RE: SAN Vulnerabilities

["Hahn, Ron" <ron.hahn () fmr com>]

Mike,

At the risk of stating the obvious.. I do not believe it is considered "best practice" to mix highly confidential and 
public (facing) information on the same storage partition/device.

As a former IT practitioner in the public healthcare arena, I would have never considered storing patient data on ANY 
server that was accessible to the public.  In fact, many public agencies I've worked with have IS policies explicitly 
banning this practice.  

I would recommend your web admins study a paper or two on information security and the protection of information 
assets.  Just because its "convenient" to store their data on your SAN doesn't mean it's a good practice.  I presume 
they are security conscious and will draw the same conclusion.

R 

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On Behalf Of mjd
Sent: 16 December 2010 19:23
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: SAN Vulnerabilities

We are evaluating a proposal wherein our Web Server Admins would like
to use our internal SAN to host data for our external websites.  Our
external websites are on our outfacing DMZ which means they could be
subject to all sorts of attack.  Our internal SAN hosts some very
sensitive health care data so I'm reluctant to allow this since it
puts our most protected data physically very close to our most
vulnerable segment.

They have given me assurance that they have locked down the SAN to the
point wherein one server accessing cannot access any other disk unless
it is explicitly mounted.  I do not have heavy experience with SANS,
but based on their explanation, the SAN switch can be likened to a
firewall in that it blocks any communication not explicitly allowed.

When drawing this out on a board, it just doesn't look right.  We're
physically connecting servers in our External DMZ to our SAN which
hosts very sensitive data.

Any advice on this situation?  Are we overreacting to this and should
we trust in the security boundaries created by the SAN
switch/controller?  Are there vulnerabilities out there that allow an
attacker to take control of the whole SAN?

Thanks in advance!
mjd

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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Securing Apache Web Server with thawte Digital Certificate
In this guide we examine the importance of Apache-SSL and who needs an SSL certificate.  We look at how SSL works, how 
it benefits your company and how your customers can tell if a site is secure. You will find out how to test, purchase, 
install and use a thawte Digital Certificate on your Apache web server. Throughout, best practices for set-up are 
highlighted to help you ensure efficient ongoing management of your encryption keys and digital certificates.

http://www.dinclinx.com/Redirect.aspx?36;4175;25;1371;0;5;946;e13b6be442f727d1
------------------------------------------------------------------------