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Enhancing Application Security via Privman Library and Privilege Separation

Douglas Kilpatrick sent in a note about a new open source project going on at Network Associates. "Privman is a library that makes it easy for programs to use privilege separation, a technique that prevents the leak or misuse of privilege from applications that must run with some elevated permissions. Applications that use the Privman library split into two halves, the half that performs valid privileged operations, and the half that contains the application's logic. The Privman library simplifies the otherwise complex task of separating the application, protecting the system from compromise if an error in the application logic is found.. . .. Douglas Kilpatrick sent in a note about a new open source project going on at Network Associates. "Privman is a library that makes it easy for programs to use privilege separation, a technique that prevents the leak or misuse of privilege from applications that must run with some elevated permissions. Applications that use the Privman library split into two halves, the half that performs valid privileged operations, and the half that contains the application's logic. The Privman library simplifies the otherwise complex task of separating the application, protecting the system from compromise if an error in the application logic is found. The library uses configuration files to provide fine-grained access control for the privileged operations, limiting exposure in even of an attack against the application. When the application is compromised, the attacker gains only the privileges of an unprivileged user and the specific privileges granted to the application by the application's Privman configuration file. Current Status The most recent version of Privman is 0.8.4. The Privman libraries should be considered developmental, and parts of the API are likely to change. We are interested in any feedback, bug fixes, or requests for functionality. We are particularly interested in features that make it easier to modify existing software to use the Privman library. ThePrivman API should be sufficient for most applications. We have successfully patched WU-FTPD to use Privman, as well as THTTPD. The link for this article located at NAI is no longer available. . Explore how Privman streamlines privilege isolation to bolster application safety and optimize access management.. Privman, Privilege Separation, Access Control, Open Source Project. . LinuxSecurity.com Team

Oct 17, 2002 • LinuxSecurity.com Team Security Projects