Understanding Various Authentication Methods in Network Security

1. COEN 350: Network Security Authentication

2. Authentication • Between human and machine • Between machine and machine

3. Human Machine Authentication • Authentication protocols are based on • What you know. • E.g. password, pass-phrase, (secret key, private key). • What you have. • Physical key, smart card. • What you are. • Biometrics. • Where you are. • E.g. trusted machine, access to room, …

4. Authentication • Passwords • Predate computers. • As do some attacks (stealing, guessing) • Older cell phone technology transmits originating number with a password. • Password good, call goes through. • Eavesdropper receives phone number – password combination. • Eavesdropper can now clone the phone.

5. Authentication • Password Attacks • Guessing • On-line • Time consuming. • Authentication attempts are usually logged. • Can detect attack long before it is likely to succeed. • Can disrupt the attack. • Off-line • Attacker needs to steal relevant data from which password(s) can be determined. • Attacker can use arbitrary amount of computing power. • Capturing Passwords • Eavesdropping • Login Trojan Horse

6. Authentication • Passwords are stored • On each server Alice uses. • Centrally: Authentication Storage Node: • Each server retrieves the information when it wants to authenticate Alice. • Centrally: Authentication Facilitator Node: • Each server takes Alice’s data and password and goes to the AFN.

7. Authentication • Password can be stored • Unencrypted • Simple • Dangerous • Implicitly as hashes of passwords • As in UNIX, VMS • Encrypted • Hashed and Encrypted

8. Authentication • Example: Network Information Service • (Yellow Pages) • Directory service is the authentication storage node. • Stores hashed passwords of users. • Typically, hashed passwords list is world readable • Access by claiming to be a server. • NIS authentication storage node does not authenticate itself to users. • Allows impersonation of authentication service.

9. Authentication • Passwords for machine – machine communication can be made difficult to guess. • Arbitrary length • Truly random choice of characters. • Human-machine passwords • Guessable • Subject to dictionary attack.

10. Authentication • Dictionary attack • Most passwords are natural language words. • Or derived from natural language words. • Guess the language. • Use a dictionary to try out all words in the language. • Start with common passwords first. • Replace a single character in a word, attach a random character, etc.

11. Authentication • Brute-Force Attack • Generate all possible password. • Sometimes make assumptions on the alphabet • only printable character • characters on a key-board

12. Authentication • Salting • Protects hashed passwords against an offline attack. • Brute Force attack attacks all passwords in password file simultaneously.

13. Authentication • Salting • Store a salt with each password • Hash depends on salt and password. • Use different salts for different passwords. • Store salt with password.

14. Authentication • Salting • Brute force attack, dictionary attack can only attack a single password.

15. Authentication • Rainbow tables • Simple idea: • precompute hashes for all possible passwords, • do a look-up in your precomputed table • To be useful: Lookup table needs to be simple • Use a “reduce” function that maps hashes to passwords • Create a chain: • Starts with password pwd. • Next element is hash(reduce(hash(pwd)) • Next one is hash(reduce(hash(reduce(hash(pwd))))) • … • Do this a few thousand times and only store pwd and last element in chain

16. Authentication • Rainbow tables • To be useful: Lookup table needs to be simple (continued) • Assume now a hash of an unknown password • hash(pwd) • Check whether it is a terminal hash • If not, calculate hash(reduce(hash(pwd)) • Check whether it is a terminal hash • Repeat until you find a terminal hash with password orgpwd. • You know that • pwd  {orgpwd, hash(reduce(hash(orgpwd)), … }

17. Authentication • Passwords are compromised: • By obtaining password file. • Safeguard by • Hashing and Salting • Encryption • By eavesdropping on an exchange • Use one-way passwords: • Lamport Hash

18. Authentication • Address Based • Common in early UNIX • Rtools: • .rhosts • In user home directory • (Computer, Account) pairs • These pairs are allowed access to the user’s account • /etc/hosts.equiv • List of network addresses of “equivalent” machines • Account name on A is equivalent to account name on B. • Users have to have identical account names.

19. Authentication • Addressed based authentication threatened by • Access escalation • Attacker gains access to one hosts. • Access cascades to equivalent hosts / rhosts. • Spoofing addresses • Very easy to spoof source address. • Harder to intercept traffic back.

20. Authentication • Ethernet network address impersonation • Easy on the same link. • Hubs do not protect. • Switches can be spoofed through the ARP protocol. • Routers are harder to fool, but can be attacked and provided with misleading routing data.

21. Authentication • Cryptographic authentication • Alice proves her identity to Bob by proving to Bob that she knows a secret. • Hashes • Secret key cryptography • Public key cryptography.

22. Human Machine Authentication • Initial password distribution to humans • Pre-expired, strong passwords • Through mail • Derivable from common knowledge • Student ID

23. Human Machine Authentication • Authentication Token • Possession of the token proves right to access. • Magnetic stripe as on credit cards. • Harder to reproduce • “Impossible” to guess • Demand special hardware • Can be lost or stolen • Add pin or password protection • Are not safe against communication eavesdropping and forging

24. Human Machine Authentication • Authentication Token • Smart Card. • Needs to be inserted in a smart card reader. • Card authenticates to the smart card reader. • PIN protected smart cards. • Stops working after a number of false PINs. • Cryptographic challenge / response cards • Card contains a cryptographic key. • Authenticating computer issues a challenge. • Card solves the challenge after PIN is entered. • Harder to crack than PIN protected smart cards because key is never revealed.

25. Human Machine Authentication • Authentication Token • Smart Card. • Readerless smart card (Cryptographic calculator) • Communicates with owner through mini-keyboard and display. • Authenticating computer issues a challenge to Alice. • Alice types in challenge into readerless smart card. • Readerless smart card solves the challenge. • After Alice puts in her password. • Alice transfers the answer to the computer.

26. Human Machine Authentication • Biometrics • Retinal scanner • Fingerprint reader • Face recognition • Iris scanner • Handprint readers • Voiceprints • Keystroke timing • Signatures