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Message-ID: <000001c646e4$e9d02d20$0200a8c0@kpllaptop>
Date: Mon Mar 13 21:27:52 2006
From: lyal.collins at key2it.com.au (Lyal Collins)
Subject: HTTP AUTH BASIC monowall.
Although something else may have been intended by using the phrase
"password-authenticated key agreement", lets not forget that's all PKI is -
key agreement based on verifying a password.
At the server end, the site admins password is verified e.g. for SSL servers
At the client, if you're lucky, the user chose a hard to crack password.
That, and the access controls on each ndpoint is all that authenticates any
PKI-based schema.
Lyal
-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-bounces@...ts.grok.org.uk
[mailto:full-disclosure-bounces@...ts.grok.org.uk] On Behalf Of Jeremy
Bishop
Sent: Tuesday, 14 March 2006 8:02 AM
To: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] HTTP AUTH BASIC monowall.
On Monday 13 March 2006 12:37, you wrote:
> List,
> SSL is not a fix for the problem, SSL is just a way of evading the
> issue or hiding the hole. I can bypass SSL with a man in the middle
> attack (which I've already done several times). Once I bypass
I'm assuming that this is using unsigned or otherwise invalid
certificates, and relying on user ignorance or apathy to succeed.
> What is the solution to this problem? Is there a solution that
> does not require a different auth type?
SSL. (Done correctly.)
Any "solution" is likely to rely on public-key crypto and as such will
require a similar mechanism for verifying identity. If sufficiently
widespread, apathy and ignorance will render it vulnerable to the exact
same problems.
I suggest "password-authenticated key agreement" as a starting point for
research outside the traditional public-key methods. (Although, as far
as I can tell, it would require the "password" to be accessible to the
server so that the session can be set up. IOW, you get around the
problems of trusting a cert, but you're back to storing passwords in
plaintext.)
Jeremy
--
Rules build up fortifications behind which small minds create satrapies. A
perilous state of affairs in the best of times, disastrous during crises.
-- Bene Gesserit Coda
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