THE WORLD WIDE WEB: MANAGING SECURITY RISKS

from http://www.WindowsSecurity.com Computer users are finding the Internet and the World Wide Web (or Web for short) extremely useful for browsing through information, publishing documents, and exchanging information. Web applications have become popular because of the availability of powerful personal computers (PCs) capable of high quality graphics, easy Internet access, and a simple hypertext markup language (HTML) and network protocol. As a result, many organizations and individuals are becoming Web-aware. The Web offers all kinds of information, from research papers, to customer support and marketing information, to club calendars and family bulletin boards. A myriad of Web indexing and searching services allow readers to find what they're looking for. Organizations also use Internet protocols to support their internal networks (often called intranets). Although the Web is used for other applications such as electronic commerce, the primary one is Internet publishing. This CSL Bulletin addresses general security issues related to the use of the World Wide Web, concentrating on risk management for Web readers and publishers. A Web reader is anyone who uses a Web browser (a Web client application which typically supports more than one Web protocol) for access to Web-based information. A Web publisher is a person or organization that uses a Web server to provide information and access to applications for internal or external users. Note: Any mention of particular technologies or commercial products is for the purposes of explanation and illustration only. It does not imply a recommendation or endorsement by NIST or the U.S. Department of Commerce. WEB READERS The goal of risk management is to balance expected gains against unexpected losses, so as to maximize overall gain and minimize loss. Some readers may be using the Web just for fun, but organizational users have more to lose (and gain). Some of the gains a Web reader might expect are: - a more user-friendly interface; - more timely access to information; - access to more or previously unavailable information; and - keeping current with technology. Quantifying those gains can be difficult. One measure would be an estimate of how much more time would have been spent getting the information via other means. Potential losses are somewhat easier to quantify. Losses Some of the more likely losses and their causes that a Web reader faces are: Damage to the system and user information from buggy software, virus-infected executables, trojan horse programs, embedded macros, and downloadable applets (an applet is a small program that is downloaded and executed on-the-fly by the browser). Some recent viruses can even erase the boot EPROMs (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) of some PCs, rendering them unusable. Monetary or credit damage from illegitimate companies or Web-based scams, or by having credit card information stolen via network sniffing or break-ins at the server. Privacy can be compromised when information regarding a user's browsing activities is published or sold. The reader's Internet address, date and time, and the names of the files accessed may be recorded by the Web server. If the Web reader fills out any form, additional information may be recorded as well. Reputation can be damaged by individuals who expose information about the reader, or who masquerade as the reader and perform antisocial acts. For example, a Web applet could cause the Web reader's browser to send email of the applet author's choice. Most threats that the Web reader faces are not new, but the Web makes them potentially more hazardous. For example, viruses have been around for years, but the point-and-click Web browser interface makes it easy to instantly download and execute an infected program. Anyone with a telephone is exposed to telemarketing scams, but a virtual Web storefront with fancy graphics somehow seems more trustworthy than a stranger's voice over the telephone. Many companies collect and sell customer purchase information, but one wouldn't expect the act of reading an online brochure to add one's email address to a telemarketing database. Threats Web threats stem from shortcuts in the software development process, shortcomings in popular operating systems, deficiencies in the Internet protocols, and the problems inherent in managing the Internet. Buggy software is endemic to the software development process. Developers continually add new features to differentiate their products and increase market share. Users usually prefer to use the latest and greatest version of any new Web client or server. Much of the software is provided on a try-before-you-buy basis, which allows people to test-drive software but provides no warranty in the event of bugs. Web browsers are especially hazardous because they can allow access to untrustworthy systems on the Internet and they often invoke other applications as a side effect of their use. Some may also act as an FTP (file transfer protocol) client, Usenet news (Internet-based discussion groups) client, or an email client. Each new feature increases the risk of a dangerous bug. Impersonation of an individual or organization is difficult to prevent on the Internet. Computer user identification is usually meaningful only within an organization and depends on the policies within that organization and how well they are enforced. An email address may or may not uniquely identify an individual, and many organizations do not provide outside access to internal email addresses. In any case, email is usually easy to forge, being the electronic equivalent to a postcard written in pencil. Although secure email protocols have been proposed, none has been widely implemented. When a browser connects to a Web server, the server gets the Internet address of the connecting system. If it is a multi-user system, the server cannot tell what user on the system connected. The address of a single-user PC may not be very useful either, since systems using dial-up TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) may be assigned a different address every time they connect. Until recently, the agency responsible for registering most Internet Domain names only confirmed that the requested name was unique. It did not require proof that a name like ORPHANS.ORG was going to be used by a nonprofit organization or that WXY.COM was an actual business entity. Consequently, an Internet user has no dependable way of identifying and authenticating an individual or organization on the Internet. Eavesdropping (also known as sniffing or snooping) of network traffic is unavoidable as long as local area networks (LANs) use broadcast protocols and the data are unencrypted and travel over public networks. You should be at least as cautious using the Web for sensitive matters as you would be discussing something confidential on a public or cellular telephone. The costs associated with recovering from losses can be minor or major. Users can spend days recovering from a virus infection. Data corruption is more difficult to discover and recover from, since there may be no obvious symptoms. Impersonation could result in anything from a forged love letter to an order for 10,000 pizzas (with anchovies). Risk Control Some remedies exist to reduce some of the risks to a Web reader. The easiest to implement are those based on loss avoidance. - If you don't use the Web, you're not exposed to its dangers. - If you never download executable code, your system won't be infected by a virus. - If you don't buy things over the Web, you can't be cheated. - If you never give out financial information (like credit card numbers or bank account numbers) over the Web, it can't be misused or stolen. Other remedies are based on loss control or mitigation. - Backup your system regularly. Be sure that you can recover your software and data in the event of a crash or virus infestation. - Be a careful shopper to reduce the danger of buggy software. Buy from known sources. Don't run beta test code. Buy the simplest browser that gets the job done. Turn off features you don't use. Don't download every viewer and applet you run across. - If your organization has one, test new Web applications on a sacrificial computer system that is isolated from the internal network and doesn't contain any important data. - Until better security mechanisms are in widespread use, if you must buy over the Internet, take some precautions. Check the identity of the vendor via another channel, e.g., paper mail or telephone listing. Patronize vendors that use a Web server with a secure channel between your system and theirs. Impersonation The problem of impersonation is somewhat difficult to solve. An organization can maintain tight controls over the hardware and software of its intranet to make impersonating someone else within the organization relatively difficult. It can also usually exercise some form of discipline over its members to prevent or punish transgressions. The greater Web is part of the Internet, which is an international system of networks. No one has authority to prevent or punish abuses across the entire Internet. A form of public key encryption can be used to identify individuals, computer systems, and organizations. As yet, there is no global infrastructure to support the management of the keys. Individual organizations can still choose to implement this kind of identification for their intranet, and some commercial Web servers and browsers implement a vendor-specific form of key exchange so that Web servers can authenticate themselves to browsers. Eavesdropping >From a technical perspective, the simplest remedy for eavesdropping is to encrypt messages and channels. However, the use of encryption for confidentiality has the same drawbacks associated with using encryption for personal identification. It is relatively easy to implement within an organization, but hard to implement between organizations. Encryption of all network traffic can be expensive in terms of hardware, software, and central processing unit (CPU) cycles. Several commercial Web servers and browsers support encryption of all Web requests between the browser and server. Currently, most secure servers can only talk to browsers from the same vendor and can only use keys from a limited set of key certificate authorities. Eventually, most Web vendors will be using Web servers that provide public key-based authentication of the server and encryption of the channel between the browser and server. Organizational Support for Readers Organizations need to provide guidance and support to their Web readers. An organization should have clear, workable, and enforceable Web usage and security policies. Some measures an organization can take are: - Buy licensed software from a trusted vendor; - Run proactive virus checkers; - Distribute approved browser configuration files and trusted viewers; and - Educate your readers. Tell them: - what's allowable usage, covering issues like private email, Usenet posting, personal browsing, etc.; - not to download unapproved browsers, viewers, and applets; and - not to configure their Web browser to automatically invoke an application just because the Web server suggests it. Particular technologies such as active forms or downloadable applets must be carefully examined and approved before being approved for organizational use. WEB PUBLISHERS Web publishers face the same challenges as Web readers. They need to recognize the potential losses from various threats and implement risk reduction measures. Losses The types of losses a Web publisher can incur are similar to those of a Web reader, namely: Damage to their systems and networks from buggy and misconfigured server software, insecure Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs, and untrustworthy server-side applets. Monetary and credit damage by theft of service, nonpayment, credit card fraud, etc. Privacy can be compromised when the organization's or its customers' confidential information is exposed. Reputation can be damaged if information is changed or lost, confidential customer information is exposed, or service is denied. Threats Buggy or misconfigured Web server software can damage or allow damage to information or software. Security-related bugs have been discovered in all of the popular UNIX-based Web servers. Most of the bugs were caused by chronic UNIX/C errors in string handling, environment variables, and the use of the system() call. Theoretically, since the source code was available for most of the servers, the errors should have been immediately spotted by the Internet users who downloaded the code. Practically, however, most users download a binary executable and never look at the source code, or merely give it a cursory look before compiling and installing it. Users assume that someone more conscientious than themselves has carefully studied the code. Most Web servers provide some kind of access control; they can be configured to accept or deny connections based on Internet address or domain name. There are several problems with this method. As described above, Internet addresses and domain names are a weak identification method. Also, unless you can configure an attack computer with various addresses, it is difficult to tell if your configuration rules are correct or if the Web server author implemented the access control algorithms correctly. Web servers support dozens of optional features. The most popular features are usually the best debugged, since other people have already discovered the problems. If you use little-used or experimental features, you are the guinea pig. CGI programs allow the Web server to execute an external program when particular URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are accessed. This provides a gateway to other programs that may query a database or create on-the-fly HTML. Unfortunately, it's easy to create insecure CGI programs that allow an attacker to trick the Web server into executing other programs. Only careful configuration of the Web server and CGI program, and careful review of the CGI code, can prevent those mistakes. If the Web server is broken into, it can serve as a stepping stone to break into other networks and systems in the organization. The privacy of the organization and its customers can be violated if confidential data are kept on the Web server. Production systems could be damaged or brought down. If financial data are kept on the Web server, they could be altered or stolen. The reputation of the organization can be damaged if information is maliciously altered or customers are denied service. Risk Control Exercise central coordination of Web publishing in your organization. Establish procedures for verifying the security and integrity of your Web servers and their contents. Keep it simple. Run the Web server on a stripped-down system, i.e., turn off nonessential network protocols, create the minimum necessary user accounts, and remove nonessential software. Partition your systems to limit the damage that can be done. For example: - Don't put confidential data on a publicly accessible server. - Don't run a publicly accessible server on an internal production system or on your internal network. - Store confidential customer data, like credit card information, on a tightly controlled system, apart from the Web documents. - If possible, store read-only data on immutable media. - Don't do program development on the server system. Keep compilers off the server. - Configure the network and internal systems such that the Web server system is not trusted. - Don't allow that system access to internal resources, such as network filesystems, printers, and accounts. Track Web software bug reports, especially security-related ones. Track developments in Web security, in the areas of encryption, authentication, and payment protocols. Tell Web software vendors that quality is more important than endless new features. SUMMARY You have to protect yourself, because all other controls are after the fact. The university may never discipline the student who broke into your system. The Federal Bureau of Investigation may never find the money you lost in an interstate Internet scam. You don't want to have to wait for Interpol to investigate your case. As the Internet and the World Wide Web evolve, you must continue to educate yourself and your organization as new protocols, file formats, applications, and products are introduced. For More Information WWW Consortium Security Resources http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Security/ WWW Security Frequently Asked Questions http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html NIST Computer Security Resource Clearinghouse http://csrc.nist.gov/