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Safeguard for Sudo 7.2 - Administration Guide

Introducing Safeguard for Sudo Planning Deployment Installation and Configuration Upgrade Safeguard for Sudo System Administration Managing Security Policy Administering Log and Keystroke Files Supported sudo plugins Troubleshooting Safeguard Variables Safeguard programs Installation Packages Unsupported Sudo Options Safeguard for Sudo Policy Evaluation

Behavioral change

Table 52: Behavioral change
Sudo option Description
-k and -K These flags only remove the user’s credentials within the cache.
env_file When in "offline policy evaluation" mode, this option only works if the file is present on the off-line host.
fqdn Normally, when a policy has this flag enabled, sudo resolves host names on the policy server. However, when in off-line mode, sudo resolves host names from the policy cache server, which may produce different results.
group_plugin When in "off-line policy evaluation" mode, this option only works if the off-line host has group_plugin in the same path as the primary/secondary server.
lecture_file When in "off-line policy evaluation" mode, this option only works if the file is present on the off-line host.
logfile When in "off-line policy evaluation" mode, this option only works if the file is present on the off-line host.

Unsupported Sudoers policy options

Table 53: Unsupported Sudoers policy options
Sudoers option Explanation
compress_io Compresses I/O logs using zlib.
fast_glob fast_glob is always enabled; disabling fast_glob has no effect.
ignore_local_sudoers Sudoers in LDAP is not supported.
iolog_dir (‘%’) escape sequences %{seq} The %{seq} escape sequence is not supported.

iolog_flush

Safeguard keystroke logs are not buffered so this option is always on.

iolog_group

Safeguard keystroke logs are owned by the pmlog group.

iolog_mode

Safeguard keystroke logs are readable and writable by the root user and readable by the pmlog group.

iolog_user

Safeguard keystroke logs are owned by the root user.

limit-privs

Default set of Solaris limit privileges; not supported.

maxseq

Maximum I/O sequence number; not used by Safeguard.

pam_acct_mgmt

Safeguard always runs PAM account management modules.

pam_login_service

PAM service to use for login shells; Safeguard always uses "sudo".

pam_service

PAM service name to use; Safeguard always uses "sudo".

pam_session

Safeguard always creates a new PAM session.

pam_setcred

Attempts to establish PAM credentials for the target user; not used by Safeguard.

passprompt_override Forces sudo to always use passprompt.

privs

Default set of permitted Solaris privileges, not supported.

pwfeedback When set, sudo provides visual feedback when you press a key.
role SELinux RBAC not supported.
stay_setuid Forces sudo to act as a setuid wrapper.

timestamp_type

Safeguard uses its own time stamp format.

timestampdir The directory in which sudo stores its timestamp files.
timestampowner The owner of the timestamp directory and the timestamps stored therein.
type SELinux RBAC not supported.

use_pty

Not relevant; pty is always used.

Unsupported Sudoers directives

Table 54: Unsupported Sudoers directives
Sudoers directive Description / Explanation

#include & #includedir

Safeguard for Sudo does not support these options.

Because these options use absolute paths they can point outside the policy repository making it impossible to sync the policy files that are included among the policy servers.

You can use #include and #includedir to include files and directories, so long as you keep them in a separate directory from the working copy, but you need to know that the included files/directories will not be under revision control.

Safeguard for Sudo Policy Evaluation

Safeguard for Sudo enhances traditional sudo by providing centralized services for policy evaluation, as well as event and keystroke logging. Safeguard for Sudo provides continuity of service in the event of a network or server outage by means of off-line policy evaluation.

Sudo off-line policy evaluation is available when using the Sudo Plugin joined to a policy server that evaluates a sudoers policy.

How it works

The Sudo Plugin package provides a cache service by installing a client version of the policy server daemon (pmmasterd) on the Plugin host. When you configure and join the host to a policy server, it sets up the policy management subsystem, and checks out the cache’s copy of the security policy from the central repository on the primary policy server.

When you run a sudo command, it sends the initial Sudo Plugin request to the cache service running on the Plugin host. In most cases, the cache service forwards the request to a central policy server on the network. However, if the cache service does not receive a timely response from a central policy server, it services the request locally, performing an off-line evaluation of the cached policy and storing the event and keystroke logs in a temporary holding location on the Plugin host (under /var/opt/quest/qpm4u/offline/).

You can configure the time period before an off-line policy evaluation occurs by adding the offlineTimeout setting in the /etc/opt/quest/qpm4u/pm.settings file. offlineTimeout defaults to 1500 milliseconds (1.5 seconds). To modify that setting, specify the timeout period in milliseconds as an integer value. For example, to set a timeout of 5 seconds (5000 milliseconds), enter the following into the pm.settings file:

offlineTimeout 5000

Setting offlineTimeout to 0 in the pm.settings file, forces the cache service to always perform off-line (local-only) policy evaluation for sudo requests.

Once an off-line policy evaluation has occurred, the pmloadcheck daemon periodically checks to see if any policy server has come back online. Upon returning to an online state, the pmloadcheck daemon initiates a log file transfer to copy the logs to a temporary quarantine area on the policy server (/var/opt/quest/qpm4u/quarantine). The policy server validates the integrity of the log files in the quarantine and processes them, appending events to the central log store.

Determining off-line events

When off-line policy evaluation occurs, the cache service’s pmmasterd process writes a message to the pmmasterd.log file located in either /var/log or /var/adm, depending on your operating system, and is configurable in the /etc/opt/quest/qpm4u/pm.settings file.

Once processed into a policy server’s central event store, you can identify off-line events by examining the offlinesession event variable (pmlog -c "offlinesession==1") or the masterhost variable which is set to the Plugin host’s hostname.

Off-line policy cache updates

At regular intervals and whenever a request is sent to a central policy server for online evaluation, the pmloadcheck daemon checks the revision number of the cached policy. You can also use the pmpolicyplugin utility to display the revision status of the cached policy or to request an update. See pmpolicyplugin for more information about this utility.

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