“Ever since we implemented MasterSAM Secure @ UNIX/LINUX, we don’t use SU or SUDO anymore as MasterSAM introduced us much more effective approach by using privilege escalation and menu-based access control.”
- Head of Data Centre Operation, Telecommunication Industry
In Unix/Linux environment, SU and SUDO utilities are popularly being used to facilitate the privileged operation and administration. Users would need to supply the root’s password during the switch of account and profile to root privilege. Thereafter, they will have full administrative rights on the operating system, they can even switch to any other privileged account without the needs to supply its password. Once compromised, the damage is rather huge. Organizations should take proactive approach and implement control to ensure that only authorized users are given the privileged access within a specific duration, not at permanent basis. Root’s credential should not be exposed to users at all time, until break glass or disaster scenario. Apart from that, it is best to restrict certain group of users such as operator to access SHELL with the opportunity of command execution.
Is that possible one can login to Unix/Linux server at different ways, besides using the traditional and native client called putty.exe? The answer is – YES. Regardless how strong your network control is, you can never rule out the possibility of someone that tries to login at the console level, or leap-frogging with multiple hops.
MasterSAM Secure @ Unix/Linux is designed for organizations to enforce least privilege principle and apply stringent granular access control over critical system objects, including menu based access. Its surveillance engine provides full transparency and accountability, ensures that each access to the server – regardless the methods of login, either with privilege or normal rights, it is subject for monitoring and control.