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Domain: cryptocard.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to cryptocard.com.

Stories · 3

  1. What Kind Of Remote Authentication Do You Use?

    Ask · Security · · posted by Cliff · from the show-the-credentials-please dept. · 36 comments
    Iphtashu Fitz asks: "I have worked for a number of companies that implement different types of security policies for remote access. This has ranged from simply setting up a PPTP server with static passwords to bastion hosts using authentication tokens like RSA Security's SecurID and CRYPTOCard's product by the same name. Most people agree that static passwords on a PPTP server aren't all that secure, and anyway it's not all that easy to integrate with Linux servers. SecurID and CRYPTOCard are much more secure because they use one-time passwords generated by hardware tokens. However, when I used SecurID it seemed that their tokens would regularly lose synchronization with the server (not to mention they would expire every two years or so and were expensive to replace). The CRYPTOCard keychain token doesn't have the synchronization problem that RSA's does but it's also a pain to use because of the way you enter a PIN into it. What kind of authentication system(s) do you use where you work? What do you like and hate about it? How would you make it better if you could?"

  2. What Kind Of Remote Authentication Do You Use?

    Ask · Security · · posted by Cliff · from the show-the-credentials-please dept. · 36 comments
    Iphtashu Fitz asks: "I have worked for a number of companies that implement different types of security policies for remote access. This has ranged from simply setting up a PPTP server with static passwords to bastion hosts using authentication tokens like RSA Security's SecurID and CRYPTOCard's product by the same name. Most people agree that static passwords on a PPTP server aren't all that secure, and anyway it's not all that easy to integrate with Linux servers. SecurID and CRYPTOCard are much more secure because they use one-time passwords generated by hardware tokens. However, when I used SecurID it seemed that their tokens would regularly lose synchronization with the server (not to mention they would expire every two years or so and were expensive to replace). The CRYPTOCard keychain token doesn't have the synchronization problem that RSA's does but it's also a pain to use because of the way you enter a PIN into it. What kind of authentication system(s) do you use where you work? What do you like and hate about it? How would you make it better if you could?"

  3. Strong Token-Based Authentication w/ Open Source Software?

    Ask · Security · · posted by Cliff · from the proper-security-access-is-required dept. · 87 comments
    durval asks: "I'm surveying token-based (2-factor) user authentication systems,and one of my prerequisites is that it must offer good support for open-source software (i.e, apart from any code that runs in the tokens themselves, all other software must either be standard open-source code --- like the RADIUS server -- or provided in source-code form, preferably under a GPL or BSD-like license). The other atribute is that it must integrate with RADIUS authentication."

    "So far I've found significant data for the following ones:

    OPIE, neé S/Key: ok, it's not a token-based system, but becomes very similar to one in functionality and security when you use a Palm handheld running PalmKEY or PilOTP (except that a Palm isn't tamper-proof hardware, but this is not a prerequisite for my application). The main problem I'm having with it is that I can't find an open-source RADIUS server that supports S/Key authentication, and the project seems mostly dead (no one is contributing anything anymore); on the positive side, it's a sound system with a published design that has withstood attack over the years, and it's completelly available under free terms [free both as in freedom and as in beer].

    SecurID: this is the most famous and most used token-based authentication system available. It's been around for the bigger part of 10 years, and it's very easy to use: the user has a key fob or similar device, and types the number displayed on it -- this number changes once per minute, and is time-synched with the server -- appended to a normal fixed password - called PIN is SecurID's parlance. Its main problem is that it's very open-source unfriendly: nothing is provided in source-code form, under any license, and the required ACE/Server software doesn't even run on open-source operating systems (the closest it comes to this is running on Sun Solaris, for those who consider it open-source). Also on the negative side, it's based on a "secret" (although allegedly heavily audited) hash algorithm, and there has been more than one rumour over the last years regarding vulnerabilities in the algorithm.

    CRYPTOcard: these guys use a challenge-response type of authentication mechanism, which I feel is inherently more secure than a time-based one like SecurID, if only because it's not displaying useable numbers all the time -- numbers which could be collected and used to exploit an hypothetical algorithm vulnerability, or else used -- in their 60-second window -- in conjunction with the PIN to impersonate the legitimate user). Also, the challenge/response algorithm is based on DES/3DES, which are good, public algorithms that have stood well the test of time (simple DES main problem is the key length, but 3DES solves that handly). Unfortunatelly, the company's open-source policy isn't very clear: they sell their own (closed-source) easyRADIUS server, and presently support no open-source alternatives (although they have promised support for freeRADIUS "real soon now").

    So, has any of you experience -- good or bad -- with token-based (or similar) strong user authentication in open-source environments? I'm specially interested in hearing from people who managed to implement RADIUS authentication using S/Key; I'm also interested in hearing people's experiences with CryptoCARD or similar systems; for the reasons exposed above, I intend to keep my distance from SecurID and similarly expensive and "black-box" closed-source systems.

    Thanks in advance to everybody; If you would rather comment privately, feel free to contact me by email (just substitute the AT and DOTs with the appropriate symbol and punctuations), and if you want to send it encrypted, my PGP key is on the servers, and can also be retrieved here."