Re: is gitosis secure?

david@lang.hm wrote:

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008, martin wrote:

quoted

Dear David.
Why do you trust VPN more than the SSH?
I ask because I have just removed the "first VPN then SSH" solution 
in favor for a SSH only solution using Gitosis just to get rid of the 
VPN which I believe is less secure than SSH (well until I read you 
comments below).
I thought I was doing something right for once but maybe I'm not?
Thanks and best regards
Martin

in part it's that a VPN is a single point of control for all remote 
access.

If you use ssh you end up exposing all the individual machines

1. data leakage of just what machines exist to possibly hostile users.

2. the many machines are configured seperatly, frequently by different 
people. this makes it far more likely that sometime some machine will 
get misconfigured.

3. people who are focused on providing features have a strong 
temptation to cut corners and just test that the feature works and not 
test that everything that isn't supposed to work actually doesn't 
work. as a result, in many companies there is a deliberate seperation 
(and tension) between a group focused on controlling and auditing 
access and one that is focused on creating fucntionality and features.

also from a polical/social point of view everyone recognises that if 
you grant someone VPN access you are trusting them, but people don't 
seem to think the same way with ssh.

David Lang

I opened port 22 in the firewall to just those hosts that I need to 
reach, which is one in this case...the rest of the machines I cannot reach.
I did a brief port scan and the thing is silent... so I don't think I 
reveal any of the other hosts... but I should not say is it's secure 
with your measures...

Your point two I don't understand...   If you are in charge of the 
firewall you also know what machines you let people reach. If these 
machines are numerous then I think there is a management problem 
somewhere else...


Point 3 is correct but I fail to see how this is less of a problem with 
VPN than SSH.

Thanks and Best regards
Martin