[lug] SELinux

Mon Jan 29 17:18:06 MST 2018

On 1/29/2018 4:49 PM, Steve Sullivan wrote:
> Ok, I'll ask ... can you give any examples of server side
> vulnerabilities for Java?  I read a bit at

I really haven't seen any. For Web applications, the single most common 
issue is SQL Injection. Things I've done wrong include storing passwords 
insecurely, not validating access correctly, displaying unescaped page 
input in error messages, permitting sensitive database commands via 
integrated query tool, not rate-limiting login attempts, and the like. 
IOW, it's me doing something wrong (except I've never done SQL Injection).

Over the years, Tomcat (and Struts) have had security issues. On the 
Tomcat side, over the past several years they've been pretty obscure and 
in seldom used areas like WebDAV. I vaguely remember some directory 
traversal issues, and some source code reveal issues but those were 
quite a long time ago. Over 10 years if I recall. Still, I continuously 
update my Tomcat version and JVM version as new versions are released.

Since I allow people to run JSPs, I run Tomcat under a security manager. 
If you put up a JSP that tried to open an arbitrary file, the security 
manager would stop it. To be trusted, files have to be either in a 
secure location, or signed by a trusted certificate.

Unfortunately, my experience has been that I'm much more likely to cause 
a security problem than something in my tool chain.

>
> https://dzone.com/articles/test-test-test-7
> and
> https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-93/product_id-19117/Oracle-JRE.html
>
> The list of 544 vulnerabilities at cvedetails looks intimidating,
> but reading down it looks like most of the problems are applet
> related.  Almost nobody uses applets anymore.
>
> And many of the entries say "require human interaction from a
> person other than the attacker".  Well, no fair -- if you have
> inside help, nearly anything is possible!
>
> Have you experienced any server side Java security issues?
>
> Steve
>
> On Mon, Jan 29, 2018 at 02:32:54PM -0700, Bear Giles wrote:
>> It's the same as debugging optimized C code. When you single-step through
>> the code the lines of code might not be executed sequentially but they're
>> never reordered in a way that breaks the logic. Remember that keyhole
>> optimizers work on a very limited set of patterns so they can be proven to
>> be correct.
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 29, 2018 at 2:01 PM, <mad.scientist.at.large at tutanota.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> so how can anyone debug or audit code if the JIT compiler keeps optimizing
>>> it repeatedly, cosnstantly changing the machine language code.  you'd have
>>> to debug the jit compiler and your' code at the same time. again i think
>>> this is terrible design for reliability and security as there is no way to
>>> audit the actual machine code.  this constant optimizing sounds like an
>>> excellent way to introduce unpredictable (or nearly so) bugs and frustrate
>>> any attempt to solve hard bugs or even guess where the bugs are in the code.
>>>
>>> I do realize java has had a lot more development time spent on it than
>>> pascal.
>>>
>>> mad.scientist.at.large (a good madscientist)
>>> --
>>> God bless the rich, the greedy and the corrupt politicians they have put
>>> into office.   God bless them for helping me do the right thing by giving
>>> the rich my little pile of cash.  After all, the rich know what to do with
>>> money.
>>>
>>>
>>> 29. Jan 2018 13:54 by bgiles at coyotesong.com:
>>>
>>>
>>> It's really unfair to compare the JVM to the pascal p-machine. There's a
>>> superficial similarity but it's had 20 years of optimizations by smart
>>> people with strong motivations. Hence things like the JIT (just-in-time)
>>> optimizer. The JVM is machine-independent but the JIT is a
>>> platform-specific keyhole optimizer that can replace blocks of bytecode
>>> with optimized native code. It gets more aggressive about unrolling loops,
>>> inlining method, etc., as the block of code is repeatedly called. A
>>> long-running server may be mostly optimized native code.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 29, 2018 at 1:38 PM, <mad.scientist.at.large at tutanota.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> sorry, haven't used the various flavors of java.  If it's compiled, then
>>>> such flaws are a compiler problem or a problem with the java engine.  I
>>>> assume the JVM bytecode is run on an interpreter, similar to the way pascal
>>>> produces code for a hypothetical machine, though some pascal compiler do
>>>> provide target code.
>>>>
>>>> good info, i thank all.  definately worth the hassle if properly
>>>> configured and one stays away from dodgey/poorly written compilers and
>>>> interpreters.  I'm well aware that all code of any size/complexity will
>>>> have bugs, plus bugs from compilers/interpreters.  heap and stack overflow
>>>> exploits continue to be common, as well as other security holes.   trading
>>>> proper data/instructions isolation in memory is a very poor practice and
>>>> terrible way to get speed.  I know well firefox's myriad problems.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> mad.scientist.at.large (a good madscientist)
>>>> --
>>>> God bless the rich, the greedy and the corrupt politicians they have put
>>>> into office.   God bless them for helping me do the right thing by giving
>>>> the rich my little pile of cash.  After all, the rich know what to do with
>>>> money.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 29. Jan 2018 13:20 by bgiles at coyotesong.com:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ? Java isn't interpreted. It compiles to JVM bytecode but the JIT
>>>> optimizer is now good enough that it can outperform C on long-running code.
>>>>
>>>> It's worth noting that Java's myriad security weaknesses (after the first
>>>> few years when poor decisions were shaken out) reflect the fact that it's
>>>> such a high value target that attackers will look at obscure corner cases.
>>>> It's not proof that it's inherently less secure than other platforms
>>>> (*cough* C libraries) and it has a lot of features that would make systems
>>>> much more secure if people used them. You can certainly design more secure
>>>> virtual machines but you'll lose functionality, at least at the moment.
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 10:04 PM, <mad.scientist.at.large at tutanota.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> that's just one more reason not to write things in java.  if i were
>>>>> "enterprise" i'd probably be doing the writing in a real language, for most
>>>>> things i hate interpreted languages, they are slow, slow, slow if doing any
>>>>> real work.  But i do see you're point, considering how "HOT" java is.  I
>>>>> mean the whole point is security, using java is hardly helpful in that
>>>>> pursuit, but i know you have to give the customer what they want.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, i will learn it as it's another usefull layer for security in
>>>>> depth.  I also plan to run multiple, different firewalls (banking industry
>>>>> standard, for web access is 3 layers of fire wall from different vendors,
>>>>> last i heard anyway).
>>>>>
>>>>> mad.scientist.at.large (a good madscientist)
>>>>> --
>>>>> God bless the rich, the greedy and the corrupt politicians they have put
>>>>> into office.   God bless them for helping me do the right thing by giving
>>>>> the rich my little pile of cash.  After all, the rich know what to do with
>>>>> money.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 28. Jan 2018 21:16 by zlynx at acm.org:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 1/28/2018 4:11 PM, mad.scientist.at.large at tutanota.com wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> the defaults in centos 6.9 (run by RH) enables many dangerous options by
>>>>> default, like executing code in the heap or memory shared with variables
>>>>> and program,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> You cannot run Java applications without those things. Just try being
>>>>> "enterprise" without Java.
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>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>> _______________________________________________
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>

-- 
George S.
*MH Software, Inc.*
Voice: 303 438 9585
http://www.mhsoftware.com
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