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threat-modeling.md

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Threat Model Analysis for vitessio/vitess

Threat: VTGate Authentication Bypass

  • Description: An attacker exploits a vulnerability or misconfiguration in VTGate's authentication mechanism. They could potentially bypass authentication checks and gain unauthorized access to the Vitess cluster as if they were a legitimate application client. This could be achieved through exploiting code flaws, misconfigured authentication plugins, or weak default settings.
  • Impact: Unauthorized access to the entire Vitess cluster, potentially leading to data breaches, data manipulation, service disruption, and complete compromise of the application's data layer.
  • Affected Vitess Component: VTGate (Authentication Module)
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Implement strong authentication mechanisms for VTGate clients, such as mutual TLS or OAuth 2.0.
    • Regularly audit VTGate's authentication implementation for vulnerabilities.
    • Enforce strong password policies for any password-based authentication.
    • Properly configure and regularly update authentication plugins.
    • Perform penetration testing focusing on authentication bypass vulnerabilities.

Threat: VTTablet Authentication Weakness

  • Description: An attacker targets weak or missing authentication between VTGate and VTTablet, or within internal Vitess components. They could impersonate a legitimate component, intercept communication, or directly access VTTablet if exposed. This might involve exploiting vulnerabilities in inter-component communication protocols or leveraging weak default security settings.
  • Impact: Data interception, man-in-the-middle attacks, unauthorized access to VTTablet and potentially underlying MySQL shards, leading to data breaches, data manipulation, and service disruption.
  • Affected Vitess Component: VTGate-VTTablet Communication, VTTablet (Authentication Module), Internal Vitess Communication Channels
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Enforce mutual TLS (mTLS) for all inter-component communication within the Vitess cluster, including VTGate to VTTablet and VTTablet to MySQL.
    • Utilize strong authentication protocols for internal Vitess communication.
    • Regularly review and audit the security of inter-component communication channels.
    • Ensure proper network segmentation to limit exposure of internal Vitess components.

Threat: VTAdmin Unauthorized Access

  • Description: An attacker gains unauthorized access to VTAdmin, the Vitess administration interface. This could be due to weak or default credentials, exposed VTAdmin interface, or vulnerabilities in VTAdmin's authentication. Once accessed, the attacker can manage the entire Vitess cluster.
  • Impact: Complete control over the Vitess cluster, allowing attackers to manipulate data, disrupt service availability, exfiltrate data, and potentially compromise the underlying infrastructure.
  • Affected Vitess Component: VTAdmin (Authentication and Authorization Modules)
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Implement strong authentication and authorization for VTAdmin access, such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and OAuth 2.0.
    • Restrict network access to VTAdmin to authorized personnel and networks only.
    • Disable or remove default VTAdmin credentials.
    • Regularly audit VTAdmin access logs and authorization configurations.
    • Consider deploying VTAdmin behind a VPN or bastion host.

Threat: Privilege Escalation within Vitess

  • Description: An attacker with limited access to Vitess components (e.g., a compromised application client or a low-privileged user within the Vitess infrastructure) exploits vulnerabilities in VTGate, VTTablet, or VTAdmin to escalate their privileges. This could allow them to gain administrative control.
  • Impact: Gaining administrative control over Vitess, leading to data breaches, data manipulation, service disruption, and potential compromise of the underlying infrastructure.
  • Affected Vitess Component: VTGate (Authorization Module), VTTablet (Authorization Module), VTAdmin (Authorization Module)
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Follow the principle of least privilege when configuring Vitess roles and permissions.
    • Regularly audit and review Vitess authorization configurations.
    • Keep Vitess components updated with the latest security patches.
    • Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focusing on privilege escalation vulnerabilities.

Threat: Data Interception in Transit within Vitess Cluster

  • Description: An attacker intercepts data transmitted between Vitess components (VTGate, VTTablet, MySQL) if communication is not properly encrypted. This could be done through network sniffing or man-in-the-middle attacks within the Vitess cluster network.
  • Impact: Loss of data confidentiality, exposure of sensitive data transmitted within the Vitess cluster, potentially leading to data breaches.
  • Affected Vitess Component: VTGate-VTTablet Communication Channel, VTTablet-MySQL Communication Channel, Internal Vitess Communication Channels
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Enforce TLS/SSL encryption for all inter-component communication within the Vitess cluster.
    • Regularly verify that TLS/SSL is properly configured and enabled for all relevant connections.
    • Use secure network infrastructure and consider network segmentation to minimize the risk of network sniffing.

Threat: VTGate Denial of Service (DoS)

  • Description: An attacker floods VTGate with excessive requests, overwhelming its resources and causing it to become unresponsive. This can be achieved through various DoS techniques, exploiting resource limitations or vulnerabilities in VTGate's request handling.
  • Impact: Application unavailability, service disruption, and potential impact on business operations due to inability to access the database.
  • Affected Vitess Component: VTGate (Request Handling, Connection Management)
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Implement rate limiting and traffic shaping at VTGate or upstream load balancers.
    • Deploy VTGate behind a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to filter malicious traffic.
    • Ensure sufficient resource allocation (CPU, memory, network bandwidth) for VTGate.
    • Implement connection limits and timeouts to prevent resource exhaustion.
    • Monitor VTGate performance and resource utilization to detect and respond to DoS attacks.

Threat: Delayed Security Patching and Updates

  • Description: Failure to promptly apply security patches and updates to Vitess components and underlying dependencies (MySQL, etcd/Consul) leaves the system vulnerable to known exploits. Attackers can exploit publicly known vulnerabilities if patches are not applied in a timely manner.
  • Impact: Exposure to known security vulnerabilities, increased risk of exploitation by attackers, potentially leading to data breaches, service disruption, and other security incidents.
  • Affected Vitess Component: All Vitess Components, Underlying Dependencies (Operational Security, but directly impacts Vitess)
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Establish a process for timely security patching of Vitess components and dependencies.
    • Subscribe to security advisories for Vitess and related projects to stay informed about vulnerabilities.
    • Automate patch deployment where possible to reduce patching delays.
    • Regularly scan for vulnerabilities in Vitess components and dependencies.
    • Prioritize security patching in change management processes.