Steven H. Blackwell

FileMaker DevCon To Convene Against Backdrop Of Cyber-Attacks Across The Globe July 18th 2017 In just a few days, four generations of FileMaker developers and users from all over the world will gather for the 22nd Annual FileMaker DevCon, held this year in Phoenix, Arizona. We will do so against an unprecedented backdrop of critical security issues facing businesses and organizations all over the world. Organizations of all sizes and from every business sector are vulnerable. Small to medium-sized businesses are particularly so, especially in the areas of financial services, health care services, and retail services. Jeff John Roberts and Adam Lashinsky, the latter well-known as a chronicler of FileMaker, Inc.’s parent company, reported recently: …business is under assault like never before from hackers, and the cost and severity of the problem is escalating almost daily. (Cybersecurity: How Business Is Protecting Itself http://fortune.com/2017/06/22/cybersecurity-business-fights-back/) Bob Pisani, well-known business reporter for CNBC, also recently reported on a major cyber-attack: …snack food and beverage giant Mondelez International became the latest victim of a cyber attack. The company said it was hit with an attack on June 27 that compromised its ability to ship and send invoices during the last four days of its second quarter. What made this call unusual is that the company quantified exactly how much the attack hurt them: Its preliminary estimate of the impact indicates a 3 percent slice off its revenue growth rate for the quarter. (Cybersecurity stocks rally as global hackings start to impact corporate bottom lines http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/07/cybersecurity-stocks-rally-on-mondelez-hacking.html) Additionally, in May of 2018 developers and their client organizations on both sides of the Atlantic will become subject to the comprehensive General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) promulgated by the European Union (EU). Organizations that store data about EU citizens are bound by the GDPR strictures, irrespective of where the organization itself resides. It will remain to be seen how the EU is able to enforce those requirements outside its own boundaries. These issues, of course, also apply to platforms other than FileMaker. But as the developers, administrators, custodians, and users of business systems based on the FileMaker Platform, our principal concerns must be the identification and management of these issues. These are not principally technical or programming issues. They are—first and foremost—business issues: business criminal and civil liability, business continuity, and business reputation among them. · Organizations of every type face criminal and civil liability sanctions if a data breach occurs. · Some attacks and breaches can literally speaking put an organization out of business, rendering it unable to continue functioning and to provide its designated services. · Even if an organization is able to recoup and to continue, its reputation will be damaged and its brand diminished. As FileMaker developers we all have a responsibility to our clients to design our business solutions and to deploy and operate them with these security constraints in mind. As in-house developers and administrators, we likewise have the responsibility to our customers, our shareholders, our members, and our fellow employees to operate our database systems in a responsible and careful fashion. What are some of the more significant and damaging exploits that some Threat Agent could employ against FileMaker Platform business management solutions? And who are those Threat Agents? Threat Agents include a variety of actors, some malevolent, some hapless, some innocent: · Malicious Outsiders seeking financial gain or seeking to disrupt the organization’s business processes. · Malicious Insiders, current or former employees, or parts of an organization’s supply chain. · Inept Insiders who accidentally or unknowingly cause security-related incidents that damage, delete, or otherwise alter critical organizational data. · Threads in the Supply Chain where carelessness or poor security practices facilitate damage to our own organizational data and functioning. · Finally, although this by no means is a complete list, inattentive or unknowing developers, administrators, or custodians of FileMaker Platform business management solutions who do not follow Best Practices for Security and management of those systems. What type of exploits can Threat Agents employ that damage these solutions and thereby damage the organization as well? · Deleting of data, intentional or accidental. · Altering of data, either obvious or (more problematically) subtle in nature. · Extracting of data for competitive business purposes or for use for embarrassing or damaging the organization. · Adding of spurious data. · Manipulating of tracking processes for key business activities such as invoice or accounts payable processes. What can FileMaker Platform developers and administrators do to protect against these exploits, to lessen vulnerabilities, and to reduce risks of their occurring? Security Check Lists are almost always bad ideas, because they overlook the dynamic and on-going nature of vulnerabilities, threats, and risks. Nevertheless, here are a few items to consider: · Use FileMaker Server and invoke Encryption in Transit for data flowing across networks. · Employ Encryption at Rest on the database files. One of the most frequently used attack vectors is getting a copy of the files and performing attacks on them. · Use File Access Protection on all files in the business management solution to prevent unauthorized access to fields, tables, scripts, value lists, and similar schema elements. · Use finely-grained Privilege Sets. Respect the Rule of Least Privileges that states “Users should have all the privileges necessary successfully to fulfill their roles, but no more and no higher privileges.” Escalation of privileges is a major vulnerability. · Employ strong credentials to access the FileMaker business management solution. Use the tools that FileMaker, Inc. provides. Do not try to invent your own system for doing this. Those artificial or ersatz security systems are rife with vulnerabilities. This is particularly true of those that first grant access to the file, even at a diminished level of Privileges, and then require the user to take some actions or go through some process before using the system. · Remember that the User Interface is not part of the Security Schema. Just because you cannot see or change something via the UI does not mean that an Attacker cannot see it, alter it, or delete it. I will hope to see many of you at the Developer Conference. And I would be happy to discuss any of these items with you in greater detail. Steven H. Blackwell

In addition to what Wim has said, be sure you have a very rigorous backup system for your files. Given the apparent unreliability of the infrastructure where you are, this is vital. Always presume that an inelegant close of files has damaged them. Revert to the last known good backup. Sorry you have to work in these much less than optimal conditions. Steven

As Joshua Ormond points out, keeping credentials as data elements in a FileMaker Pro file is not a good idea. it can leave the information exposed and vulnerable to extraction by both authorized users and unauthorized users. Some folks last year developed a somewhat similar system that rapidly came upon a bad end as Josh points out in his BLOG, Eye on FileMaker: Additionally I have discussed some of these same items in various posts on my FileMaker Security BLOG: https://fmforums.com/blogs/entry/1652-security-vulnerabilities-of-filemaker-platform-api’s-an-update/ https://fmforums.com/blogs/entry/1619-protecting-filemaker-platform-business-solutions/ https://fmforums.com/blogs/entry/1535-the-filemaker-platform-api’s-are-your-friends-right/ Steven

This is a very risky proposition from the standpoint of security Best Practices. How do you plan to protect this file from unauthorized access by external users? How do you plan to protect the values in one user's record from being accessible by other authorized users? How do you plan to protect the files these credentials activate from being manipulated and forced open? That is to say, how do these credentials get transferred to the working files. The FileMaker Platform has a very robust security architecture developed and refined over many versions and years. I'd recommend you use that system and the protections it offers rather than some ersatz system. Steven H. Blackwell

You might want to review a new Tech Info about a number of significant behavior changes in FileMaker® Pro 16 and FileMaker® Server 16 compared to behaviors of prior versions: http://thefmkb.com/16316 Steven---Steven H. BlackwellPlatinum Member EmeritusFileMaker Business Alliance

Here is an Infographic showing the Security Schema of the FileMaker Platform at it now stands at Version 16.

There have been a number of reports of developers having difficulty logging into FileMaker® Pro 16 files with OAuth2 based Accounts once they have set up the services on FileMaker® Server 16. Briefly to review, developers can now specify Amazon, Google, or Azure Active Directory Accounts to validate Identity Assertions and gain admission to the file. However, users must understand that when using these OAuth2 Accounts that they do not enter the credentials in the normal place in the dialog. That locale is reserved for FileMaker Accounts and legacy External Server Authentication Accounts only. Instead, users should click the respective button for the Identity Service they are using as shown in the illustration. Once this is done, the authentication process can continue. Steven H. Blackwell Platinum Member Emeritus, FileMaker Business Alliance

One of the best new security features in the FileMaker 16 Platform is that, by default, several external Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are off and disabled. AppleEvents, ActiveX, and FMPURL Perform Script are all still there. But developers must specifically select and enable them. This feature prevents unauthorized manipulation and interaction with FileMaker Pro files, both stand-alone and hosted by FileMaker Server. Such manipulation can be used to alter data, destroy data, create data, run scripts, and in some instances, manipulate the User Interface. Such attacks can have significant impact on FileMaker Platform business solutions as described in FileMaker Security BLOG post found at http://fmforums.com/blogs/entry/1652-security-vulnerabilities-of-filemaker-platform-api’s-an-update/ If developers do use AppleEvents, ActiveX, or FMPURL Perform Script in solutions, and they wish to use FileMaker® Pro 16, then they must now specifically enable the desired Privilege Bit for these APIs. This can be done on a Privilege Set specific basis. If developers do not enable these privileges, then the solutions will not perform as designed. This is true irrespective of whatever settings might have been in earlier versions. To enable the specific privilege, go to Manage Security and select the Extended Privileges section. Then check the desired option, as shown here: Following this practice will allow the specific API to interact with the file as desired. Steven H. Blackwell Platinum Member Emeritus, FileMaker Business Alliance

The release of Version 16 of the FileMaker Platform brings with it a host of new security features reaching across the entire platform. FileMaker Platform developers as well as our customers and clients who are data owners need to take a variety of steps to protect their FileMaker Platform Business Solutions. Threat Agents of many varieties seek to exploit vulnerabilities that might exist in those solutions to compromise them, to steal data, to alter data, or to destroy data. Continued existence and functioning of the business itself, regulatory requirements, civil and criminal liability, and brand reputation protection all argue strongly for robust security. As we move more and more towards the Cloud and to Software as a Service, security as a fundamental business requirement will become more and more important. I do not want to see the loud and public dismissal of the FileMaker Platform from an organization as the result of a security breach that is otherwise preventable. I am very pleased to see the new security features in FileMaker Pro 16 for controlling external API’s. They allow developers to protect files from manipulation and compromise by unauthorized persons. This feature is of particular importance to developers of vertical-market business solutions as well as to any others offering demo or trial versions of their products. These new features help close vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit. This is a major and significant new security enhancement, and I commend FileMaker, Inc. for including it in the new release. Steven H. Blackwell

FileMaker 16 Platform Brings Significant New Security Features The release of Version 16 of the FileMaker Platform brings with it a host of new security features reaching across the entire FileMaker Platform, from FileMaker® Server 16 to FileMaker® Pro 16 to WebDirect™ and beyond. There are new controls on the use of three external Application Programming Interfaces (API’s): AppleEvents, ActiveX, and FMPURL. These controls significantly strengthen security in this area and prevent use of the API’s to manipulate and compromise the database files. There is a new option to encrypt individual fields in a table of the database. Developers must learn what this feature is and what it does and does not do. For example, it does not replace Encryption At Rest (EAR) for files. Version 16 also expands Federated Identity Management with the addition of three new Identity Services that can authenticate user identity assertions. Google Accounts, Amazon Accounts, and Azure Active Directory Accounts and Groups, can now validate such assertions. Again, developers must learn how this feature works and what it does and does not do. Read more in this new White Paper jointly authored by Wim Decorte and Steven H. Blackwell. Introduction To The Numerous Significant New Security Features In FileMaker Platform Version 16 that you can download from this link: http://fmforums.com/files/file/90-new-security-features-version-16/ You can also read more about the new OAuth2 Identity Assertion Validation options in a second White Paper also jointly authored by Wim Decorte and Steven H. Blackwell. Federated Identity Management OAuth Identity Providers in FileMaker 16 that you can download from this link: http://fmforums.com/files/file/91-oauth-identity-providers/ Wim Decorte will also be presenting a program at the 2017 DevCon on this topic. Steven H. Blackwell Platinum Member Emeritus, FileMaker Business Alliance