On 2009-Jan-5, at 2:03 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
I suspect the default should be to not expose those things. I
wasn't even aware that list creation through the web was possible. Based on the extremely novice questions I see posted to mailman-users on
occasion I suspect many potential Mailman admins are unaware of this as well.
I fear those admins are also the ones most likely to not create strong
passwords. Note that by default, it's not possible to create mailing lists
through the web even though the link exists. You have to create a
site password or 'list creators' password to enable this feature. A
site admin should know enough to set these passwords to something
strong and difficult to brute force. Still, the suggestions for disabling this CGI is easy enough, and if
you have shell access to create those passwords, you have shell
access to disable the CGI.
This seems like it might be more of a failure in documentation/
understanding than a failure in security. All this information is
readily available (both about the fact that you can create from the
web by default, and the fact that this can be disabled) but obviously
people aren't finding it or don't even know to look for it.
I'll try to poke around and figure out where to put it when I get home
from work. I'm guessing we could use some pointers in the install
guides? Or perhaps I should work up a short intro to mailman security
for new users who don't know the likely attack points?
Terri