Re: Security Considerations for writeable objects (was: RE: Pls review documents on IESG Agenda for December 1, 200)5

[Andy Bierman <ietf@andybierman.com>]

Romascanu, Dan (Dan) wrote:

>  
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-mreview@ops.ietf.org 
> > [mailto:owner-mreview@ops.ietf.org] On Behalf Of C. M. Heard
> >    
> >
> > >  o draft-ietf-isis-wg-mib-24.txt
> > >    Management Information Base for IS-IS (Proposed 
> > >      
> > Standard) - 20 of 22 
> >    
> >
> > >    Token: Alex Zinin
> > >      
> > I did the MIB Doctor review for this doc and I am satisfied 
> > with it.  I see come comments from a GenArt in the tracker.  
> > I agree with those on Section 2 and disagree with those on 
> > Section 7.  The reason I disagree is that complying with the 
> > comment would require listing all writeable objects in the 
> > MIB module, and it should be sufficient to say "all writeable 
> > attributes have the potential to disrupt network operations 
> > if improperly modified" as the doc now does.
> >
> >    
>
> I am a little surprised by this comment from Mike, and I think that I
> would disagree. 
>
> We are telling explicitly MIB writers at
> http://www.ops.ietf.org/mib-security.html:
>
> -- if you have any read-write and/or read-create objects, please
> -- describe their specific sensitivity or vulnerability.
> -- RFC 2669 has a very good example.
>
> I am opposed to replace this by another blanket generic text. Different
> objects bear different threats in disrupting network operations if
> improperly modified, and I believe that it is important for the MIB
> documents to specifically and explicitly list those. 
>
>  

Me too!
I have often wondered if we could have some sort of coherent security
threat ranking
guidelines, but it's too subjective (like the Fujita Scale for MIB
objects :-)
A knob that tells RMON how often to garbage collect useless data is hardly
going to impact the network in the same manner as the knob that disables
BGP.


The problem with blanket boilerplate text is that sooner or later everybody
knows it doesn't really apply, and they ignore ALL the text, even when
you're telling
them about the BGP knob.

> Regards,
>
> Dan
>
>
>  

Andy

>