[chef] Re: Re: Chef Server security

[James Le Cuirot < >]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for that. That's what I thought, I just needed to hear it
said. I already feel a little better after realising that clients
connect over HTTPS rather than SSH (I forgot, it's been years!).
I then uninstalled the SSH server and firewalled it to the hilt.

Cheers,
James


On Fri, 30 May 2014 09:17:40 -0700
Adam Jacob 
<
 >
 wrote:

> Right. The tl;dr is that the Chef Server is a publishing platform -
> you publish content to it, and it distributes that content to the
> clients who need it. The security of that content relies on
> validating that the submitter is identified with a private key, that
> the requests they made were authorized, and that the checksums match
> (which is built in to the way the server stores and retrieves
> cookbook data.) If the Chef Server is compromised, all bets are of
> course off - you can manipulate the content that gets distributed
> directly. This is no different than any other distribution platform -
> if you can take control of the origin, you can manipulate what is
> distributed.
> 
> Best,
> Adam
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 5:14 AM, James Le Cuirot
> <
 >
>  wrote:
> 
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I used Chef a long time ago and am now bringing it into my new job
> > where security is a bigger priority. I've seen stuff like
> > chef-vault, which is great, but I'm finding very little about how
> > clients could be abused if the Chef Server is compromised, i.e.
> > cookbooks being modified and such. It seems like just about
> > anything could happen. Maybe the answer is simply "defend your Chef
> > Server like Fort Knox" but I expected to see more discussion to
> > that effect.
> >
> > Obviously Chef is used by some massive players around the world and
> > I'm not claiming that our security needs are somehow greater than
> > theirs but I still feel this is a valid concern. Some opinions
> > would be appreciated.
> >
> > Regards,
> > James
> >
> 
> 
>