[pgpool-general: 1627] Re: watchdog root requirement

Tatsuo Ishii ishii at postgresql.org
Wed Apr 17 15:00:28 JST 2013


Looks like it is not only safe but desirable to remove the root check
part in main.c. I will do it for master and supported stable branches.
--
Tatsuo Ishii
SRA OSS, Inc. Japan
English: http://www.sraoss.co.jp/index_en.php
Japanese: http://www.sraoss.co.jp

> I'm no security expert either, but I do work in finance and the information security teams have approved using sudo to execute escalated privileges without a password.
> 
> IMHO the best option is to just run whatever is in the configuration for ifconfig/arping.  If it succeeds, great.  If it fails, exit with an error.  It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission as far as I'm concerned :)
> 
> Failing that, I would think the next best option is a configuration parameter in pgpool.conf (dontcheckroot=yes or something).  Second best would be command line option for the pgpool binary. Compile time option would be fine, but not the best option.
> 
> --kyleo
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tatsuo Ishii" <ishii at postgresql.org>
> To: kyleo at 0b10.mx
> Cc: pgpool-general at pgpool.net
> Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 10:11:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [pgpool-general: 1590] watchdog root requirement
> 
> So your idea is edit /etc/sudoers to allow to execute via sudo arping
> and ifconfig without password? I'm not a security expert but this
> sounds like a good idea to me.
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I am trying to avoid running pgpool as root but it seems it expects you to use a setuid root executable (which I'm not comfortable with).  I've come up with a solution which I think should be acceptable but does not currently work because the code will exit based on what it thinks is required.
>> 
>> I feel like this should be decided by the administrator via either compile time option and/or command line argument and or configuration param.
> 
> Agreed. Do you think which option is the best?
> 
>> Here's what I've done:
>> 
>> ifconfig_path = '/var/lib/postgresql/bin'
>> if_up_cmd = 'pg_ifconfig eth0:2 $_IP_$ 255.255.255.0 up'
>> if_down_cmd = 'pg_ifconfig eth0:2 $_IP_$ 255.255.255.0 down'
>> arping_path = '/var/lib/postgresql/bin'           # arping command path
>> arping_cmd = 'pg_arping $_IP_$ 1'  
>> 
>> created 2 scripts (pg_arping/pg_ifconfig) which execute the commands required via sudo:
>> 
>> $ cat pg_arping
>> #!/bin/bash
>> [ $# -ne 2 ] && echo "$0 ip.add.re.ss timeout" && exit 3
>> ip=$1
>> timeout=$2
>> /usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/arping -U $ip -w $timeout
>> 
>> $ cat pg_ifconfig
>> #!/bin/bash
>> [ $# -ne 4 ] && echo "$0 interface ip.add.re.ss netmask [up|down]" && exit 3
>> iface=$1
>> ip=$2
>> netmask=$3
>> action=$4
>> /usr/bin/sudo /sbin/ifconfig $iface inet $ip netmask $netmask $action
>> 
>> 
>> FYI to get this working I simply removed the code I didn't like, but I'm not a huge fan of this either:
>> 
>> main.c:
>> 
>>                         /* check root
>>                         if (geteuid() != 0)
>>                         {
>>                                 pool_error("watchdog must be started under the privileged user ID to up/down virtual network interface.");
>>                                 pool_shmem_exit(1);
>>                                 exit(1);
>>                         } */
>> 
>> --kyleo
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