On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, Robinson, Eric R. wrote:

> Is there a good rule of thumb for situating the RAS server? It seems to me
> that the following would be true:
>
> 3.    Outside: Bad from all perspectives.

I don't think this is bad at all.  I look at RAS boxes as providing access
to the Internet, just like any other modem dial-in/ISDN/DSL/whatever at
large and don't accord those dial-up ports any special priviledges.

That way, if someone does manage to score a login on the RAS box (which I
think is quite likely, given the security profile of staff generally and
where they write their passwords down), all they have is Internet access.
This might cost you a little money in traffic, but has no real bad
security juju.  And besides, you keep an eye on your RAS and audit those
logs, right?

If you need to provide extra services via dial-up, do the VPN thing.  This
has the bonus of being potentially usable from anywhere with no special
config, because the special access VPN function is divorced from the
connectivity thing.  Separation of layers is a powerful tool.

Adrian Close                    email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
1 Old Gippsland Rd.             web:    http://www.close.wattle.id.au/~adrian
Lilydale, VIC, 3140, Australia  mobile: +61 412 385 201

P.S.  Of course, it's worth taking care with the security of your RAS as
well (e.g. if you need SNMP or whatever, configure carefully and patch
often, which you should be doing anyway, so there's no difference, right?)


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