RE: Monitoring DB Admin

["Craig Wright" <Craig.Wright () bdo com au>]

Hello,
First of course it is doable.

You have the primary account restricted. Have half a password setup and
used by 2 people if you are really paranoid. When I worked to get
Lasseter's Casino accepted by the Government as an online casino, they
where noticeably paranoid as this was the first time (worldwide) that a
Casino was licensed over the Internet. The NT Government official had
half the password, the CIO at Lasseter's the other half.

All actions used SUDO to lock down and log all actions that the admin
took. The rare occasions that needed the console root where tightly
controlled and recorded.

This stated this was difficult and costly. Very costly! A Casino can
afford this, but your execs may wish to check the cost benefits.

On the other hand, logging and monitoring is your friend. The "COPS II"
system a number of years back was configured with the monitoring aim of
ensuring that police using the system could get any data they need, but
that IA could crack down on "unusual access". This was the "looking up a
mate's ex bit" for instance. In this all access was logged and sent to a
BI (Business Intelligence) system, basically data mining.

I would NEVER want admin without my actions being logged to death. I
have learned the hard way. As admin you are blamed for all things that
can not be pinned on another. As security admin things are worse. Logs
are your friend. They prove that you did not do it. This may not be
ideal, but when several million go missing from the books and
investigators start looking to find a scapegoat, the logs are your best
mate.

If you think that not logging your own actions is a good thing, than you
are either fooling yourself or need more time in the industry. Trust me,
when it hits the fan, being able to prove yourself innocent is a
godsend. This may not be ideal or even "right", but it is prudent.

Regards,
Craig



Craig Wright
Manager of Information Systems

Direct : +61 2 9286 5497
Craig.Wright () bdo com au
+61 417 683 914

BDO Kendalls (NSW)
Level 19, 2 Market Street Sydney NSW 2000
GPO BOX 2551 Sydney NSW 2001
Fax +61 2 9993 9497
www.bdo.com.au

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-----Original Message-----

From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com]
On Behalf Of WALI
Sent: Tuesday, 29 May 2007 1:31 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Monitoring DB Admin

....And the auditors report mentions that I (the internal IT Security 
Admin) should have independent monitoring of DB Admin activities, the
likes 
of DROP, ALTERS etc on an inhouse developed accounting package using
Oracle 
9i backened.

Not only this, the crazy auditing guys want to have preventive rather
than 
detective controls in place for DB Admin.

How secure can we make an application if we start doubting the guys we 
trust...the next thing the auditors would want is preventive controls
over 
me...Grrr!!

But still...is this doable!!??