Redis Enterprise 6.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is based on the notion that individual users are "owners" of objects and therefore have discretion over who should be authorized to access the object and in which mode (e.g., read or write). Ownership is usually acquired as a consequence of creating the object or via specified ownership assignment. DAC allows the owner to determine who will have access to objects they control. An example of DAC includes user-controlled table permissions. When discretionary access control policies are implemented, subjects are not constrained with regard to what actions they can take with information for which they have already been granted access. Thus, subjects that have been granted access to information are not prevented from passing (i.e., the subjects have the discretion to pass) the information to other subjects or objects. A subject that is constrained in its operation by Mandatory Access Control policies is still able to operate under the less rigorous constraints of this requirement. Thus, while Mandatory Access Control imposes constraints preventing a subject from passing information to another subject operating at a different sensitivity level, this requirement permits the subject to pass the information to any subject at the same sensitivity level. The policy is bounded by the information system boundary. Once the information is passed outside of the control of the information system, additional means may be required to ensure the constraints remain in effect. While the older, more traditional definitions of discretionary access control require identity-based access control, that limitation is not required for this use of discretionary access control.

Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is based on the notion that individual users are "owners" of objects and therefore have discretion over who should be authorized to access the object and in which mode (e.g., read or write). Ownership is usually acquired as a consequence of creating the object or via specified ownership assignment. DAC allows the owner to determine who will have access to objects they control. An example of DAC includes user-controlled table permissions. When discretionary access control policies are implemented, subjects are not constrained with regard to what actions they can take with information for which they have already been granted access. Thus, subjects that have been granted access to information are not prevented from passing (i.e., the subjects have the discretion to pass) the information to other subjects or objects. A subject that is constrained in its operation by Mandatory Access Control policies is still able to operate under the less rigorous constraints of this requirement. Thus, while Mandatory Access Control imposes constraints preventing a subject from passing information to another subject operating at a different sensitivity level, this requirement permits the subject to pass the information to any subject at the same sensitivity level. The policy is bounded by the information system boundary. Once the information is passed outside of the control of the information system, additional means may be required to ensure the constraints remain in effect. While the older, more traditional definitions of discretionary access control require identity-based access control, that limitation is not required for this use of discretionary access control.

Preventing non-privileged users from executing privileged functions mitigates the risk that unauthorized individuals or processes may gain unnecessary access to information or privileges. System documentation should include a definition of the functionality considered privileged. Depending on circumstances, privileged functions can include, for example, establishing accounts, performing system integrity checks, or administering cryptographic key management activities. Non-privileged users are individuals that do not possess appropriate authorizations. Circumventing intrusion detection and prevention mechanisms or malicious code protection mechanisms are examples of privileged functions that require protection from non-privileged users. A privileged function in the DBMS/database context is any operation that modifies the structure of the database, its built-in logic, or its security settings. This would include all Data Definition Language (DDL) statements and all security-related statements. In an SQL environment, it encompasses, but is not necessarily limited to: CREATE ALTER DROP GRANT REVOKE DENY There may also be Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements that, subject to context, should be regarded as privileged. Possible examples include: TRUNCATE TABLE; DELETE, or DELETE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or DELETE without a WHERE clause; UPDATE or UPDATE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or UPDATE without a WHERE clause; any SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to an application-defined security table executed by other than a security principal. Depending on the capabilities of the DBMS and the design of the database and associated applications, the prevention of unauthorized use of privileged functions may be achieved by means of DBMS security features, database triggers, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Redis Enterprise comes with a configurable role-based access control mechanism that allows users to be given specific roles. These roles provide various levels of permissions to security safeguards and countermeasures.

In certain situations, to provide required functionality, a DBMS needs to execute internal logic (stored procedures, functions, triggers, etc.) and/or external code modules with elevated privileges. However, if the privileges required for execution are at a higher level than the privileges assigned to organizational users invoking the functionality applications/programs, those users are indirectly provided with greater privileges than assigned by organizations. Privilege elevation must be used only where necessary and protected from misuse. This calls for inspection of application source code, which will require collaboration with the application developers. It is recognized that in many cases, the database administrator (DBA) is organizationally separate from the application developers, and may have limited, if any, access to source code. Nevertheless, protections of this type are so important to the secure operation of databases that they must not be ignored. At a minimum, the DBA must attempt to obtain assurances from the development organization that this issue has been addressed and must document what has been discovered. Redis Enterprise comes with the ability to run Redis Enterprise software modules within each database to extend the database functionality.

Without the capability to generate audit records, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. Audit records can be generated from various components within the DBMS (e.g., process, module). Certain specific application functionalities may be audited as well. The list of audited events is the set of events for which audits are to be generated. This set of events is typically a subset of the list of all events for which the system is capable of generating audit records. DoD has defined the list of events for which the DBMS will provide an audit record generation capability as the following: (i) Successful and unsuccessful attempts to access, modify, or delete privileges, security objects, security levels, or categories of information (e.g., classification levels); (ii) Access actions, such as successful and unsuccessful login attempts, privileged activities, or other system-level access, starting and ending time for user access to the system, concurrent logins from different workstations, successful and unsuccessful accesses to objects, all program initiations, and all direct access to the information system; and (iii) All account creation, modification, disabling, and termination actions. Organizations may define additional events requiring continuous or ad hoc auditing.

Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent or interfere with the auditing of critical events. Suppression of auditing could permit an adversary to evade detection. Misconfigured audits can degrade the system's performance by overwhelming the audit log. Misconfigured audits may also make it more difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

In this context, direct access is any query, command, or call to the DBMS that comes from any source other than the application(s) that it supports. Examples would be the command line or a database management utility program. The intent is to capture all activity from administrative and non-standard sources.

Without the ability to centrally manage the content captured in the audit records, identification, troubleshooting, and correlation of suspicious behavior would be difficult and could lead to a delayed or incomplete analysis of an ongoing attack. The content captured in audit records must be managed from a central location (necessitating automation). Centralized management of audit records and logs provides for efficiency in maintenance and management of records, as well as the backup and archiving of those records. The DBMS may write audit records to database tables, to files in the file system, to other kinds of local repository, or directly to a centralized log management system. Whatever the method used, it must be compatible with offloading the records to the centralized system. For more information, refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/logging/rsyslog-logging/ and https://redislabs.com/blog/sending-redis-cluster-alerts-to-slack-with-syslog/

If the configuration of the DBMS's auditing is spread across multiple locations in the database management software, or across multiple commands, only loosely related, it is harder to use and takes longer to reconfigure in response to events. Additional information can be found at: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/logging/rsyslog-logging/ and https://redislabs.com/blog/sending-redis-cluster-alerts-to-slack-with-syslog/

To ensure sufficient storage capacity for the audit logs, the DBMS must be able to allocate audit record storage capacity. Although another requirement (SRG-APP-000515-DB-000318) mandates that audit data be offloaded to a centralized log management system, it remains necessary to provide space on the database server to serve as a buffer against outages and capacity limits of the offloading mechanism. The task of allocating audit record storage capacity is usually performed during initial installation of the DBMS and is closely associated with the DBA and system administrator roles. The DBA or system administrator will usually coordinate the allocation of physical drive space with the application owner/installer and the application will prompt the installer to provide the capacity information, the physical location of the disk, or both. In determining the capacity requirements, consider such factors as: total number of users; expected number of concurrent users during busy periods; number and type of events being monitored; types and amounts of data being captured; the frequency/speed with which audit records are offloaded to the central log management system; and any limitations that exist on the DBMS's ability to reuse the space formerly occupied by offloaded records.

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration. Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity. The DBMS may write audit records to database tables, to files in the file system, to other kinds of local repository, or directly to a centralized log management system. Whatever the method used, it must be compatible with offloading the records to the centralized system. For more information, refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/logging/rsyslog-logging/ and https://redislabs.com/blog/sending-redis-cluster-alerts-to-slack-with-syslog/

Organizations are required to use a central log management system, so under normal conditions, the audit space allocated to the DBMS on its own server will not be an issue. However, space will still be required on the DBMS server for audit records in transit, and, under abnormal conditions, this could fill up. Since a requirement exists to halt processing upon audit failure, a service outage would result. If support personnel are not notified immediately upon storage volume utilization reaching 75 percent, they are unable to plan for storage capacity expansion. The appropriate support staff include, at a minimum, the ISSO and the DBA/SA.

Redis Enterprise does not send immediate real-time alerts to support staff in the event of audit log failures; however, the host RHEL server can be configured to send such alerts using scripts or other third-party tools. It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a system is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without a real-time alert, security personnel may be unaware of an impending failure of the audit capability, and system operation may be adversely affected. The appropriate support staff include, at a minimum, the ISSO and the DBA/SA. A failure of database auditing will result in either the database continuing to function without auditing or in a complete halt to database operations. When audit processing fails, appropriate personnel must be alerted immediately to avoid further downtime or unaudited transactions. Alerts provide organizations with urgent messages. Real-time alerts provide these messages immediately (i.e., the time from event detection to alert occurs in seconds or less).

Redis Enterprise can be configured to generate alerts for certain other key events, but not in the instance of an audit failure. The DBMS would depend on the base Linux OS to detect and shut down in the event of an audit processing failure. It is critical that when the DBMS is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required, it take action to mitigate the failure. Audit processing failures include software/hardware errors; failures in the audit capturing mechanisms; and audit storage capacity being reached or exceeded. Responses to audit failure depend upon the nature of the failure mode. When the need for system availability does not outweigh the need for a complete audit trail, the DBMS should shut down immediately, rolling back all in-flight transactions. Systems where audit trail completeness is paramount will most likely be at a lower MAC level than MAC I; the final determination is the prerogative of the application owner, subject to Authorizing Official concurrence. In any case, sufficient auditing resources must be allocated to avoid a shutdown in all but the most extreme situations.

It is critical that when the DBMS is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required, it take action to mitigate the failure. Audit processing failures include software/hardware errors; failures in the audit capturing mechanisms; and audit storage capacity being reached or exceeded. Responses to audit failure depend upon the nature of the failure mode. When availability is an overriding concern, approved actions in response to an audit failure are as follows: (i) If the failure was caused by the lack of audit record storage capacity, the DBMS must continue generating audit records, if possible (automatically restarting the audit service if necessary), overwriting the oldest audit records in a first-in-first-out manner. (ii) If audit records are sent to a centralized collection server and communication with this server is lost or the server fails, the DBMS must queue audit records locally until communication is restored or until the audit records are retrieved manually. Upon restoration of the connection to the centralized collection server, action should be taken to synchronize the local audit data with the collection server. Systems where availability is paramount will most likely be MAC I; the final determination is the prerogative of the application owner, subject to Authorizing Official concurrence. In any case, sufficient auditing resources must be allocated to avoid audit data loss in all but the most extreme situations.

If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis. Time stamps generated by the DBMS must include date and time. Time is commonly expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a modern continuation of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or local time with an offset from UTC. Some DBMS products offer a data type called TIMESTAMP that is not a representation of date and time. Rather, it is a database state counter and does not correspond to calendar and clock time. This requirement does not refer to that meaning of TIMESTAMP. Redis Enterprise application components allow the setting of a UTC timestamp associated with the logs of the database.

If audit data were to become compromised, competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. In addition, access to audit records provides information an attacker could potentially use to his or her advantage. To ensure the veracity of audit data, the information system and/or the application must protect audit information from any and all unauthorized access. This includes read, write, copy, etc. This requirement can be achieved through multiple methods which will depend upon system architecture and design. Some commonly employed methods include ensuring log files enjoy the proper file system permissions, utilizing file system protections, and limiting log data location. Additionally, applications with user interfaces to audit records should not allow for the unfettered manipulation of or access to those records via the application. If the application provides access to the audit data, the application becomes accountable for ensuring that audit information is protected from unauthorized access. Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit settings, and audit reports) needed to successfully audit information system activity.

If audit data were to become compromised, competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity would be impossible to achieve. To ensure the veracity of audit data the information system and/or the application must protect audit information from unauthorized modification. This requirement can be achieved through multiple methods that will depend upon system architecture and design. Some commonly employed methods include ensuring log files enjoy the proper file system permissions and limiting log data locations. Applications providing a user interface to audit data will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the data and the corresponding user rights in order to make access decisions regarding the modification of audit data. Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit settings, and audit reports) needed to successfully audit information system activity. Modification of database audit data could mask the theft of, or the unauthorized modification of, sensitive data stored in the database.

If audit data were to become compromised, competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity would be impossible to achieve. To ensure the veracity of audit data, the information system and/or the application must protect audit information from unauthorized deletion. This requirement can be achieved through multiple methods which will depend upon system architecture and design. Some commonly employed methods include: ensuring log files enjoy the proper file system permissions utilizing file system protections; restricting access; and backing up log data to ensure log data is retained. Applications providing a user interface to audit data will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the data and the corresponding rights the user enjoys in order make access decisions regarding the deletion of audit data. Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit settings, and audit reports) needed to successfully audit information system activity. Deletion of database audit data could mask the theft of, or the unauthorized modification of, sensitive data stored in the database.

Redis Enterprise does not come with unique tools to view log data and logging is not configurable. Logs are stored in a standard log file on the host operating system that is accessible using standard Linux tooling. Only users in the admin role can view or modify privileged settings in the Redis Enterprise UI. Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Depending upon the log format and application, system and application log tools may provide the only means to manipulate and manage application and system log data. It is, therefore, imperative that access to audit tools be controlled and protected from unauthorized access. Applications providing tools to interface with audit data will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the tools and the corresponding rights the user enjoys in order make access decisions regarding the access to audit tools. Audit tools include, but are not limited to, OS-provided audit tools, vendor-provided audit tools, and open-source audit tools needed to successfully view and manipulate audit information system activity and records. If an attacker were to gain access to audit tools, they could analyze audit logs for system weaknesses or weaknesses in the auditing itself. An attacker could also manipulate logs to hide evidence of malicious activity.

Redis Enterprise does not come with unique tools to view log data and logging is not configurable. Logs are stored in a standard log file on the host operating system that is accessible using standard Linux tooling. Only users in the admin role can view or modify privileged settings in the Redis Enterprise UI. Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on audit data. Applications providing tools to interface with audit data will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the tools and the corresponding rights the user enjoys in order make access decisions regarding the modification of audit tools. Audit tools include, but are not limited to, vendor-provided and open source audit tools needed to successfully view and manipulate audit information system activity and records. Audit tools include custom queries and report generators.

Redis Enterprise does not come with unique tools to view log data and logging is not configurable. Logs are stored in a standard log file on the host operating system that is accessible using standard Linux tooling. Only users in the admin role can view or modify privileged settings in the Redis Enterprise UI. Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on audit data. Applications providing tools to interface with audit data will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the tools and the corresponding rights the user enjoys in order make access decisions regarding the deletion of audit tools. Audit tools include, but are not limited to, vendor-provided and open source audit tools needed to successfully view and manipulate audit information system activity and records. Audit tools include custom queries and report generators.

Redis Enterprise permits the installation of logic modules through a control plane layer to the database, which requires privilege access to the control plane. This is provisioned for support during database runtime by a user with permissions to create a database. The ability to load modules directly within the database is not supported in Redis Enterprise; however, it is supported in open-source Redis.

Failure to provide logical access restrictions associated with changes to configuration may have significant effects on the overall security of the system. When dealing with access restrictions pertaining to change control, it should be noted that any changes to the hardware, software, and/or firmware components of the information system can potentially have significant effects on the overall security of the system. Accordingly, only qualified and authorized individuals should be allowed to obtain access to system components for the purposes of initiating changes, including upgrades and modifications.

If the system were to allow any user to make changes to software libraries, those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part of a robust change management process. Accordingly, only qualified and authorized individuals must be allowed to obtain access to information system components for purposes of initiating changes, including upgrades and modifications. Unmanaged changes that occur to the database software libraries or configuration can lead to unauthorized or compromised installations. For Redis Enterprise this is largely handled by the RHEL OS. The OS audit logs record any changes made to the database software libraries, related applications, and configuration files. Redis Enterprise also generates audit logs by default. All log entries are shown on the Log page in the Redis Enterprise web UI as well as written in the syslog. Only users in the admin role on the Redis Enterprise web UI and users with privileged access to the server can view, add, or remove modules. In both cases, this is logged.

When dealing with change control issues, it should be noted any changes to the hardware, software, and/or firmware components of the information system and/or application can have significant effects on the overall security of the system. If the system were to allow any user to make changes to software libraries, those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part of a robust change management process. Accordingly, only qualified and authorized individuals must be allowed access to information system components for purposes of initiating changes, including upgrades and modifications. DBA and other privileged administrative or application owner accounts are granted privileges that allow actions that can have a great impact on database security and operation. It is especially important to grant privileged access to only those persons who are qualified and authorized to use them.

When dealing with change control issues, it should be noted any changes to the hardware, software, and/or firmware components of the information system and/or application can potentially have significant effects on the overall security of the system. Multiple applications can provide a cumulative negative effect. A vulnerability and subsequent exploit to one application can lead to an exploit of other applications sharing the same security context. For example, an exploit to a web server process that leads to unauthorized administrative access to host system directories can most likely lead to a compromise of all applications hosted by the same system. Database software not installed using dedicated directories both threatens and is threatened by other hosted applications. Access controls defined for one application may by default provide access to the other application's database objects or directories. Any method that provides any level of separation of security context assists in the protection between applications.

If the DBMS were to allow any user to make changes to database structure or logic, those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part of a robust change management process. Accordingly, only qualified and authorized individuals must be allowed to obtain access to information system components for purposes of initiating changes, including upgrades and modifications. Unmanaged changes that occur to the database software libraries or configuration can lead to unauthorized or compromised installations. Redis Enterprise provides configurable role-based access control inherently within the product. To ensure that users are provided the appropriate permissions that they are authorized to use, check each user's assigned roles.

Configuring the DBMS to implement organization-wide security implementation guides and security checklists ensures compliance with federal standards and establishes a common security baseline across the DoD that reflects the most restrictive security posture consistent with operational requirements. In addition to this STIG, sources of guidance on security and information assurance exist. These include NSA configuration guides, CTOs, DTMs, and IAVMs. The DBMS must be configured in compliance with guidance from all such relevant sources.

Use of nonsecure network functions, ports, protocols, and services exposes the system to avoidable threats.

Unsupported commercial and database systems should not be used because fixes to newly identified bugs will not be implemented by the vendor. The lack of support can result in potential vulnerabilities. Systems at unsupported servicing levels or releases will not receive security updates for new vulnerabilities, which leaves them subject to exploitation. When maintenance updates and patches are no longer available, the database software is no longer considered supported and should be upgraded or decommissioned.

Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions, functions). It is detrimental for software products to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. DBMSs must adhere to the principles of least functionality by providing only essential capabilities. Modules are not needed for Redis Enterprise to function properly but can make some tasks easier. The following come by default on Redis Enterprise 6: RedisBloom RediSearch RedisGraph RedisJSON RedisTimeSeries More information can be found at: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/modules/?s=modules

Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions, functions). It is detrimental for software products to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. DBMSs must adhere to the principles of least functionality by providing only essential capabilities. Unused, unnecessary DBMS components increase the attack vector for the DBMS by introducing additional targets for attack. By minimizing the services and applications installed on the system, the number of potential vulnerabilities is reduced. Components of the system that are unused and cannot be uninstalled must be disabled. The techniques available for disabling components will vary by DBMS product, OS, and the nature of the component and may include DBMS configuration settings, OS service settings, OS file access security, and DBMS user/role permissions.

Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions, functions). It is detrimental for applications to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. Applications must adhere to the principles of least functionality by providing only essential capabilities. DBMSs may spawn additional external processes to execute procedures that are defined in the DBMS but stored in external host files (external procedures). The spawned process used to execute the external procedure may operate within a different OS security context than the DBMS and provide unauthorized access to the host system.

To prevent unauthorized connection of devices, unauthorized transfer of information, or unauthorized tunneling (i.e., embedding of data types within data types), organizations must disable or restrict unused or unnecessary physical and logical ports/protocols/services on information systems. Applications are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services provided by default may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations. Additionally, it is sometimes convenient to provide multiple services from a single component (e.g., email and web services); however, doing so increases risk over limiting the services provided by any one component. To support the requirements and principles of least functionality, the application must support the organizational requirements providing only essential capabilities and limiting the use of ports, protocols, and/or services to only those required, authorized, and approved to conduct official business or to address authorized quality of life issues. Database Management Systems using ports, protocols, and services deemed unsafe are open to attack through those ports, protocols, and services. This can allow unauthorized access to the database and through the database to other components of the information system.

The DoD standard for authentication of an interactive user is the presentation of a Common Access Card (CAC) or other physical token bearing a valid, current, DoD-issued Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate, coupled with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to be entered by the user at the beginning of each session and whenever reauthentication is required. Without reauthentication, users may access resources or perform tasks for which they do not have authorization. When applications provide the capability to change security roles or escalate the functional capability of the application, it is critical the user reauthenticate. In addition to the reauthentication requirements associated with session locks, organizations may require reauthentication of individuals and/or devices in other situations, including (but not limited to) the following circumstances: (i) When authenticators change; (ii) When roles change; (iii) When security categories of information systems change; (iv) When the execution of privileged functions occurs; (v) After a fixed period of time; or (vi) Periodically. Within the DoD, the minimum circumstances requiring reauthentication are privilege escalation and role changes. For more information refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/access-control/

Redis Enterprise allows the user to configure unique users per role. Review roles and ensure roles use unique organizational principles per user to the database. Redis does come with a default user for backwards compatibility. This user may be disabled.

The DoD standard for authentication is DoD-approved PKI certificates. Authentication based on User ID and Password may be used only when it is not possible to employ a PKI certificate, and requires AO approval. In such cases, database passwords stored in clear text, using reversible encryption, or using unsalted hashes would be vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure. Database passwords must always be in the form of one-way, salted hashes when stored internally or externally to the DBMS.

If cached authentication information is out of date, the validity of the authentication information may be questionable. For more information on configuring time out periods on Redis Enterprise refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/access-control/

The DoD standard for authentication is DoD-approved PKI certificates. A certificate's certification path is the path from the end entity certificate to a trusted root certification authority (CA). Certification path validation is necessary for a relying party to make an informed decision regarding acceptance of an end entity certificate. Certification path validation includes checks such as certificate issuer trust, time validity, and revocation status for each certificate in the certification path. Revocation status information for CA and subject certificates in a certification path is commonly provided via certificate revocation lists (CRLs) or online certificate status protocol (OCSP) responses. Database Management Systems that do not validate certificates by performing RFC 5280-compliant certification path validation are in danger of accepting certificates that are invalid and/or counterfeit. This could allow unauthorized access to the database. For more information refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/designing-production/security/

The DoD standard for authentication is DoD-approved PKI certificates. Once a PKI certificate has been validated, it must be mapped to a DBMS user account for the authenticated identity to be meaningful to the DBMS and useful for authorization decisions.

Non-organizational users include all information system users other than organizational users, which include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Non-organizational users must be uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization when related to the use of anonymous access, such as accessing a web server. Accordingly, a risk assessment is used in determining the authentication needs of the organization. Scalability, practicality, and security are simultaneously considered in balancing the need to ensure ease of use for access to federal information and information systems with the need to protect and adequately mitigate risk to organizational operations, organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the nation.

Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The application must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards approved by the federal government since this provides assurance they have been tested and validated. For detailed information, refer to NIST FIPS Publication 140-2 or Publication 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. Note that the product's cryptographic modules must be validated and certified by NIST as FIPS-compliant.

Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The application must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards approved by the federal government since this provides assurance they have been tested and validated. For detailed information, refer to NIST FIPS Publication 140-2 or Publication 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. Note that the product's cryptographic modules must be validated and certified by NIST as FIPS-compliant.

Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The application must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards approved by the federal government since this provides assurance they have been tested and validated. It is the responsibility of the data owner to assess the cryptography requirements in light of applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, and standards. For detailed information, refer to NIST FIPS Publication 140-2 or Publication 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. Note that the product's cryptographic modules must be validated and certified by NIST as FIPS-compliant. The DBMS relies on the underlying Linux operating system to meet this check.

Information system management functionality includes functions necessary to administer databases, network components, workstations, or servers and typically requires privileged user access.  The separation of user functionality from information system management functionality is either physical or logical and is accomplished by using different computers, different central processing units, different instances of the operating system, different network addresses, combinations of these methods, or other methods, as appropriate. An example of this type of separation is observed in web administrative interfaces that use separate authentication methods for users of any other information system resources. This may include isolating the administrative interface on a different domain and with additional access controls. If administrative functionality or information regarding DBMS management is presented on an interface available for users, information on DBMS settings may be inadvertently made available to the user.

This requirement focuses on communications protection for the DBMS session rather than for the network packet. The intent of this control is to establish grounds for confidence at each end of a communications session in the ongoing identity of the other party and in the validity of the information being transmitted. Redis Enterprise Software (RS) uses self-signed certificates out-of-the-box to make sure that sessions are secure by default. When using the default self-signed certificates, an untrusted connection notification is shown in the web UI. Depending on the browser used, the user can allow the connection for each session or add an exception to make the site trusted in future sessions.

Session IDs are tokens generated by web applications to uniquely identify an application user's session. Applications will make application decisions and execute business logic based on the session ID. Unique session identifiers or IDs are the opposite of sequentially generated session IDs, which can be easily guessed by an attacker. Unique session IDs help to reduce predictability of said identifiers. Unique session IDs address man-in-the-middle attacks, including session hijacking or insertion of false information into a session. If the attackers are unable to identify or guess the session information related to pending application traffic, they will have more difficulty in hijacking the session or otherwise manipulating valid sessions. When a user logs out, or when any other session termination event occurs, the application must terminate the user session to minimize the potential for an attacker to hijack that particular user session.

Only DoD-approved external PKIs have been evaluated to ensure that they have security controls and identity vetting procedures in place which are sufficient for DoD systems to rely on the identity asserted in the certificate. PKIs lacking sufficient security controls and identity vetting procedures risk being compromised and issuing certificates that enable adversaries to impersonate legitimate users.

Failure to a known state can address safety or security in accordance with the mission/business needs of the organization. Databases must fail to a known consistent state. Transactions must be successfully completed or rolled back. All data is stored and managed exclusively in either RAM or RAM + Flash Memory (Redis on Flash) and therefore, is at risk of being lost upon a process or server failure. As Redis Enterprise Software is not just a caching solution, but also a full-fledged database, persistence to disk is critical. Therefore, Redis Enterprise Software supports persisting data to disk on a per-database basis. Append Only File (AOF) is a continuous writing of data to disk Snapshot. It is not a replacement for backups but should be done in addition to backups. AOF writes the latest "write" commands into a file either every second or during every write. It resembles a traditional RDBMS's redo log. This file can later be replayed to recover from a crash. To ensure data availability, Redis Enterprise Software must be implemented in, at a minimum, a three-node cluster. A three-node cluster can withstand one node failure without data loss. If more than one node is lost in a three-node cluster and persistence is not enabled, then data loss is to be expected. The Append Only File is a persistence mode that provides much better durability. For instance, using the default data fsync policy, Redis can lose just one second of writes in a dramatic event like a server power outage, or a single write if something goes wrong with the Redis process itself, but the operating system is still running correctly. AOF and RDB persistence can be enabled at the same time without problems. If the AOF is enabled on startup Redis will load the AOF, that is the file with the better durability guarantees. Check http://redis.io/topics/persistence for more information. Redis Labs additionally recommends using the wait command. Review the wait command at: https://redis.io/commands/wait and determine if this meets organizational needs.

Failure to a known state can address safety or security in accordance with the mission/business needs of the organization. Failure to a known secure state helps prevent a loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability in the event of a failure of the information system or a component of the system. Preserving information system state information helps to facilitate system restart and return to the operational mode of the organization with less disruption of mission/business processes. Since it is usually not possible to test this capability in a production environment, systems should either be validated in a testing environment or prior to installation. This requirement is usually a function of the design of the IDPS component. Compliance can be verified by acceptance/validation processes or vendor attestation. Additional information can be found at: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/troubleshooting/cluster-recovery/

DBMSs handling data requiring data at rest protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure and modification of the information at rest. These cryptographic mechanisms may be native to the DBMS or implemented via additional software or operating system/file system settings, as appropriate to the situation. Selection of a cryptographic mechanism is based on the need to protect the integrity of organizational information. The strength of the mechanism is commensurate with the security category and/or classification of the information. Organizations have the flexibility to either encrypt all information on storage devices (i.e., full disk encryption) or encrypt specific data structures (e.g., files, records, or fields). The decision whether and what to encrypt rests with the data owner and is also influenced by the physical measures taken to secure the equipment and media on which the information resides. Redis Enterprise does not inherently encrypt data at rest; however, this can be handled at the OS level.

DBMSs handling data requiring "data at rest" protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure and modification of the information at rest. These cryptographic mechanisms may be native to the DBMS or implemented via additional software or operating system/file system settings, as appropriate to the situation. Selection of a cryptographic mechanism is based on the need to protect the integrity of organizational information. The strength of the mechanism is commensurate with the security category and/or classification of the information. Organizations have the flexibility to either encrypt all information on storage devices (i.e., full disk encryption) or encrypt specific data structures (e.g., files, records, or fields). The decision whether and what to encrypt rests with the data owner and is also influenced by the physical measures taken to secure the equipment and media on which the information resides. Redis Enterprise does not inherently encrypt data at rest; however, this can be handled at the OS level.

Security functions are the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the information system responsible for enforcing the system security policy and supporting the isolation of code and data on which the protection is based.

The purpose of this control is to prevent information, including encrypted representations of information, produced by the actions of a prior user/role (or the actions of a process acting on behalf of a prior user/role) from being available to any current user/role (or current process) that obtains access to a shared system resource (e.g., registers, main memory, secondary storage) after the resource has been released back to the information system. Control of information in shared resources is also referred to as object reuse. For more information, refer to: https://redis.io/topics/acl more information on creating clearly defined categories and adding/editing users to categories and ACLs. and https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/access-control/user-roles/

Developers and implementers can increase the assurance in security functions by employing well-defined security policy models; structured, disciplined, and rigorous hardware and software development techniques; and sound system/security engineering principles.

Information can be either unintentionally or maliciously disclosed or modified during preparation for transmission, including, for example, during aggregation, at protocol transformation points, and during packing/unpacking. These unauthorized disclosures or modifications compromise the confidentiality or integrity of the information. Use of this requirement will be limited to situations where the data owner has a strict requirement for ensuring data integrity and confidentiality is maintained at every step of the data transfer and handling process. When transmitting data, the DBMS, associated applications, and infrastructure must leverage transmission protection mechanisms. For more detailed information, refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/administering/designing-production/security/

Information can be either unintentionally or maliciously disclosed or modified during reception, including, for example, during aggregation, at protocol transformation points, and during packing/unpacking. These unauthorized disclosures or modifications compromise the confidentiality or integrity of the information. This requirement applies only to those applications that are either distributed or can allow access to data nonlocally. Use of this requirement will be limited to situations where the data owner has a strict requirement for ensuring data integrity and confidentiality is maintained at every step of the data transfer and handling process. When receiving data, the DBMS, associated applications, and infrastructure must leverage protection mechanisms.

With respect to database management systems, one class of threat is known as code injection. It takes advantage of the dynamic execution capabilities of various programming languages, including dialects of LUA and SQL. In such cases, the attacker deduces the manner in which code is processed, either from inside knowledge or by observing system behavior in response to invalid inputs. When the attacker identifies scenarios where code is executed dynamically, the attacker is then able to craft input strings that subvert it. Potentially, the attacker can gain unauthorized access to data, including security settings, and severely corrupt or destroy the database. The principal protection against code injection is not to use dynamic execution except where it provides necessary functionality that cannot be used otherwise. Use strongly typed data items rather than general-purpose strings as input parameters to task-specific, pre-compiled stored procedures and functions (and triggers). Because Redis does not rely on a query language, there is no known method of SQL injection that would apply to Redis. Redis is a key value store and relies on commands that do not have a unified query language. Redis does have an embedded LUA interpreter and the user will need to disable these. When dynamic execution is necessary, ways to mitigate the risk include the following, which should be implemented both in the on-screen application and at the database level, in the stored procedures: - Allow strings as input only when necessary. - Rely on data typing to validate numbers, dates, etc. Do not accept invalid values. If substituting other values for them, think carefully about whether this could be subverted. - Limit the size of input strings to what is truly necessary. - If single quotes/apostrophes, double quotes, semicolons, equals signs, angle brackets, or square brackets will never be valid as input, reject them. - If comment markers will never be valid as input, reject them. - If HTML and XML tags, entities, comments, etc., will never be valid, reject them. - If wildcards are present, reject them unless truly necessary. - If there are range limits on the values that may be entered, enforce those limits. - Institute procedures for inspection of programs for correct use of dynamic coding by a party other than the developer. - Conduct rigorous testing of program modules that use dynamic coding, searching for ways to subvert the intended use. - Record the inspection and testing in the system documentation. - Bear in mind that all this applies not only to screen input, but also to the values in an incoming message to a web service or to a stored procedure called by a software component that has not itself been hardened in these ways. Not only can the caller be subject to such vulnerabilities, but it may also itself be the attacker. This calls for inspection of application source code, which will require collaboration with the application developers. It is recognized that in many cases, the database administrator (DBA) is organizationally separate from the application developers, and may have limited, if any, access to source code. Nevertheless, protections of this type are so important to the secure operation of databases that they must not be ignored. At a minimum, the DBA must attempt to obtain assurances from the development organization that this issue has been addressed and must document what has been discovered.

With respect to database management systems, one class of threat is known as code injection. It takes advantage of the dynamic execution capabilities of various programming languages, including dialects of LUA and SQL. In such cases, the attacker deduces the manner in which code is processed, either from inside knowledge or by observing system behavior in response to invalid inputs. When the attacker identifies scenarios where code is executed dynamically, the attacker is then able to craft input strings that subvert it. Potentially, the attacker can gain unauthorized access to data, including security settings, and severely corrupt or destroy the database. The principal protection against code injection is not to use dynamic execution except where it provides necessary functionality that cannot be used otherwise. Use strongly typed data items rather than general-purpose strings as input parameters to task-specific, pre-compiled stored procedures and functions (and triggers). Because Redis does not rely on a query language there is no known method of SQL injection that would apply to Redis. Redis is a key value store and relies on commands that do not have a unified query language. Redis does have an embedded LUA interpreter and the user will need to disable these. When dynamic execution is necessary, ways to mitigate the risk include the following, which should be implemented both in the on-screen application and at the database level, in the stored procedures: - Allow strings as input only when necessary. - Rely on data typing to validate numbers, dates, etc. Do not accept invalid values. If substituting other values for them, think carefully about whether this could be subverted. - Limit the size of input strings to what is truly necessary. - If single quotes/apostrophes, double quotes, semicolons, equals signs, angle brackets, or square brackets will never be valid as input, reject them. - If comment markers will never be valid as input, reject them. - If HTML and XML tags, entities, comments, etc., will never be valid, reject them. - If wildcards are present, reject them unless truly necessary. - If there are range limits on the values that may be entered, enforce those limits. - Institute procedures for inspection of programs for correct use of dynamic coding, by a party other than the developer. - Conduct rigorous testing of program modules that use dynamic coding, searching for ways to subvert the intended use. - Record the inspection and testing in the system documentation. - Bear in mind that all this applies not only to screen input, but also to the values in an incoming message to a web service or to a stored procedure called by a software component that has not itself been hardened in these ways. Not only can the caller be subject to such vulnerabilities; it may itself be the attacker. This calls for inspection of application source code, which will require collaboration with the application developers. It is recognized that in many cases, the database administrator (DBA) is organizationally separate from the application developers, and may have limited, if any, access to source code. Nevertheless, protections of this type are so important to the secure operation of databases that they must not be ignored. At a minimum, the DBA must attempt to obtain assurances from the development organization that this issue has been addressed and must document what has been discovered.

Security flaws with software applications, including database management systems, are discovered daily. Vendors are constantly updating and patching their products to address newly discovered security vulnerabilities. Organizations (including any contractor to the organization) are required to promptly install security-relevant software updates (e.g., patches, service packs, and hot fixes). Flaws discovered during security assessments, continuous monitoring, incident response activities, or information system error handling must also be addressed expeditiously. Organization-defined time periods for updating security-relevant software may vary based on a variety of factors including, for example, the security category of the information system or the criticality of the update (i.e., severity of the vulnerability related to the discovered flaw). This requirement will apply to software patch management solutions that are used to install patches across the enclave and also to applications themselves that are not part of that patch management solution. For example, many browsers today provide the capability to install their own patch software. Patch criticality, as well as system criticality, will vary. Therefore, the tactical situations regarding the patch management process will also vary. This means that the time period used must be a configurable parameter. Time frames for application of security-relevant software updates may be dependent upon the Information Assurance Vulnerability Management (IAVM) process. The application will be configured to check for and install security-relevant software updates within an identified time period from the availability of the update. The specific time period will be defined by an authoritative source (e.g., IAVM, CTOs, DTMs, and STIGs). For more information, refer to: https://docs.redislabs.com/latest/rs/installing-upgrading/upgrading/

Redis Enterprise does not generate all the DoD-required audit records. This could lead to incomplete information as follows: - Without an audit trail, unauthorized access to protected data and attempts to elevate or restrict privileges could go undetected. - It would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. - Without the creation of certain audit logs, it would be difficult to identify attempted attacks, and an audit trail would not be available for some forensic investigation for after-the-fact actions. For a complete list of unsupported audit requirements, email "disa.letterkenny.re.mbx.stig-customer-support-mailbox@mail.mil". Once the identity of the requester has been verified and the specifics of missing audit requirements obtained, risk can be assessed and a determination made as to whether it is acceptable.

OS/enterprise authentication and identification must be used (SRG-APP-000023-DB-000001). Native DBMS authentication may be used only when circumstances make it unavoidable and must be documented and AO-approved. The DoD standard for authentication is DoD-approved PKI certificates. Authentication based on User ID and Password may be used only when it is not possible to employ a PKI certificate, and requires AO approval. In such cases, the DoD standards for password complexity and lifetime must be implemented. DBMS products that can inherit the rules for these from the operating system or access control program (e.g., Microsoft Active Directory) must be configured to do so. For other DBMSs, the rules must be enforced using available configuration parameters or custom code.