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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for apache/skywalking

Attack Surface: Data Ingestion Endpoints (gRPC/HTTP)

  • Description: The exposed endpoints on the OAP server that receive data from SkyWalking agents.
  • How SkyWalking Contributes: SkyWalking requires these endpoints to function, making them an inherent and unavoidable part of its attack surface. The volume and nature of data sent directly impact the risk.
  • Example: An attacker floods the gRPC endpoint with malformed trace data, causing the OAP server to crash, disrupting monitoring.
  • Impact: Denial of service (OAP server unavailable), potential data loss, disruption of monitoring capabilities.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Rate Limiting: Implement strict rate limiting on the ingestion endpoints.
    • Input Validation: Rigorously validate all incoming data, rejecting anything malformed or unexpected. Define and enforce strict data schemas.
    • Authentication: Mandatory agent authentication using strong mechanisms (e.g., mutual TLS, regularly rotated API keys).
    • Network Segmentation: Isolate the OAP server on a dedicated network segment with tightly controlled access.
    • Firewall Rules: Restrict access to the ingestion endpoints to only authorized agent IPs/networks.
    • IDS/IPS: Deploy intrusion detection/prevention systems to monitor and block malicious traffic.

Attack Surface: Storage Backend (Database) - SkyWalking's Data Handling

  • Description: The database used by the OAP server to store collected data, specifically focusing on how SkyWalking interacts with it.
  • How SkyWalking Contributes: SkyWalking's data storage logic and query patterns directly influence the attack surface of the underlying database. Misconfigurations or vulnerabilities in SkyWalking's database interaction can expose the database.
  • Example: A vulnerability in SkyWalking's data sanitization logic allows an attacker to inject malicious data that, when stored and later queried, triggers a vulnerability in the database (e.g., a stored XSS attack if the database is used to render UI elements).
  • Impact: Data breach, data loss, data tampering, potential compromise of the monitored application (if sensitive data is exposed).
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Least Privilege (SkyWalking's Database User): Ensure the database user account used by SkyWalking has absolutely minimal permissions – only what's needed for its specific operations. Avoid granting administrative or overly broad privileges.
    • Prepared Statements/Parameterized Queries: SkyWalking must use prepared statements or parameterized queries for all database interactions to prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities. This is a fundamental security requirement.
    • Input Validation (Before Storage): SkyWalking must rigorously validate all data before storing it in the database, even if it has already been validated at the ingestion endpoint. This provides defense-in-depth.
    • Output Encoding (When Retrieving Data): If SkyWalking retrieves data from the database for display in a UI or other output, it must properly encode that data to prevent XSS or other injection attacks.
    • Regular Audits of SkyWalking's Database Interactions: Specifically audit the code responsible for interacting with the database to identify potential vulnerabilities.

Attack Surface: Query Interface (GraphQL/REST)

  • Description: The API (GraphQL or REST) used to query the data collected by SkyWalking.
  • How SkyWalking Contributes: This interface is a core component of SkyWalking, providing access to the collected data. Its design and implementation directly determine its security.
  • Example: An attacker exploits a vulnerability in the GraphQL query parser to execute arbitrary code on the OAP server.
  • Impact: Denial of service, information disclosure, unauthorized data access, potential for remote code execution.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Authentication and Authorization: Strong authentication and fine-grained authorization (RBAC) are mandatory.
    • Rate Limiting: Limit the rate and complexity of queries.
    • Input Validation: Strictly validate all query parameters and structures.
    • Disable Introspection (GraphQL): Disable GraphQL introspection in production.
    • Query Complexity Limits (GraphQL): Enforce strict limits on query complexity and depth.
    • Auditing: Log all queries for security analysis and incident response.

Attack Surface: Agent-to-OAP Communication

  • Description: The communication channel between the SkyWalking agents and the OAP server.
  • How SkyWalking Contributes: This is the fundamental data pipeline of SkyWalking; its security is essential for the integrity of the entire system.
  • Example: An attacker intercepts unencrypted communication between an agent and the OAP server, stealing sensitive trace data.
  • Impact: Data tampering, data loss, compromised monitoring data, potential for further attacks.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Mandatory TLS Encryption: Enforce TLS encryption with strong, modern ciphers for all agent-to-OAP communication. Do not allow unencrypted connections.
    • Certificate Verification: Agents must rigorously verify the OAP server's certificate, and vice-versa (mutual TLS is strongly recommended).
    • Agent Authentication: Require agents to authenticate with the OAP server using strong credentials.

Attack Surface: Agent Vulnerabilities (RCE)

  • Description: Vulnerabilities within the SkyWalking agent's code itself, specifically those that could lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE).
  • How SkyWalking Contributes: The agent runs within the monitored application's process, making RCE vulnerabilities extremely high-impact. The agent's code is the direct source of this risk.
  • Example: An attacker exploits a buffer overflow in the SkyWalking agent to execute arbitrary code within the context of the monitored application, gaining full control.
  • Impact: Complete compromise of the monitored application, potential for lateral movement within the network, data exfiltration, etc.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Immediate Agent Updates: Apply security updates to SkyWalking agents immediately upon release. This is the most critical mitigation.
    • Rigorous Code Reviews: Conduct thorough security-focused code reviews of the agent's codebase.
    • Security Testing (SAST/DAST/IAST): Employ static, dynamic, and interactive application security testing tools to identify vulnerabilities in the agent.
    • Least Privilege (Application Context): Run the monitored application (and therefore the agent) with the absolute minimum necessary privileges. This limits the impact of a successful exploit.
    • Dependency Management: Regularly scan and update third-party dependencies of the agent.