[4902] in sapr3-soft
SAP installation: a major security risk?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ulrich Windl)
Fri Oct 28 09:32:58 2005
To: sapr3-soft@mit.edu
Date: 28 Oct 2005 15:32:46 +0200
From: Ulrich Windl <Ulrich.Windl@RZ.Uni-Regensburg.DE>
Message-ID: <86hdb1bwch.fsf@pc8032.rz.uni-regensburg.de>
Hi,
SAP still thinks: "this machine belongs to us, because our software runs
there". For UNIX sinstallations SAP still requires that the installation tool
runs a root, being able to change everything in the system.
This is specifically harmful as those who install SAP (i.e. try to follow that
endless stream of SAP notes) are not the system administrators, but "normal"
Database or SAP administrators.
As if it weren't enough, the installation program also requires to change
root's umask to a more unsafe value, just as if there was no system call to
change file permissions.
If you try to set up multiple SAP installations on a machine that also runs
other applications in a security sensitive area, the SAP installation process
is completely unusable.
The proper installation method is this:
Let the system administrator prepare users, groups and filesystems for SAP
installation, and then install the programs as a "normal" user. As SAP doesn't
run as root, there is no need why the installation has to be performed as
"root".
Nowadays it seems to be preferrable to have some colored click interface that
may damage your whole installation over making a reliable and safe
installation at "normal" user priviledges.
Sorry I had to say that before the weekend.
Regards,
Ulrich
