From owner-freebsd-security Wed Jun 19 7:58:53 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Received: from flood.ping.uio.no (flood.ping.uio.no [129.240.78.31]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 530B737B401 for ; Wed, 19 Jun 2002 07:58:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: by flood.ping.uio.no (Postfix, from userid 2602) id 55F185361; Wed, 19 Jun 2002 16:58:44 +0200 (CEST) X-URL: http://www.ofug.org/~des/ X-Disclaimer: The views expressed in this message do not necessarily coincide with those of any organisation or company with which I am or have been affiliated. To: Michael Sierchio Cc: Eric F Crist , 'Ryan Thompson' , freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Password security References: <000c01c2174c$5a38f230$77fe180c@armageddon> <3D109329.8050007@tenebras.com> From: Dag-Erling Smorgrav Date: 19 Jun 2002 16:58:43 +0200 In-Reply-To: <3D109329.8050007@tenebras.com> Message-ID: Lines: 30 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/21.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Michael Sierchio writes: > Dag-Erling Smorgrav wrote: > > 1) Biometrics can't be used reliably for remote access. > There are zero-knowledge protocols for secure remote use of > biometric data. Most fingerprint scanners don't even encrypt the data they send to the computer they're connected to. > > 2) I don't know of any currently available biometric authentication > > device that can't be easily fooled. > Somewhat misleading -- any biometric method of identification > has false positives and false negatives. For software engineers, > this seems unacceptable, since we're used to boolean values > for Truth. When "false positives" includes reliably identifying a laptop showing an AVI of a talking person (for one facial recognition system I know of) or a plastic bag filled with warm water (for one fingerprint scanner I know of) as the rightful user, they fall under my definition of "useless". I know of two independent studies in which all the biometric devices tested (about a dozen in each study, with some overlap) were fooled with very simple means. The only biometric authentication system I trust (to some degree, anyway) is the human brain. DES -- Dag-Erling Smorgrav - des@ofug.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message