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Mitigation Strategies Analysis for milvus-io/milvus

Mitigation Strategy: Enable and Enforce Milvus Authentication

Description:

  • Step 1: Modify the Milvus configuration file (milvus.yaml) to enable authentication. Locate the security section and set authorization.enabled to true.
  • Step 2: Restart the Milvus server for the configuration change to take effect.
  • Step 3: Use the Milvus CLI or SDK to create administrative users and roles. For example, using the CLI: create user --username <admin_username> --password <strong_password> --role admin.
  • Step 4: For each application or service connecting to Milvus, configure the client connection to include authentication credentials (username and password). This is typically done in the Milvus client SDK initialization.
  • Step 5: Regularly review and rotate user credentials according to your organization's password policy.

List of Threats Mitigated:

  • Unauthorized Access (High Severity): Prevents unauthorized users or applications from accessing Milvus data and functionalities.
  • Data Breaches (High Severity): Reduces the risk of data breaches due to unauthorized access to sensitive vector data.
  • Data Manipulation (Medium Severity): Mitigates the risk of unauthorized modification or deletion of vector data and metadata.

Impact:

  • Unauthorized Access: High reduction in risk.
  • Data Breaches: High reduction in risk.
  • Data Manipulation: Medium reduction in risk.

Currently Implemented:

  • Implemented in the development environment Milvus cluster. Configuration is managed via Ansible scripts in infrastructure/ansible/milvus/configure.yml. Application code in services/vector_search/milvus_client.py includes authentication logic using environment variables for credentials.

Missing Implementation:

  • Not yet fully implemented in the staging and production environments. Staging and production Milvus clusters are currently running without authentication enabled. Need to deploy updated configuration and application code to staging and production environments.

Mitigation Strategy: Implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Description:

  • Step 1: Plan and define roles based on the principle of least privilege. Identify different user groups and the minimum permissions required for each group to perform their tasks within Milvus (e.g., read-only access for data analysts, write access for data ingestion services).
  • Step 2: Use the Milvus CLI or SDK to create roles. For example: create role --role-name data_analyst.
  • Step 3: Grant specific permissions to each role. Permissions in Milvus are typically defined at the collection level and for specific operations (e.g., GRANT SELECT ON COLLECTION <collection_name> TO ROLE data_analyst).
  • Step 4: Assign users to the appropriate roles. For example: GRANT ROLE data_analyst TO USER <analyst_username>.
  • Step 5: Regularly review and update roles and permissions as application requirements and user responsibilities evolve. Audit role assignments periodically.

List of Threats Mitigated:

  • Privilege Escalation (Medium Severity): Limits the impact of compromised accounts by restricting their permissions to only what is necessary.
  • Insider Threats (Medium Severity): Reduces the potential damage from malicious or negligent insiders by enforcing least privilege.
  • Data Breaches (Medium Severity): Minimizes the scope of a potential data breach by limiting access to sensitive data based on roles.

Impact:

  • Privilege Escalation: Medium reduction in risk.
  • Insider Threats: Medium reduction in risk.
  • Data Breaches: Medium reduction in risk.

Currently Implemented:

  • Partially implemented. Basic roles like admin and public are used, but custom roles for specific application functionalities are not yet defined. Initial role definitions are in infrastructure/terraform/milvus/roles.tf.

Missing Implementation:

  • Need to define granular custom roles for different application components (e.g., data ingestion service role, query service role). Need to implement automated role assignment based on application service accounts. Missing detailed documentation and procedures for role management.

Mitigation Strategy: Enable Encryption in Transit (TLS/SSL)

Description:

  • Step 1: Obtain TLS/SSL certificates for your Milvus server and client applications. You can use certificates issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) or self-signed certificates for testing (not recommended for production).
  • Step 2: Configure Milvus server to enable TLS. In milvus.yaml, locate the server section and configure TLS settings, including paths to the server certificate and private key files. Set server.tls.enable to true.
  • Step 3: Restart the Milvus server.
  • Step 4: Configure Milvus client applications to use TLS when connecting to the Milvus server. This usually involves specifying the ssl=True option in the client connection parameters and potentially providing the path to the CA certificate file for verification.
  • Step 5: Ensure all communication channels with Milvus (gRPC, HTTP if applicable) are configured to use TLS.

List of Threats Mitigated:

  • Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks (High Severity): Prevents eavesdropping and data interception during communication between clients and the Milvus server.
  • Data Eavesdropping (High Severity): Protects sensitive vector data and metadata from being intercepted in transit.
  • Session Hijacking (Medium Severity): Reduces the risk of session hijacking by encrypting communication sessions.

Impact:

  • Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks: High reduction in risk.
  • Data Eavesdropping: High reduction in risk.
  • Session Hijacking: Medium reduction in risk.

Currently Implemented:

  • Implemented for external client connections to the staging and production Milvus clusters. TLS certificates are managed using Cert-Manager in Kubernetes. Client applications are configured to use TLS.

Missing Implementation:

  • Internal communication between Milvus components (e.g., between Milvus server and storage services like MinIO or etcd) might not be fully TLS encrypted. Need to verify and enable TLS for all internal Milvus communication paths. Missing automated certificate rotation for Milvus server certificates.

Mitigation Strategy: Regularly Update Milvus and Dependencies

Description:

  • Step 1: Establish a process for monitoring Milvus releases and security announcements. Subscribe to the Milvus security mailing list or watch the Milvus GitHub repository for security advisories.
  • Step 2: Regularly check for new Milvus versions and security patches.
  • Step 3: Develop a testing and deployment pipeline for applying Milvus updates. This should include testing updates in a non-production environment (e.g., development or staging) before deploying to production.
  • Step 4: Prioritize security updates and apply them promptly. For critical security vulnerabilities, implement emergency patching procedures.
  • Step 5: Keep track of Milvus dependencies (e.g., etcd, MinIO, Pulsar, operating system libraries) and ensure they are also regularly updated to their latest secure versions.

List of Threats Mitigated:

  • Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities (High Severity): Prevents attackers from exploiting publicly known vulnerabilities in Milvus or its dependencies.
  • Zero-Day Exploits (Medium Severity - Reduced Impact): While updates don't prevent zero-day exploits, they quickly address vulnerabilities once they are discovered and patched, reducing the window of opportunity for attackers.
  • Denial of Service (DoS) (Medium Severity): Some vulnerabilities can lead to DoS attacks. Updates often include fixes for such vulnerabilities.

Impact:

  • Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities: High reduction in risk.
  • Zero-Day Exploits: Medium reduction in impact (reduces exposure window).
  • Denial of Service (DoS): Medium reduction in risk.

Currently Implemented:

  • Partially implemented. We have a process for monitoring Milvus releases, but the update process is currently manual and not fully automated. Dependency updates are also performed manually.

Missing Implementation:

  • Need to automate the Milvus update process using infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines. Need to implement automated dependency scanning and update mechanisms. Missing a clear SLA for applying security patches.

Mitigation Strategy: Implement Comprehensive Logging

Description:

  • Step 1: Enable detailed logging for all Milvus components. Configure Milvus to log access attempts, authentication events, errors, and relevant operational events.
  • Step 2: Centralize Milvus logs using a log aggregation platform (e.g., Elasticsearch, Splunk, ELK stack).
  • Step 3: Configure security monitoring rules and alerts based on Milvus logs. Define alerts for suspicious activities such as failed authentication attempts, unusual query patterns, error spikes, and potential security incidents.
  • Step 4: Integrate Milvus logs and security alerts with a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system for centralized security monitoring and incident response.
  • Step 5: Regularly review logs and security alerts. Investigate suspicious events and respond to security incidents promptly. Tune monitoring rules and alerts as needed to improve detection accuracy and reduce false positives.

List of Threats Mitigated:

  • Security Incident Detection (High Severity): Enables timely detection of security breaches, unauthorized access attempts, and other security incidents within Milvus.
  • Incident Response (High Severity): Provides valuable Milvus specific logs and alerts for incident investigation and response related to Milvus.
  • Anomaly Detection (Medium Severity): Helps identify unusual behavior within Milvus that could indicate security threats or system malfunctions.

Impact:

  • Security Incident Detection: High reduction in risk (improves detection capability).
  • Incident Response: High reduction in risk (improves response capability).
  • Anomaly Detection: Medium reduction in risk (improves proactive security).

Currently Implemented:

  • Partially implemented. Milvus logs are collected and sent to a central logging system. Basic monitoring of Milvus metrics is in place.

Missing Implementation:

  • Need to implement more comprehensive security monitoring rules and alerts specifically tailored for Milvus. Need to integrate Milvus logs with a dedicated SIEM system. Missing automated incident response workflows triggered by security alerts related to Milvus events.