Advice on private/etc/passphrase

RonaldV

Hi all,

according to this kb https://support.interwoven.com/kb/kb_show_article2.asp?ArticleID=59802 I need to make the passphrase-file readible for public in order to get the CsSdk working (on Solaris). Ootb it is only readible for 'iwui'.

This make me a bit shaky. I would think that a passphrase file has to do with security and it contents should better be kept secret.

Does anybody know the use of this file and whether is should be kept secret (or not)???
Is there any security to be gained by keeping it secret?

Cheers, Ronald

cliff1

This file stores the key needed to encrypt and decrypt a session string. In TeamSite 6.7 and beyond, I think the code to do this is only only accessed from the iwserver process (and maybe the utild process?). In TeamSite 6.5 and earlier, I believe the UI code (ContentCenter) also needed access to this file.

In general, you want to make this file accessible to the minimum list of users that need it. If you are not having the specific issue mentioned in the KB article on TeamSite 6.5, you should leave the permissions as is. If you are getting that issue, it seems like you should be able to set the permissions a bit tighter than "world read" and still resolve the issue? Perhaps there are some situations in 6.5 where the session string is being decrypted after impersonating a user and you need world-read because the process owner could be any TeamSite user (pure speculation).

-Cliff