full-disclosure - Re: OpenID. The future of authentication on the web?

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Message-ID: <0DF2CD24A27B798970578DC1@utd65257.utdallas.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:14:05 -0500
From: Paul Schmehl <pauls@...allas.edu>
To: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Subject: Re: OpenID. The future of authentication on the
	web?

--On Sunday, March 23, 2008 20:56:54 -0400 Larry Seltzer 
<Larry@...ryseltzer.com> wrote:

>>> The correct solution, IMO, would be an encrypted password vault,
> stored on a USB drive and only available through the use of a password
> and some other form of identification (biometric, etc.)
>
> What about kiosks and other situations where it wouldn't be secure to
> allow arbitrary people to insert USB keys?

You allow read-only access to USB keys.

> This vault requires a support
> system of some kind; does there need to be software on the system to
> read it?

Easily done on thumb drives that now contain gigs of memory.

> Do you trust that software?
>

No, but then I don't trust any software.

> This also presents the problem of when the user loses the key or if it
> fails. They had better have a backup of it. A service doesn't have any
> of these problems.
>

That's a weak excuse for avoiding responsibility.  Technology cannot solve 
every problem.  Nor should it.  At some point *people* have to learn how to 
properly use computers and the internet, just as they had to learn how to 
properly operate and maintain vehicles.

-- 
Paul Schmehl (pauls@...allas.edu)
Senior Information Security Analyst
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/

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