Re: [secdir] Secdir last call review of draft-ietf-netmod-syslog-model-21

[Yaron Sheffer <[e-mail]>]

Hi Clyde,

Thank you for responding to my comments. I am OK with all of your responses.

Best,
	Yaron

On 19/02/18 13:02, Clyde Wildes (cwildes) wrote:
> Yaron,
> 
> Thanks for your review. My answers are inline as [clw1].
> 
> On 2/18/18, 6:31 AM, "Yaron Sheffer" <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
>      Reviewer: Yaron Sheffer
>      Review result: Has Issues
>      
>      General Comments
>      
>      * The semantics of pattern matching is not clear: "and/or the message text" -
>      are there cases where you only match the text but not the facility/severity? *
>      
> [clw1] Yes. There are three cases: 1. Match on facility/severity; 2. Match on the regex pattern; 3. Match on both facility/severity and the regex pattern.
> 
>      It's very confusing to specify rollover in minutes, but retention in hours.
>      People are bound to get this one wrong.
> 
> [clw1] I will change the retention to minutes unless others object.
> 
>      * Interface selection: the feature
>      makes sense, but I think the description is incorrect. "This leaf sets the
>      source interface to be used to send messages to the remote syslog server. If
>      not set, messages sent to a remote syslog server will contain the IP address of
>      the interface the syslog message uses to exit the network element". AFAIK the
>      source IP will always correspond to the interface, but this feature allows you
>      to select a particular one.
> 
> [clw1] You are correct. I will modify the description to make this clearer. How about:
> 
> "This leaf sets the source interface to be used to send messages to the remote syslog server. If
> not set, messages can be sent on any interface."
> 
>      * Usage examples: the second example lists a
>      specific IPv6 address, but the Yang snippet shows a domain name.
> 
> [clw1] Thanks for catching this error. I will fix this in the next revision.
> 
>      * A generic
>      question (I am new to the Yang ecosystem): I understand most implementers will
>      use this module from
>      https://github.com/YangModels/yang/blob/master/standard/ietf/DRAFT/ietf-syslog.yang
>      - is this the expectation? If so, why not add a link from the RFC into the
>      repo, to make it easier for people to find?
> 
> [clw1] It is standard practice to include the model in the RFC AFAIK. I have not seen github links published in any other RFCs.
>      
>      Security Comments
>      
>      * I think almost all writable data nodes here are sensitive, because a network
>      attacker's first move is to block any logging on the host, and many of the data
>      nodes here can be used for this purpose.
> 
> [clw1] I will reword the security section to include all writeable nodes as sensitive.
> 
>      * Re: readable data nodes, I'm not
>      sure which are sensitive, and the document should give an example or two rather
>      than just say "some". Otherwise the security advice is not actionable. One
>      example: "remote" sections leak information about other hosts in the network.
> 
> [clw1] This text was lifted from another model. I will review the readable nodes and update.
> 
>      * Write operations... can have a negative effect on network operations. - I would
>      add "and on network security", because logs are often used to detect security
>      breaches.
> 
> [clw1] I will add this phrase.
> 
>      * Also add an advice, similar to the one on "pattern match", that the
>      private key used for signing log messages MUST NOT be used for any other
>      purpose, and that the implementation of this data node must ensure this
>      property (I'm not sure how). The rationale: if the TLS private key is used, for
>      example, this could result in a signing oracle for TLS and eventually a MITM
>      attack.
> 
> [clw1] I will add this advice.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Clyde
>      
>