On a RedHat 6 server, a third party application requires to be root to run and needs access to sqlplus. I have a running database, I can run sqlplus as user 'oracle'. When logged in as user root, 'sqlplus usr/pwd#dbname' works as expected. The trouble is that this agent needs to run sqlplus with no parameters and it always returns ORA-12546: TNS:permission denied.
I've read a dozen times that enabling root to launch Oracle is a security issue but I really have no other choice.
Running Oracle 11.2.0.1.0.
Any help will be much appreciated as I've googled for 2 days with no success.
From the documentation, ORA_12546 is:
ORA-12546: TNS:permission denied
Cause: User has insufficient privileges to perform the requested operation.
Action: Acquire necessary privileges and try again.
Which isn't entirely helpful, but various forum and blog posts (way too many to link to, Googling for the error shows a lot of similar advice) mention permissions on a particular part of the installation, $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle, which is a crucial and central part of most of the services.
Normally the permissions on that file would be -rws-r-s--x, with the file owned by oracle:dba, and this error can occur when the word-writable flag - the final x in that pattern - is not set. Anyone in the dba group will still be able to execute it, but those outside will not.
Your listener seems to be fine as you can connect remotely, by specifying #dbname in the connect string. The listener runs as oracle (usually, could be grid with HA, RAC or ASM) so it is in the dba group and can happily hand-off connections to an instance of the oracle executable.
When you connect without going via the listener, you have to be able to execute that file yourself. It appears that root cannot execute it (or possibly some other file, but this is usually the culprit, apparently), which implies the world-writable bit is indeed not set.
As far as I can see you have three options:
set the world-writable bit, with chmod o+x $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle; but that opens up the permissions for everyone, and presumably they've been restricted for a reason;
add root to the dba group, via usermod or in the /etc/group; which potentially weakens security as well;
use SQL*Net even when you don't specify #dbname in the connect string, by adding export TWO_TASK=dbname to the root environment.
You said you don't have this problem on another server, and that the file permissions are the same; in which case root might be in the dba group on that box. But I think the third option seems the simplest and safest. There is a fourth option I suppose, to install a separate instant client, but you'd have to set TWO_TASK anyway and go over SQL*Net, and you've already ruled that out.
I won't dwell on whether it's a good idea to run sqlplus (or indeed the application that needs it) as root, but will just mention that you'd could potentially have a script or function called sqlplus that switches to a less privileged account via su to run the real executable, and that might be transparent to the application. Unless you switch to the oracle account though, which is also not a good idea, you'd have the same permission issue and options.
Related
We're trying to move ASP.NET session state for one of our Azure web apps into a database, and it seems like the aspnet_regsql.exe tool is the way to go. Unfortunately, I'm getting stuck on a few issues below. It's an Azure SQL database, and I'm connecting using the server's admin account.
I initially wanted to add the session tables to our existing database, so I ran .\aspnet_regsql.exe -U adminusername -P adminpassword -S servername.database.windows.net -d databasename -ssadd -sstype c. Which throws the exception "Database 'databasename' already exists. Choose a different database name"
Omitting the database name and running it again throws the exception: "Execution Timeout Expired" after about 30 seconds, which is just the default for SqlCommand.CommandTimeout. This occurs while executing the "CREATE DATABASE" command. I tried creating a database manually, and it takes about 50 seconds for some reason. This database is S0 tier and is not under any load
Running aspnet_regsql again on the already-created database (because it's idempotent, right?) leads to the "Database already exists" error, as does pre-creating an empty database for it to start from.
There's no flag that lets me increase the timeout, and I can't set command timeout using the -C (connection string) flag
Adding the -sqlexportonly flag to generate a script and just running that directly doesn't work either (yes, I know I'm not supposed to run InstallSqlState.sql directly). It throws a whole load of error messages saying things like:
Reference to database and/or server name in 'msdb.dbo.sp_add_job' is not supported in this version of SQL Server.
USE statement is not supported to switch between databases.
Which makes me think this script might have some issues with an Azure SQL database...
Does anyone have any ideas?
Update:
It looks like all the errors involving 'msdb' are related to removing and re-adding a database job called 'Job_DeleteExpiredSessions'. Azure SQL doesn't support database jobs, so the only options I can see are
Run SQL on a VM instead (vastly more expensive, and I'd rather stick with the platform services than have to manage VMs)
Implement one of those "Elastic Job Agents"
Perhaps move the same functionality elsewhere (e.g. a stored proc)?
Turns out Microsoft has an article about how to do exactly what I need, which I somehow
missed during my searching yesterday. Hopefully this answer saves someone else a few hours of frustration. All the info you need is at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/blog/using-sql-azure-for-session-state/ earlier.
Note that YMMV since it's from 2010 and also says in scary red letters
"Microsoft does not support SQL Session State Management using SQL Azure databases for ASP.net applications"
Nevertheless, they provide a working script that seems to do exactly what I need.
I am connecting to a Teradata database through ODBC with Stata on an Ubuntu server (12.04 LTS). Everything works fine, except that I have my TD userid and password stored in the .odbc.ini file, which seems like a terrible idea. The alternative is to enter them in Stata, which seems even worse and is awkward. Is there a way to do this more securely? The login info that I use to ssh into the server is synced with the TD database. It seems that it should be possible to pass that information along.
In ODBC terms you do not need to store usernames / passwords in any of your ODBC ini files. Both the ODBC SQLConnect and SQLDriverConnect support the passing in of username / password at the time they are called.
SQLDriverConnect would need something in your InConnectionString like "DSN=YourDataSourceName;UID=username;PWD=password".
You could go one step further and pass in the whole DSN as a command line argument thus meaning that you would not need an ODBC data source in an ini file. I'm sure one of the forum readers can post a sample for you from Teradata.
As for passing in the user name and password from your SSH loging. Your application would need to capture that and pass it to ODBC.
If you want to establish a finer grain of security around your odbc.ini file or other files on your Ubuntu server that may contain user credentials I would strongly suggest the use of Access Control Lists (ACLs). Beyond the typical Owner::Group::World permissions you can specify permissions down to the specific user on whether they are allowed or denied an explicit permission for a given file.
Other options regarding security on Teradata include the use of LDAP authentication if your environment supports it. Configuring LDAP on Teradata is beyond the scope of SO and in many cases a billable, professional services engagement with Teradata's Information Security CoE.
This probably isnt an issue with SiteCore per se but I've included it for completeness. I have sitecore 6.3 running under IIS7 using a custom identity for the app pool. I cant get Sitecore to write its logging information (using the default log4net settings) to the eventlog. I've followed the advice here: http://logging.apache.org/log4net/release/faq.html#Why%20doesn%27t%20the%20EventLogAppender%20work? and although it works fine when I make the custom identity a member of the administrator's group I need to find a way to get it working in production without such a security hack.
The weird thing is that I have a MSI that installs it (running under an account which IS a member of the administrator's group) and creates the correct registry keys in the eventlog for me and yet despite that, I am still getting the following error when I run the application using the custom identity (without it being a member of administrators).
log4net:ERROR DOMConfigurator: Could not create Appender [EventLogAppender] of type [log4net.Appender.EventLogAppender]. Reported error follows.
System.Security.SecurityException: Requested registry access is not allowed.
at Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.OpenSubKey(String name, Boolean writable)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.GetEventLogRegKey(String machine, Boolean writable)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.FindSourceRegistration(String source, String machineName, Boolean readOnly)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.DeleteEventSource(String source, String machineName)
at log4net.Appender.EventLogAppender.ActivateOptions()
at log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.DOMHierarchyConfigurator.ParseAppender(XmlElement appenderElement)
The Zone of the assembly that failed was:
MyComputer
log4net:ERROR DOMConfigurator: Appender named [EventLogAppender] not found.
Thinking I could narrow it down to a registry permission issue I granted Everyone full permissions to the following registry key and subkeys but it didnt work either: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog
The custom identity is a member of the following groups:
Event Log Readers
IIS_USERS
Performance Monitor Users
I've also seen the following question which seems to ask the same thing. The Microsoft article seems to suggest it might be a problem with ACLs on an event log and gives examples on how you can change SSDLs but I'd rather avoid that if at all possible.
EDIT:
I have another server running where the log is being populated fine. The custom identity was a member of administrators so I revoked that and rebooted, trying to purposely break it but I cant. Config is identical on both boxes and same identity used to run the MSI which creates the registry keys. Have run procmon on both (after doing a IISReset and spinning up the app pool again) to examine registry activity. Strange thing is - on the box that works you get 477 name not found records for my event source in the wrong places (Application, and a different Custom EventLog "MyCompany"). No hits for the place where it is logging which is "MyCompany\MyCompany.SiteCore". Whilst on the box which is broken, it does appear to be requesting to read the right key (albeit only 6 times) but you then get the Log4Net registry access error.
As I understand it EventStores are stored in the registry, so you only need write permission to registry to create or delete an EventStore. This is usually only needed once and most applications create this as part of the install procedure so that the application does not need to be run as Administrator during normal execution.
However your error message (in the question) includes the method DeleteEventSource from which I would deduce/guess that the EventSource does exist but is wrong in some way. So perhaps this is currently registered as writing to the event log named MyCompany and you are now trying to change it to "MyCompany\MyCompany.SiteCore" which requires you to delete the old eventsource and create a new one.
So it sounds like your installation routine is creating a different EventSource from the one that your application is actually using.
If that doesn't help, then I would suggest enabling internal logging for Log4net (but obviously not to the eventlog) which will probably give you more information.
Giving full permission to the registry key is not enough.
According to Microsoft
To create an event source in Windows Vista and later or Windows Server 2003, you must have administrative privileges.
The reason for this requirement is that all event logs, including security, must be searched to determine whether the event source is unique. Starting with Windows Vista, users do not have permission to access the security log; therefore, a SecurityException is thrown.
Starting with Windows Vista, User Account Control (UAC) determines the privileges of a user. If you are a member of the Built-in Administrators group, you are assigned two run-time access tokens: a standard user access token and an administrator access token. By default, you are in the standard user role. To execute the code that accesses the security log, you must first elevate your privileges from standard user to administrator. You can do this when you start an application by right-clicking the application icon and indicating that you want to run as an administrator.
I think, contrary to the Apache documentation, log4net DOES need write access to the registry – or at least it does in my case. To prove this, I backed up the registry on the server where it wasnt working and granted IIS administrator privileges before spinning up sitecore. Sure enough it started logging away to the eventlog nicely and then when I exported the registry again to run a diff, there WAS a difference.
The value for the eventlogmessage file on my event source had been updated from:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\EventLogMessages.dll
To
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\EventLogMessages.dll
So I assumed that merely changing this value in the registry by hand would work.
But it didn’t.
So I ran procmon on the two servers I have: A=the working one, B=the failing one. Sure enough, on server B I have a line which says:
Operation: RegOpenKey, Path: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog, Desired Access:Read/Write, Result: ACCESS DENIED.
I’ve traced through with Server A and in exactly the same place, the key is requested with Desired Access:Read.
Conclusion:
It seems unavoidable that I will need to grant my app pool identity administrator privileges in production for at least enough time to programatically do the necessary registry writes the first time from within log4net. I dont know why administrator; I have tried granting Full permissions to the entire eventlog node in the registry for my custom app to no avail. It seems to do something which I cannot identify or pin down. I will then revoke this privilege immediately after it starts to log and monitor whether subsequent installs knock out the functionality afterwards. (Hopefully not).
If anyone has any insight into this behaviour it would be greatly appreciated.
When I try to execute an orchestration with something like EventLog.WriteEntry("MyEsb", "Msg"); in Expression shape, I get the exception The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. To create the source, you need permission to read all event logs to make sure that the new source name is unique. Inaccessible logs: Security. Why?
I'm running Win 7 64bit if this makes any sense.
When you write the event log from any application, the event source needs to be already created, or the application itself will try to create it before writing to it. Unfortunately, creating an event source is an action which requires local admin priveledges.
So you can do two things:
pre-create the event source
make sure the user which your biztalk host is running as is in local admins (bad)
To pre-create the event source is a nicer option. You can do this via the powershell command
New-EventLog -LogName "Application" -Source "MyEsb"
Might seem like I'm stating the obvious but has the BizTalk User got permission to write to the Eventlog? That is, the account of the Host Instance running the Orchestration.
You'll probably find that it hasn't.
HTH
Finally I've found a solution. As the error says, "To create the source, you need permission to read all event logs to make sure that the new source name is unique. Inaccessible logs: Security." So even though BizTalk User account has enough rights to write to the eventlog it has no rights to read EventLog\Security log as stated here in a Note in the Remarks section:
The reason for this requirement is that all event logs, including security, must be searched to determine whether the event source is unique. Starting with Windows Vista, users do not have permission to access the security log; therefore, a SecurityException is thrown.
So I just granted a Read Access to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Security for BizTalk User and the problem was solved.
I am getting this error while connecting to IBM MQ. I know that this is because of privileges, but is there any way just to check the connection with IBM MQ?
Please suggest.
The 2035 suggests that your connection is getting to the QMgr. If you had the wrong channel name, host or port you would get back a 2059. The 2035 means that the connection made it to the listener, found a channel of the name that was requested and attempted a connection.
If you want to test past this point it will be necessary to either authorize the ID that you are using to connect or to put an authorized ID in the MCAUSER attribute of the channel.
For a detailed explanation of how the WMQ security works on client channels, see the WMQ Base Hardening presentation at http://t-rob.net/links.
If you enable authorization messages then the 2035 will show up in the event queue. Then you can look at the message and see what ID was used to connect and what options were used too. The 2035 might be because you asked for set authority on the queue manager or something else you aren't supposed to have. The authorization messages wil show you that.
You can also resolve this By setting mcauser('mqm') .. i was able to overcome 2035 error.
Define channel (channel1) chltype (svrconn) trptype (tcp) mcauser(‘mqm’)
Esp thanx to my SENIOR Bilal Ahmad (PSE)
You have to check the privileges with an MQ administrator.
You can use dspmqaut to check the grant.
Below is the sample to give user poc access to Queue Manager QM1 and Queue LQ1
# check the access right of user POC to QM1
dspmqaut -m QM1 -n LQ1 -t q -p poc
# if you want to give access, you should use
setmqaut -m QM1 -n LQ1 -t q -p poc <access Types>
# eg (put everything - in the real live scenario, choose only what you want to grant) :
setmqaut -m QM1 -n LQ1 -t q -p poc +put +get +browse +inq +set +crt +dlt +chg +dsp +passid +setid +setall +clr
Then dont forget to restart QM1 with
endmqm -i QM1
strmqm QM1
Finally, you should be able to proceed without error 2035.
I have been struggling with this for ages too. Eventually I found this solution. (If you can call turning off authentication a solution.)
I am using version
- IBM Websphere 9.1.0.201807091223
From IBM's website they advise turning connection authentication off!!!
Resolving the problem Disable channel authentication
You will need to disable connection authentication, at least
temporarily. There are known issues in FTM for Check with regard to
using MQ connection authorization. These problems are actively being
addressed and fixes will appear in a future fix pack. The target is
fixpack 3.0.0.8.
Steps to disable connection authentication: Open MQ command console
and type runmqsc ALTER
AUTHINFO(SYSTEM.DEFAULT.AUTHINFO.IDPWOS) AUTHTYPE(IDPWOS)
CHCKCLNT(NONE) CHCKLOCL(NONE) Restart the queue manager for this
change to take effect.
Source http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21962081
On this topic if you are using MQSeries 9.1 in a test or development environment you can disable channel authentication with the following approach :
. Launch MQ command line utility with the following :
runmqsc (for example runmqsc QM1)
. Disable authentication for all channels with the following command
ALTER QMGR CHLAUTH (DISABLED)
For a Q/Q-manager running on Windows, you may have to create the user on the Q/Q-manager machine [i.e. create a user on the Q-machine to match the user on the Q-client machine], and then add that user to the 'mqm' group on that machine.
Steps:
Ensure that the domain user that is being used to create the Q CLIENT [i.e. the user that the Q-client app is running under] also exists on the box with the Q/Q-manager. You may be able to just create a local user on the Q/Q-manager box [, or you may have to do some more complicated creation of an Active Directory user - I can't help you there].
On the Q/Q-manager box, add the user you have just created [or the existing one, if it already exists] to the mqm group. [On a Windows server box you will need to use the Microsoft Management Console (1. 'mmc' from the command line, 2. File > Add/Remove SnapOn > Local Users & Groups, 3. add user to group)]. The 'mqm' group should already exist on the Q/Q-manager machine.
Error MQRC 2035 basically means that your application has been able to connect to the queue manager, however due to certain absence of permissions/authorizations, it was unable to put/get/publish/subscribe messages.
To resolve this, at first, try these steps in order to disable the authorizations from queue manager and channel. Use this only if it isn't a production queue manager.
Always check the queue manager logs. It tells you exactly where you need to look into, and resolve the issue.
In this case, generally, you can issue the following commands after doing a runmqsc on the queue manager :
ALTER QMGR CHLAUTH(DISABLED)
Then set the chckclnt object(under authinfo) to optional
DISPLAY QMGR CONNAUTH
DISPLAY AUTHINFO(name-from-above) ALL //name from the first commands
ALTER AUTHINFO(name-from-above) AUTHTYPE(IDPWOS) ADOPTCTX(YES)
ALTER AUTHINFO(name-from-above) AUTHTYPE(IDPWOS) CHCKCLNT(OPTIONAL)
REFRESH SECURITY TYPE(CONNAUTH)
SET CHLAUTH('*') TYPE(BLOCKUSER) ACTION(REMOVEALL)
This helps remove any blocks that the channel is creating against any user.
SET CHLAUTH(your channel name) TYPE(ADDRESSMAP) ADDRESS('*') USERSRC(CHANNEL)
This should resolve your issue, since we have disabled every authorization that an application has to pass in order to do anything on a queue manager.
Now, in case you are using a production queue manager, NEVER remove authorizations.
Go, and right click on any QM that you have configured in your MQ explorer. Go to the QM authority, and authority records. Click on create new user, and give the same name as the username your application is using. Select all the checkboxes, then copy from the space below all the commands that are given. Namely, setmqaut. Edit with your queue manager name, and issue them!
----Never give up, the answer is where you have not looked yet--------