Avatar of sunhux
sunhux
 asked on

Protect/prevent Unix passwd/shadow and Windows SAM from being copied out

There's a discussion internally within our corporate if it's a concern that an internal staff attempts to copy out
SAM & passwd  and then run a password cracking tool on it.

Q1:
Is this a valid concern?

Q2:
In DoD B2 (or is it C2), the file containing hashed passwd  'vanishes' : is the purpose to prevent someone from
copying out the hashes for cracking?  Or what's the purpose of doing this?

Q3:
What are the measures we can put in place to prevent internal staff from making cracking attempts on SAM
& a Unix file containing the hashed passwords?  Should stronger hash (what's the current best practice?)  or
encryption be used?
EncryptionOS SecuritySecurityUnix OS

Avatar of undefined
Last Comment
tfewster

8/22/2022 - Mon
sunhux

ASKER
We thought of enabling Auditing of these files but these files are being accessed frequently to authenticate users.
Is there any way of auditing/logging it so that we only capture the genuine attempts to copy out these files ?
SOLUTION
Dr. Klahn

THIS SOLUTION ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
See Pricing Options
Start Free Trial
GET A PERSONALIZED SOLUTION
Ask your own question & get feedback from real experts
Find out why thousands trust the EE community with their toughest problems.
sunhux

ASKER
on the Q3's reply, we're looking more in terms of mitigating from systems perspective & not from process/bonding/policy perspective.

Would placing an audit logging help & how can we configure it such that we don't get false positives?

So, using DoD's B2 (or is it C2) method is the way to go?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Shaun Vermaak

THIS SOLUTION ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
See Pricing Options
Start Free Trial
⚡ FREE TRIAL OFFER
Try out a week of full access for free.
Find out why thousands trust the EE community with their toughest problems.
tfewster

It;s late, but I'll add my 2c
Q1: Not really. If someone has access to the hashed password file, they already have Admin/root access, at least temporarily. There are better things to worry about - logging and auditing, for example.
Q3: SHA256 + salting is easy to implement and, in my opinion, makes the hashes pretty much immune to cracking or rainbow tables.

Look at the real Risk to the company first - i.e. how likely is (something) to happen, and what would be the impact?
This is the best money I have ever spent. I cannot not tell you how many times these folks have saved my bacon. I learn so much from the contributors.
rwheeler23