Security implications of using ControlMaster

Stephen Harris
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:34:01 -0000

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 11:08:51AM +1100, Damien Miller
wrote:
> So IMO disallowing session multiplexing is at most a speedbump that an
> attacker will cross with relative ease. Speedbumps make sense sometimes,

An attacker getting root on the jumphost gets immediate control of
any _current_ persistent connections and new connections.  Without
ControlMaster it's a _lot_ harder to take control of current connections,
but pretty easy to subvert new connections.

So there is a benefit... but a small one.

> but they must be weighed against their inconvenience.

This is pretty much true of all security controls :-)

--

rgds
Stephen