerability alerts
    12.Multi-tenant support
    

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    Third Dimension:
    Third Dimension:
    Fully distributed work
    Fully distributed work
    Two philosophical underpinnings
    1. Monitoring and Discovery are fully distributed
    2. Reliable “no news is good news”
    Only responses to changes are centralized
    

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    Service Monitoring based on HA Technologies
    Service Monitoring based on HA Technologies
    ●
    Well-proven architecture:
    – reliable “no news is good news”
    ●
    Implements Open Cluster Framework
    standard (LSB and others – Nagios coming!)
    ●
    Each system monitors own services
    ●
    Can also start, stop, migrate services
    

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    How does discovery work?
    How does discovery work?
    Nanoprobe scripts perform discovery
    ●
    Each discovers one kind of information
    ●
    Can take arguments from environment
    ●
    Output JSON
    CMA stores Discovery Information
    ●
    JSON stored in Neo4j database
    ●
    CMA discovery plugins => graph nodes and relationships
    

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    A Few Canned Queries
    A Few Canned Queries
    allipports get all port/ip/service/hosts
    allswitchports get switch connections
    crashed get crashed servers
    shutdown get gracefully shutdown servers
    downservices get nonworking services
    findip get system owning IP
    findmac get system owning MAC
    unknownips get unknown IP addresses
    unmonitored get unmonitored services
    

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    OS discovery JSON Snippet
    OS discovery JSON Snippet
    { "nodename": "alanr-1225B",
    "operating-system": "GNU/Linux",
    "machine": "x86_64",
    "processor": "x86_64",
    "hardware-platform": "x86_64",
    "kernel-name": "Linux",
    "kernel-release": "3.8.0-31-generic",
    "kernel-version": "#46-Ubuntu SMP ...",
    "Distributor ID": "Ubuntu",
    "Description": "Ubuntu 13.04",
    "Release": "13.04",
    "Codename": "raring" }
    

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