Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Dreamhost is COMPLETELY INSECURE

[iterationlab]

I was just playing with dreamhost and you can browse into other people's directories!

I just went back a level in the structure, picked an NSF mount (they start with periods, as if that hides them or something), browsed into someone's directory, went into logs (which is world viewable and tells me the name of their domain name), checked out their access log (which would show me any password sent via GET), browsed into their web directory since now I know its name, and explored their files, including finding out their wordpress mysql password. As far as I can tell, this works for EVERY user, and you can't secure it because if any of those directories are set with non-world-readable permissions, the hosting won't work.

Wow.

Time for me to find a new host. Any recommendations on a host with similarly large quantities of storage and bandwidth, but that is secure?

[Aussie Bob]

Have you informed them of this possible security concern?

[iterationlab]

Informed who? I'm fairly sure that DreamHost knows their setup is insecure.

[cristibighea]

Still, you should e-mail them about it...

[shanee86]

WoW I have only heard bad things about dreamhost mostly saying they have so much downtime etc. Now this well that is really bad I never liked them because they oversell so much. But yea try and find a new host if you see fit and or inform them.

[Jamson]

I'd contact them before moving..

If you don't wanna email them, i'd try browsing the hosting offers section or just typing "web host" in google which should bring up some hosts with large quantites of space and transfer.. since they get more traffic than anyone else..

[iterationlab]

I'm emailing them.

[CF-Rick]

This is quite possibly the stupidest way you could have gone about fixing this.

A. You shouldn't have viewed other peoples files
B. You shouldn't have admitted to doing so. I'm sure this is a violation of your AUP.
C. You should have contacted Dreamhost before telling the thousands of people who view this board

[Siropel]

Originally Posted by tectonic

I will send them a link to this thread.

Already done.
P.S: when I try to get in someone else's directory I get a permission denied.

[iterationlab]

You cannot view their home directory, but you can go directly into logs.

Look, I would never abuse this, I just want to know how to secure my own directory, and I want to let other people know that there is a real issue here.

Email sent, BTW. I did not intend to air dirty laundry on this thread. I genuinely feel like I should tell people about what I think is a real issue. If moderators disagree, feel free to delete the thread.

[Shaw Networks]

I'm surprised they allow full bash SSH access. If I were Dreamhost, I'd immediately yank everyone's SSH access till they get these access issues resolved.

[iterationlab]

I found this thread and it answers some of my questions. I'm sorry for the ruckus here. I still think dreamhost is pretty insecure, and their default file permissions don't help, but any admin, feel free to delete this thread.

[extras]

Previous host I was using had similar problem, and I insisted about it in their forum for a few weeks to change the setting (change the ownership of the files/dirs).
Fortunately, they made the change.

Similarly, if DreamHost change the owner of the directory, we can change the setting.
Judging from the fact that logs directory and it's contents are owned by the root,
I think they can be chowned and chmoded without causing any problem.

So, if they change the owner to each user and chmod 700 on all dirs and files in logs, it should be secure enough for a shared hosting, IMO.
It shouldn't be difficult to do these.

I was wrongly thinking that they were using grsec or pax or something to secure all our directories .....

[aldee]

Originally Posted by tectonic

I'm sorry for the ruckus here. I still think dreamhost is pretty insecure, and their default file permissions don't help, but any admin, feel free to delete this thread.

Why should you? Nobody who didn't even understand the basic concept of *NIX file system permissions should be providing hosting services to the public. The proper way of setting this kind of environment up would be assigning all user accounts to the same group and withdrawing group access permissions from home directories, not to simply assign them world execute permissions without world read permissions, which only forbids directory listings, but not accessing the actual contents. Also, revoking SSH access does not make any difference, if script execution is allowed.

[2Mhost]

I do not think any host offer shell access is secure!