Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Survey on Supercomputer Cluster Security
From: cluster.security () gmail com
Date: 25 May 2007 00:09:11 -0000
To Cluster System Administrators: Our University has done some classified DoD work on various Beowulf clusters. As a result, we have gotten interested in the questions of securing supercomputer clusters. In particular, we are especially interested in better understanding the nature of the threats against supercomputer clusters, and the extent to which security measures are implemented . It would help us greatly if you would answer a few questions on this subject. Feel free to not answer any question that you do not wish to answer. Just select the no answer selection. A complete list of questions and possible answers are listed below in text form. If there are several system administrators for your cluster(s), please ensure that your group submits only one survey per cluster. You can answer the questions interactively at our website (our preferred method), by e-mail, by fax, and by regular mail. To answer on the web, please go to http://www.cs.umaine.edu/~markov/clustersurvey/survey.html and login with login ClusterSurvey password S3cur3Qu3st The login is just to keep random visitors to the website from filling out the questionnaire. The web questionnaire will only be available until June 1, 2007. There are two options when if you choose to by e-mail, fax, or regular mail. First, you can download a PDF version of the questionnaire from a link on the webpage referenced above. This is an interactive PDF file that permits you to answer the questions in the form providing you are using a new enough version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (Version 8 recommended). You can either print out the results and fax them or mail them, or you can e-mail the file or just the answers by hitting the e-mail button in the form. Alternatively, you can answer the questions on the form below and either e-mail it back or print out the results and fax or e-mail them back. If you wish to fax your answers, please fax them to 207-866-3050, which is a secure fax. We will collect whatever data we receive and organize the results. These results will be available on the web using the URL above starting July 15, 2007 in case you are interested. All data will be aggregated and in no way will we identify any respondents -- my goal is to have some general numbers and percentages that can help us better understand who is trying to crack into supercomputers and why. If you know of other people who would be interested in the results or would be interested in providing data, please feel free to send them a copy of this letter. Sincerely yours, George Markowsky, Professor Department of Computer Science 5752 Neville Hall University of Maine Orono, ME 04469-5752 QUESTIONNAIRE 1. How frequently are your supercomputer clusters attacked relative to any desktops that might be in your laboratories? More Frequently About the Same Frequency Less Frequently No Answer 2. How sophisticated are the attacks against your clusters compared to the attacks against any desktops that might be in your laboratories? More Sophisticated About the Same Level of Sophistication Less Sophisticated No Answer 3. Are there any IP addresses that regularly try to break into your cluster? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 4. Has anyone ever tried a man-in-the-middle type of attack against any of your clusters? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 5. Have you ever been attacked from foreign IP addresses? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 6. Have your clusters ever been attacked by foreign interests? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 7. Has anyone ever tried a physical approach to either disrupt a computation or to steal data? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 8. Has anyone ever tried to bribe or otherwise co-opt one of the cluster staff into helping with compromising the security? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 9. How many times has security been breached on one of your supercomputer clusters over the past three years that resulted in either downtime or lost data? 11 or more 6-10 2-5 1 0 Not Sure No Answer 10. Does your center have a person whose primary responsibility is cluster security? Yes No Not Sure No Answer 11. Do you run an intrusion detection system on your clusters? Yes, on all No, not on any Mixed, on some and not on others Not Sure No Answer 12. How often do you check for rootkits? Multiple Times a Day Daily Weekly Monthly Annually Not at all Not Sure No Answer 13. How often do you run backups on your clusters? Multiple Times a Day Daily Weekly Monthly Annually Not at all Not Sure No Answer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This List Sponsored by: Cenzic Are you using SPI, Watchfire or WhiteHat? Consider getting clear vision with Cenzic See HOW Now with our 20/20 program! http://www.cenzic.com/c/2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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