Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 22:51:24 -0500 From: Peter Chiu <pccb@yahoo.com> To: "Crist J. Clark" <cjclark@reflexnet.net> Cc: Frank Tobin <ftobin@uiuc.edu>, cjclark@alum.mit.edu, Dru <genisis@istar.ca>, <security@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re[2]: opinions on password policies Message-ID: <58623706.20010113225124@ipfw.org> In-Reply-To: <20010113165021.I97980@rfx-64-6-211-149.users.reflexco> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0101131321210.89486-100000@genisis> <Pine.BSF.4.31.0101131726030.40290-100000@palanthas.neverending.org> <20010113165021.I97980@rfx-64-6-211-149.users.reflexco>
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Saturday, January 13, 2001, 7:50:21 PM, you wrote: CJC> On Sat, Jan 13, 2001 at 05:35:51PM -0600, Frank Tobin wrote: >> While this may not be applicable to your situation, I feel that the best >> policy is to demand public-key authentication. The reason for this is to >> limit the human factor, not demanding the user remember yet another unique >> password. If forced to remember another password, most users (including >> myself) will often re-use a password they use at another place. >> >> If your system is compromised, you do not to help the attackers, who are >> now likely, get into other accounts the user might have other places >> because they reused the pasword. On the flip side, it would be best that >> if the user was compromised someplace else, it won't help the attackers >> use the authentication information to get into the victim's account on >> your system. Public-key systems prevent this sort of "chain-reaction" >> account breakage. CJC> I am not sure I understand your argument here. I your system, how does CJC> the _user_ authenticate himself? Biometrics? HW token? Smart card? CJC> Really, no passwords? I think he means using a public-key pair without a passphrase. I could be wrong though. However, if the box that stores the private key is compromised, all other remote boxes that use that key pair are in danger. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
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