Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Clarification of --restrict-update-only

[John covici]

But you could do the same thing on your client so no one could ever
log in to root unless they had a public key on your client.

on Wednesday 02/04/2009 Chris G(address@hidden) wrote
 > On Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 01:52:32PM -0500, John covici wrote:
 > > on Wednesday 02/04/2009 Chris G(address@hidden) wrote
 > >  > I'm using rdiff-backup to backup files across a LAN.  The destination
 > >  > machine has a dedicated backup account which has passwordless ssh
 > >  > login set up for client machines that want to do backups.
 > >  > 
 > >  > To make things a bit more secure I have added the following to my
 > >  > sshd_config on the destination/backup machine:-
 > >  > 
 > >  >     Match User=bak
 > >  >     ForceCommand rdiff-backup --server
 > >  > 
 > >  > So far so good.  I can backup as required but it's not possible to
 > >  > login to the bak account using ssh.  I'd like to lock it down a bit
 > >  > further by using the --restrict-update-only option so that if an
 > >  > intruder did gain access to a client machine they wouldn't be able to
 > >  > remove anything useful from the backups by deleting or overwriting.
 > >  > 
 > >  > However I'm not quite clear how --restrict-update-only works, can I
 > >  > just do something like:-
 > >  > 
 > >  >     Match User=bak
 > >  >     ForceCommand rdiff-backup --server --restrict-update-only /
 > >  > 
 > >  > and thus prevent anything other than updates for *all* backups?
 > >  > 
 > >
 > > Why don't you just have in your sshd config 
 > > PermitRootLogin without-password
 > > 
 > > and have a public key of your client in the
 > > /root/.ssh/authorized_hosts on the server.  I don't think the
 > > restrict-update is very secure anyway, but this works well.
 > > 
 > That would permit exactly what I'm trying to avoid wouldn't it?
 > 
 > If (heaven forbid) an intruder got root access to my machine (which is
 > the backup client) then they would have free access to the backup
 > machine as well.  Thus a malicious intruder would be able to delete
 > everything on my machine *and* on the backup machine as well.
 > 
 > What I'm trying to do is have a backup which isn't trivially
 > accessible from the client.
 > 
 > -- 
 > Chris Green
 > 
 > 
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-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         address@hidden