I have a web app that uses some backend servers (UNC, HTTP and SQL). To get this working I need to configure ServicePrincipalNames for the account running the IIS AppPool and then allow kerberos delegation to the backend services.
I know how to configure this through the "Delegation" tab of the AD Users and Computers tool.
However, the application is going to be deployed to a number of Active Directory environments. Configuring delegation manually has proved to be error prone and debugging the issues misconfiguration causes is time consuming. I'd like to create an installation script or program that can do this for me.
Does anyone know how to script or programmatically set constrained delegation within AD?
Failing that how can I script reading the allowed services for a user to validate that it has been setup correctly?
OK, after much digging on the internet and some testing, I've got a way forward.
The following code is c#.
Setting an SPN for a user or computer can be achieved via the setspn utility.
Alternatively, the following C# code can do the same:
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://"+usersDN);
if (!de.Properties["servicePrincipalName"].Contains(spnString))
{
de.Properties["servicePrincipalName"].Add(spnString);
de.CommitChanges();
}
To set constrained delegation:
if (!de.Properties["msDS-AllowedToDelegateTo"].Contains(backendSpnString))
{
de.Properties["msDS-AllowedToDelegateTo"].Add(backendSpnString);
de.CommitChanges();
}
If the user has had non-constrained delegation enabled, you may need to turn this off before enabling constrained - but I didn't fully test this scenario.
Related
I am experienced in working with AWS but this is my first foray onto Google cloud and I am stuck on how to debug it properly. I am building a simple experimental setup, using Cloud Firestore to store some data and planning to do some small API functions to query it.
I am inputting my information from a Go app, which I built using the official SDK for Go. Everything builds fine, but when I run it I see nothing other than rpc error: code = PermissionDenied desc = Missing or insufficient permissions..
I have tried setting the authentication to open in the Firestore rules console (allow read, write: if true), but I still see the same error, so it seems to be an issue with the credentials I have generated rather than Firestore itself.
The credentials in question were generated in the main Google Cloud Console, under Service Accounts. I've saved it out as a JSON file and am loading this into the app via option.WithCredentialsFile() which is then passed into the NewFirestoreWriter() constructor.
It's far from obvious, to me at least, exactly how to configure the permissions on the Service Account as it seems to work quite differently from Amazon IAM. I was expecting to find a way to add on specific actions related to Firestore but I can't find anything at all like that once the service account is created. Under Permissions, it looks like I can associate other accounts with the service account, which seems to be the other way around to what I want to do. Or do I need to assume another identity once I have the service account in order to do anything, a la Amazon STS? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?
I am running locally while I am playing with the apps, planning to think about deployment later.
I guess my questions are:
Should I be using a different form of credential when making programmatic writes to Firestore?
What permissions need to be on the credential that I am using?
How do the Google Service Account permissions interact with the Firestore access rules, or are they completely separate?
Thanks in advance for your help.
I finally worked out the answer. Turns out I was reading some of the screens too fast....
The programmatic approach with the credential was fine, but the service account setup was not.
In case anyone else has a similar issue, the fix was to:
Go to "Access" under IAM (NOT identity). Coming from AWS this confused me a little because I was expecting roles to be a sublevel to identity rather than a seperate level
Click the Edit button next to the service account
Add the Cloud Datastore User and Cloud Datastore Owner roles (I'll work on trimming down permissions now it's working!). This confused me particularly because I was looking for "Firestore" or "Cloud Firestore", and there is the very similarly named "Cloud Filestore" which tripped me up.
After a few seconds, it started working.
According to https://cloud.google.com/firestore/docs/reference/libraries?_ga=2.87049368.-1865513281.1592929406#server_client_libraries,
In this environment, requests are not evaluated against your Firestore security rules
So I reset my access permissions in Firebase back to allow read, write: if false.
I apologize for the bad phrasing in the title, but here's a little more context.
I recently bought a Windows 8 laptop and noticed that Norton was pre-installed and running with SYSTEM level privileges. Thus, it occurred to me that there must be some way for third-party applications to run with SYSTEM privileges.
However, after much googling, I could not figure out whether it was an API call or a registry setting or something else entirely that enabled Norton to do this, so I decided to ask the SO community. How can I write an application that runs with SYSTEM privileges?
Services can be configured to run as several different accounts, including LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE, SYSTEM, or any user's account.
Using SYSTEM isn't recommended, because any security problem can lead to complete compromise of the machine, but it is available.
This is configured by the lpServiceStartName parameter of CreateService and/or ChangeServiceConfig. Pass a NULL pointer as this parameter of CreateService, or ".\\LocalSystem" to ChangeServiceConfig, to use the local system account.
It's a bad idea to run a GUI application as local system. The best approach is to have both a GUI application (running as the logged-on user) and a service (running as SYSTEM) and have them communicate as needed using any suitable IPC method. This is probably what Norton is actually doing.
However, it is possible to get a system service to launch an application as SYSTEM in the user's session. To do this, duplicate the processes security token with DuplicateTokenEx and then use SetTokenInformation with the TokenSessionId option. This will give you a token in SYSTEM context but in the user's session which you can use to launch an executable. (There may be additional issues; for example, you might also need to change the permissions on the workstation and desktop.)
I'm trying to connect to Active Directory to look for a specific user, edit that user's properties and save the changes. Seems like a simple task, but I'm having a hard time putting this thing together.
I've tried using VBscript, and allthough it seems it can be done, I have to add the administrator username and password in clear text. Which is NOT a good idea. The script is also triggered from regular users which have no access to Active Directory. So the initial script needs to fire a second script that is run as domain admin.
Someone gave me a tip though. Create a web page or a windows service that the script can call. And that service or webpage connects to AD and makes the actual changes. I guess a windows service would be the cleanest way of doing this.
But I only have Visual Studio Express and it seems I cannot create a windows service with that. The initial script needs to be vbscript, because it's being run from a software where only vbscript is supported.
So what would be the ideal solution here? Would it be possible for the first vbscript to collect the data it needs, pass those as arguments to a second vbscript that makes the actual changes? A vbscript would be easier to maintain, if I need to update more user properties than those I need right now.
We do use Sharepoint as well. Perhaps I could create a webpart that uses javascript to collect the data passed from the initial vbscript and connect to AD that way? Just brainstorming here to find the most appropriate solution :)
The fact that you need to have the administrator's username and password in the script should point out to you that what you're asking for is security through obscurity. Somewhere in your solution, there will be a username and password hardcoded or a program that will perform these tasks without authorizing the client. These are security holes that I would avoid at all costs.
Having said that, the service is probably the least vulnerable. Even though VS Express doesn't have the template, it's not hard to create a service manually. Use WCF to communicate. Run the service as a managed service account, and give that managed service account only the rights it needs to perform its task.
I have a python application designed to run as a service on Linux, and I've been asked to install it on a Windows XP box in an office where there are no Linux machines (for me, this makes it a bizarre and confusing place as I have virtually no experience developing for Windows).
On Linux the application has its own user, and the application and database credential file reside in an encrypted folder accessible only by that user. (I'd like to state that I am not a cryptologist, and that if there are already glaring security errors in this set up I'm very happy to have them pointed out to me!)
How can I achieve an equivalent level of security by similar or different means on a Windows XP machine? That is to say, how can I prevent those who have access to the computer or the disk altering the program or reading the credentials?
A little background: the host windows box is a workstation used every day by users with non-administrative privileges. The secure assets are personal data roughly as sensitive as, for example, a school report. The application is intended to be used by about 10 people who authenticate to the application with individual passwords (stored salted and hashed in the database).
There is a very similar question that received the answer:
on Windows you would store the credentials in the registry in a location protected by an ACL
However, it doesn't touch on the aspect of protecting the program files, and further it seems to assume a higher level of Windows experience than I currently enjoy :) I have no idea how to protect registry items with an ACL, nor how I would then be able to access the protected keys from my program. Simple instructions for a developer in an unfamiliar environment would be greatly appreciated!
Your question is unclear about what your application does and what your security requirements are. I'm going to make some assumptions, and provide an answer based on them. If these assumptions are incorrect, please clarify in a comment and I'll update.
I'm assuming you have an application that:
stores sensitive data in a database stored in a DBMS installed on the workstation
is installed on a shared workstation
each user has their own login (non-admin)
allows different users to log on and interract with their data
user runs applicaiton which connects to a service
service connects with database, delivers data to users
service runs under its own user account
If this is correct, then you shouldn't have much issue.
The service can run under any account, but it would be easy enough to have it run under one of the standards (Local Machine or Network Service). Configure the database so that only this account can access it. In Sql Server, I'd only grant that user account (and admins on the box) login and access rights to the database.
This is the only security you need, if the users aren't admins. Now, when the frontend connects to the service, the user can provide the username/password and the service can authenticate against salted and hashed passwords stored in the database. All this is secure as long as 1) each user has their own login 2) communications are secure (using named pipes or SSL) and 3) no virii or keyloggers are running under an admin's credentials.
You can configure your service as to what account it runs under by running services.msc (or right-clicking on MyComputer and selecting Manage or clicking on Services under the Admin tools menu in Control Panel or probably in a number of different ways).
Bring up the list of services, right click on your app and hit Properties. From there, make it look like this:
I have written a Windows service to send mails to users in a Sharepoint list based on some condition.
The development server is a stand-alone Sharepoint installation and the Windows service works fine. But,the Production environment has the application(Sharepoint) and Database(SQL) residing on different servers.
So when the Windows service tries to open the list it says " Cannot open database "WSS_Content80" requested by the login. The login failed."
Pease let me know how to proceed.I am struck with this issue for a long time now..
To solve the Issue quick and Dirty way what you can do is grant permission to the Content Database of your SharePoint application for the User in Which Windows Services Run.
But you want to do it in a neat way I recommend you to write a Timer Job for SharePoint. Here not only does the Permission is taken care automatically but you can also deploy it to multiple Web Application if you want it and manage it easily.
The Best Article on the Subject is here MSDN or AC Article.
Another possible answer is to check which account your service is running as. Running it as a more privileged user like the account that is acting as your app pool would work.
Another possible tact is to look into SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivledges method.