phc-discussions - Re: [PHC] Native server relief support for password hashing in browsers

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 02:28:20 +0400
From: Solar Designer <solar@...nwall.com>
To: discussions@...sword-hashing.net
Subject: Re: [PHC] Native server relief support for password hashing in browsers

On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 09:21:51PM +0000, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> Is client-side assistance without a secure tunnel ever practical ?

I think that if client-side assistance is practical with a secure tunnel
(and that's an "if", and will depend on use case), then it is likely
also practical without a secure tunnel.

Think of it this way: having a hash go over a potentially snooped upon
wire is no worse than having a plaintext go over the same wire, but it
may be better in two ways: by not immediately/always revealing the
plaintext (possibly reused elsewhere and allowing for access to more
than the target account) and by reducing server load (or increasing the
total amount of hashing performed on client+server combined, thereby
making password hashes at rest more resistant against offline attacks).

Then, having client-side heavy hashing is a prerequisite for more
advanced authentication schemes defeating replay and more (yet working
over a snoopable channel).  Yes, the salt will need to be sent to the
client, and that's a problem (which I've just commented on in the
previous message).  Yet it may be done, with mitigations in place and
tradeoffs considered.

> I spent a lot of time researching this some years back, and concluded
> that it wasn't worth it.

It may often be not worth it.  Not necessarily always.

Also, there are many Eves.  Failing to protect from some of them doesn't
mean we shouldn't protect from any.

That said, this may well be beyond scope of PHC (unless something
unexpectedly clever yet simple emerges), and Catena's builtin "server
relief" is only the tip of the iceberg.  It is very nice that Catena
standardizes just one hash type for both server-only and client+server
uses (without that functionality built in, it'd end up being 2+ hash
type variations), but it doesn't address the more complicated issues.

Alexander