Protecting message files acess even from root

[Fabio S. Schmidt]

Thanks Sven, I really appreciate your considerations, especially about the
encryption of the SMTP traffic.

I will test Mandatory Access Control (MCS), like Se-linux(YES, I know that
NSA wrote it) or Apparmor for instance, and customising SUDO:
http://pubs.gpaterno.com//2009/protecting-confidential-files-selinux-2009.pdf

Sorry for not being specific from the beginning, but this research is for a
government e-mail system, and we really need to ensure that even
administrators cannot access the messages, encrypted or not.


On 1 February 2014 07:38, Sven Schwedas <sven.schwedas at tao.at> wrote:

> Given that a physical root can bypass any and every ACL, encrypting
> messages (upon receiving, e.g.) is the only remotely plausible way to
> prevent access.
>
> And even then the admin could sniff all SMTP traffic and copy messages
> before encryption, so you'd need to monitor him anyway.
>
>
>
> Why again does someone you trust so little have root access to anything
> more sensitive than a calculator? ;-)
>
> On 2014-01-31 17:47, Fabio S. Schmidt wrote:
> > Hi Dan ! Thanks for the answer !
> >
> > I'm trying to prevent local access from a physical administrator. Even
> > if looged as root should be impossible to read the messages on the Cyrus
> > partitions. Other emails stores that I have dealt with also stores the
> > messages in files.
> >
> > Blackman and Goetz, Thanks for the reply, but my problem is that not all
> > messages will be encrypted at the source. AND EVEN if the message is
> > encrypted we want to prevent the access from a physical administrator.
> >
> >
> >
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> --
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen, / Best Regards,
> Sven Schwedas
> Systemadministrator
> TAO Beratungs- und Management GmbH | Lendplatz 45 | A - 8020 Graz
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>
>
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-- 

My best regards,
Fabio Soares Schmidt


Linux Professional Institute - LPIC-3
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Active Directory
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