9.2.2. RPM as an IDS
The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is another program that can be used as a host-based IDS. RPM contains various options for querying packages and their contents. These verification options can be invaluable to an administrator who suspects that critical system files and executables have been modified.
The following list details some RPM options that can verify file integrity on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. Refer to the System Administrators Guide for complete information about using RPM.
Important
Some of the commands in the following list require the importation of the Red Hat GPG public key into the system's RPM keyring. This key verifies that packages installed on the system contain an Red Hat package signature, which ensures that the packages originated from Red Hat. The key can be imported by issuing the following command as root (substituting <version> with the version of RPM installed on the system):
rpm --import /usr/share/doc/rpm-<version>/RPM-GPG-KEYrpm -V package_name- The
-Voption verifies the files in the installed package calledpackage_name. If it shows no output and exits, this means that none of the files have been modified in any way since the last time the RPM database was updated. If there is an error, such as the followingS.5....T c /bin/ps
then the file has been modified in some way and you must assess whether to keep the file (such as with modified configuration files in the/etc/directory) or delete the file and reinstall the package that contains it. The following list defines the elements of the 8-character string (S.5....Tin the above example) that notifies of a verification failure..— The test has passed this phase of verification?— The test has found a file that could not be read, which is most likely a file permission issueS— The test has encountered a file that that is smaller or larger than it was when originally installed on the system5— The test has found a file whose md5 checksum does not match the original checksum of the file when first installedM— The test has detected a file permission or file type error on the fileD— The test has encountered a device file mismatch in major/minor numberL— The test has found a symbolic link that has been changed to another file pathU— The test has found a file that had its user ownership changedG— The test has found a file that had its group ownership changedT— The test has encounteredmtimeverification errors on the file
rpm -Va- The
-Vaoption verifies all installed packages and finds any failure in its verification tests (much like the-Voption, but more verbose in its output since it is verifying every installed package). rpm -Vf /bin/ls- The
-Vfoption verifies individual files in an installed package. This can be useful when performing a quick verification of a suspect file. rpm -K application-1.0.i386.rpm- The
-Koption is useful for checking the md5 checksum and the GPG signature of an RPM package file. This is useful for checking whether a package about to be installed is signed by Red Hat or any organization for which you have the GPG public key imported into a GPG keyring. A package that has not been properly signed triggers an error message similar to the following:application-1.0.i386.rpm (SHA1) DSA sha1 md5 (GPG) NOT OK (MISSING KEYS: GPG#897da07a)
Exercise caution when installing packages that are unsigned as they are not approved by Red Hat, Inc and could contain malicious code.
RPM can be a powerful tool, as evidenced by its many verification tools for installed packages and RPM package files. It is strongly recommended that the contents of the RPM database directory (
/var/lib/rpm/) be backed up to read-only media, such as CD-ROM, after installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Doing so allows verification of files and packages against the read-only database, rather than against the database on the system, as malicious users may corrupt the database and skew the results.
