Remote Maintenance Systems and Security

The three key points of remote maintenance system security, identity verification, system vulnerability, and data transmission encryption, are covered.The book also offers practical advice and technical solutions to the security risks that developers and operators frequently encounter in remote debugging.

Why should remote maintenance be given special attention?

Remote maintenance is like opening a "back door" to the system, which makes troubleshooting easier, but if the door isn't properly protected, then hackers can slip in in a minute.In the past two years, the number of data leaks caused by improperly configured ports has increased by 37 %, which is no laughing matter.

The first line of defense is that identity verification must be tough.

Don't try to get by with simple passwords.

I've seen too many teams using a combination like admin / 123456. What's the difference between that and just leaving the door open? I suggest using two-factor authentication so that even if the password is guessed, you still have to get through the mobile phone verification stage.

The blacklist must be flexible.

Don't put the whole company's network segment in.We've seen cases where administrators have set up 0.0.0.0/0 to save on work, and as a result their servers have been hijacked and turned into miners.

A second line of defense: Be proactive in protecting against vulnerabilities.

Regularly update debugging tools.

The remote code execution vulnerability that was discovered last year was caused by using an old version of the software that was three years out of date.I suggest setting up an automatic update reminder, so you don't have to wait until something happens before you regret it.

The principle of least privilege must not be forgotten.

Give the testing accounts only the permissions they need.I've seen developers give themselves root permissions to make debugging easier, only to be hit by a ransomware attack that locked them out of all their data.

Thirdly, data encryption must be in place.

TLS 1.3 is the minimum requirement.

Are you still using SSH tunnels? It's time to upgrade! TLS 1.3 is many times stronger than previous protocols, and it supports session reuse, so it's safe and doesn't slow things down.

The log of debugging data should also be encrypted.

Many teams focus on encryption of the transmission channel, but leave debug logs in plain text on the server.Last year, a certain e-commerce platform failed to do this, and user payment information was leaked.

Pitfalls in the real world.

In fact, 80 % of security breaches are caused by low-level errors such as leaving a debugging port open.The report recommends setting up automated scripts to manage port opening and closing, and setting a timeout period after which the ports will automatically close.

Security in the testing environment is also important. Last year, attackers first broke into the testing environment, then moved laterally into the production system.Remember, the safety standards of the test environment must be the same as those of the production environment.