[lug] Why is it SO easy to destroy cloud environments?

[Davide Del Vento]

> It's great that Linode provides an IP whitelist to the management
> console.

I thought the same (for a service we provide). The security expert
coworkers explained that's not effective protection. A skilled
attacker can use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_spoofing as described
in the quote below. I argued that it's like using sturdier windows in
your house, to make them impossible to break with a light hammer .
They said that will not stop a burglar (either "professional" or
"rouge kid") from using a larger hammer, or breaking the weak lock on
the door. They concluded that to get real additional security, the
windows need to be bulletproof, and only when the doors and their
lockers are too: protections that just require a heavy vs a light
hammer do not stop anybody (not even the script kiddies), it just
creates a small nuisance to the attacker.

I am not sure this example applies exactly to this discussion, but I
see the "two camps"in this case arguing in the same way we did for our
service.
Cheers,
Davide

PS: Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_spoofing
IP spoofing can also be a method of attack used by network intruders
to defeat network security measures, such as authentication based on
IP addresses. This method of attack on a remote system can be
extremely difficult, as it involves modifying thousands of packets at
a time. This type of attack is most effective where trust
relationships exist between machines. For example, it is common on
some corporate networks to have internal systems trust each other, so
that users can log in without a username or password provided they are
connecting from another machine on the internal network (and so must
already be logged in). By spoofing a connection from a trusted
machine, an attacker may be able to access the target machine without
an authentication.