This guide steps through the changes to settings and filesystem privileges required to enhance the security of on a standalone machine running NMIS9 Modules on Ubuntu Linux.
This guide has also been tested on RHEL8.8, the steps are exactly the same, and along with verification. The only difference is that you have to use service instead of systemctl on RHEL/Centos distributions.
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This guide runs top to bottom as a sequence. It is important that this sequence is followed in order to prevent issues on restart. Backups are highly recommended. |
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Preparation
The changes involved in this document include the use of recursive rights changes and recursive directory deletion as the "root" user.
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| DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT BACKUPS |
Tested Modules
Be aware that in the event the system is running any other applications/modules that require access to the file structures on the following list there is a very high probability that their rights will be blocked and the additional processes could fail to execute properly.
- nmis9
- opAddress
- opAdmin
- opCharts
- opConfig
- opEvents
- opHA
- opReports
System Snapshot/Backup
For System Snapshots and Backups you will need to refer to the documentation for your environment.
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- Full system backups, including Operating System and Data - Contact your IT department, Vendor Support, or Integrator
- Virtual Machine Snapshots - Refer to the solution guides for your environment
User Setup
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| All commands in this document are run as the root user unless otherwise stated. |
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The following command will not work if there was ANY issue error issued when creating the user or group. If you get an error in creating the user this needs to be resolved before proceeding.
Adjust User Groups
Next we will add the USER "nmis" to the GROUP "omkadmin" and the add USER "omkadmin" to the GROUP "nmis"
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root@server:~# groups nmis nmis adm plugdev netdev lxd google-sudoers omkadmin root@server:~# groups omkadmin omkadmin nmis |
Shutdown all impacting services
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Open-AudIT and the Apache user
If you are using Open-AudIT, you will also need to add the Apache user (www-data) to the omkadmin group.
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usermod -a -G omkadmin www-data |
Shutdown all impacting services
This section will bring all services that are going to be altered down this will include; crond, nmis9d, omk daemons.
Because we are shutting crond down some system administrative tasks may not fire during this period.
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When processes have all shutdown gracefully the previous command will return something very similar to the following. The first number on the line can be ignored:
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root@server:~# ps ax | grep -E "(nmis|cron| op)" 1443224 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto -E (nmis|cron| op) root@server:~# |
Ownership and Rights Changes
The following set of commands will run through and alter all of the file and directory rights as the key security task. You should be able to cut and past the entire block into the cli as root user.
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root@server:~# ls -la /usr/local/omk/var/lib/common/ total 20 drwxrws--T 5 omkadmin omkadmin 4096 Jul 13 11:55 . drwxrwx--- 3 omkadmin omkadmin 4096 Jun 28 03:41 .. drwx--S--- 3 nmis omkadmin 4096 Jul 13 11:55 par-6e6d6973 drwx--S--- 3 omkadmin omkadmin 4096 Jul 13 11:55 par-6f6d6b61646d696e drwx--S--- 12 root omkadmin 4096 Jul 13 12:57 par-726f6f74 |
Change Process PID locations:
In /usr/local/omk/conf/opCommon.json set each *_pid entry as follows (note that each service has its own pid directory under /var/run):
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root@server:/run# grep "/var/run/omk" /usr/local/omk/conf/opCommon.json
"opflowd_pid" : "/var/run/omk/opflowd.pid",
"opchartsd_pid" : "/var/run/omk/opchartsd.pid",
"opeventsd_pid" : "/var/run/omk/opeventsd.pid",
"opconfigd_pid" : "/var/run/omk/opconfigd.pid",
root@server:/run# |
SYSTEMCTL Service Files
Locate necessary service files for alteration using a grep command
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- omkd.service
- opchartsd.service
- opconfigd.service
- opeventsd.service
omkd.service
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sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service |
opchartsd.service
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sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service |
opconfigd.service
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sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service |
opeventsd.service
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sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service |
Confirm SYSTEMCTL Changes:
The output of the above commands will have been to adjust the service files to add some additional entries to the Service section of the configs and to alter PID references in the omkd.service file
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root@server:/etc/systemd/system# grep -s omk /etc/systemd/system/* | grep -vE "pl$" /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "mkdir -p /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chown omkadmin.omkadmin /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chmod 0700 /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:User=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:Group=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:PIDFile=/var/run/omk/opmantek.exe.pid /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service:ExecStart=/usr/local/omk/script/opmantek.pl -f -p /var/run/omk/opmantek.exe.pid -r /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "mkdir -p /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chown omkadmin.omkadmin /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chmod 0700 /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service:User=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service:Group=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service:PIDFile=/var/run/omk/opchartsd.pid /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "mkdir -p /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chown omkadmin.omkadmin /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chmod 0700 /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service:User=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service:Group=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service:PIDFile=/var/run/omk/opconfigd.pid /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "mkdir -p /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chown omkadmin.omkadmin /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service:ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c "chmod 0700 /var/run/omk/" /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service:User=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service:Group=omkadmin /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service:PIDFile=/var/run/omk/opeventsd.pid |
Logrotate Changes
/etc/logrotate.d/omk-rotate.conf needs to be edited and each section of the logrotate script needs to include:
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The su directive is new and is required so that logrotate will continue to work when writing to a no-root owned file (non-privileged). We place it at after the "endscript" statement.
CRON Job Changes
The following commands are used to change all of the default cronjobs. Replacing all "root" user entries with "omkadmin" user entries.
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sed -i 's/ root\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' opaddress sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' opconfig sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' opevents sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' opha sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' oplicense sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' opreports |
Rights Checks
If crond was not disabled prior to updating all of the directory rights this list will likely return many files owned by root.root. Those specific files will need to be manually changed to omkadmin.omkadmin ownership.
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sudo find /usr/local/omk/ ! -group omkadmin ! -regex '/usr/local/omk/var/lib/common/par-.+' -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nmis nmis 453 Jul 13 20:15 /usr/local/omk/var/opcore/registry/open-audit.json
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nmis nmis 3.5K Jul 13 20:15 /usr/local/omk/var/opcore/registry/opEvents.json
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nmis nmis 1.5K Jul 13 20:15 /usr/local/omk/var/opcore/registry/opHA.json
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nmis nmis 5.1K Jul 13 20:15 /usr/local/omk/var/opcore/registry/opCharts.json
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nmis nmis 2.0K Jul 13 20:15 /usr/local/omk/var/opcore/registry/opConfig.json
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nmis nmis 108 Jul 13 20:27 /usr/local/omk/var/opevents/file_state/_usr_local_nmis9_logs_event.log.json |
Rights Check CronJob
Create cronjob /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group:
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touch /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
echo "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
echo "# m h dom mon dow user command" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
echo "40 * * * * root find /usr/local/omk ! -group omkadmin ! -group nmis ! -regex '/usr/local/omk/var/lib/common/par-.+' -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
echo "42 * * * * omkadmin find /usr/local/omk ! -writable -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
echo "44 * * * * root find /usr/local/omk -perm /+2000 -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
echo "46 * * * * root find /usr/local/omk -perm /+4000 -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group
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Reboot the machine
Rebooting the machine will restore all services and allow for system maintenance and startup tasks that were halted to be run as required with the new users and privileges.
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sudo reboot |
Full Script
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Note that the following script has been added for convenience at this stage and has no checks or error handling embedded. |
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# Setup User Logins and Groups useradd -m -U omkadmin passwd -l omkadmin usermod -a -G omkadmin nmis usermod -a -G nmis omkadmin # NOTE - uncomment the below if also using Open-AudIT # usermod -a -G omkadmin www-data # Showdown all impacting/impacted services /usr/local/omk/bin/checkomkdaemons.sh stop systemctl stop nmis9d systemctl stop cron sleep 10 systemctl stop nmis9d # START of standard installer changes OMK_DIR=/usr/local/omk # echo Set OMK directory structure writable by group: sudo chown -R omkadmin:omkadmin "${OMK_DIR}"; sudo find "${OMK_DIR}" -type d -exec chmod 0770 '{}' \;; # echo Set user and group able to write files: sudo find "${OMK_DIR}" -type f -exec chmod 0660 '{}' \;; # echo Set scripts executable by user and group: sudo find "${OMK_DIR}/script" -type f -exec chmod 0770 '{}' \;; # echo Set scripts executable by user and group: sudo find "${OMK_DIR}/bin" -type f -exec chmod 0770 '{}' \;; # END of standard installer changes # echo Delete existing PAR subdirectories as we may have set incorrect permissions on this directory sudo rm -Rf ${PAR_GLOBAL_TMPDIR}/par-* sudo rm -Rf /tmp/par-* # echo Set sticky bit on $PAR_GLOBAL_TMPDIR directory and only executable by root. sudo chmod 1700 ${PAR_GLOBAL_TMPDIR} # echo Recreate $PAR_GLOBAL_TMPDIR/par- directories for root,nmis and omkadmin sudo ${OMK_DIR}/bin/patch_config.exe 2> /dev/null sudo -u nmis ${OMK_DIR}/bin/patch_config.exe 2> /dev/null sudo -u omkadmin ${OMK_DIR}/bin/patch_config.exe 2> /dev/null # echo Update opCommon.json config with new PID directories sed -i 's/var\/run/var\/run\/omk/g' /usr/local/omk/conf/opCommon.json # echo Update SYSTEMCTL Server Files # echo omkd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/omkd.service # echo opchartsd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/opchartsd.service # echo opconfigd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/opconfigd.service # echo opeventsd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nUser\=omkadmin\nGroup\=omkadmin/g' /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service sed -i 's/\/var\/run/\/var\/run\/omk/g' /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service sed -i 's/\[Service\]/\[Service\]\nPermissionsStartOnly\=true\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"mkdir \-p \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chown omkadmin\.omkadmin \/var\/run\/omk\/\"\nExecStartPre\=\/bin\/sh \-c \"chmod 3700 \/var\/run\/omk\/\"/g' /etc/systemd/system/opeventsd.service # echo Update logrotate config sed -i 's/create 0660 nmis nmis/create 0660 omkadmin omkadmin/g' /etc/logrotate.d/omk-rotate.conf sed -i 's/endscript/endscript\n\tsu omkadmin omkadmin/g' /etc/logrotate.d/omk-rotate.conf # echo Update all crontab job owners sed -i 's/ root\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' /etc/cron.d/opaddress sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' /etc/cron.d/opconfig sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' /etc/cron.d/opevents sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' /etc/cron.d/opha sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' /etc/cron.d/oplicense sed -i 's/\troot\t/\tomkadmin\t/g' /etc/cron.d/opreports # echo Add an Hourly Rights Check to CRONTAB touch /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group echo "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group echo "# m h dom mon dow user command" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group echo "40 * * * * root find /usr/local/omk ! -group omkadmin ! -group nmis ! -regex '/usr/local/omk/var/lib/common/par-.+' -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group echo "42 * * * * omkadmin find /usr/local/omk ! -writable -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group echo "44 * * * * root find /usr/local/omk -perm /+2000 -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group echo "46 * * * * root find /usr/local/omk -perm /+4000 -exec ls -lAhd '{}' \;;" >> /etc/cron.d/omk_check_omkadmin_user_group |
Hardening NMIS
The above guide can also be applied to the nmis user and change the nmid9d service to execute and own all of it's process's rather than having the root process own the nmis workers.
This can be done concurrently, independantly or after following the above guide.
This has been tested on Ubuntu 20.04/RHEL 8.8 installations running default service files and directory settings for nmis and omk modules from their respective installers. You will need to modify some commands into their respective RHEL/Centos counterparts in the above script and steps.
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| DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT BACKUPS BEFORE MODIFYING NMIS9D.SERVICE |
Shutdown all impacting services
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/usr/local/omk/bin/checkomkdaemons.sh stop
systemctl stop nmis9d
systemctl stop cron |
SYSTEMCTL Service File changes for NMIS
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sudo sed -i '/\[Service\]/a User=nmis\nGroup=nmis' /etc/systemd/system/nmis9d.service |
CRON Job Changes for NMIS
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sed -i 's/\troot/\/nmis\t/g' /etc/cron.d/nmis9 |
Reboot the machine
Rebooting the machine will restore all services and allow for system maintenance and startup tasks that were halted to be run as required with the new users and privileges.
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sudo reboot |