Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!midway!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jon From: jon@athena.mit.edu (Jon A. Rochlis) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.dev-environ Subject: Re: ISODE patches for Kerberos Keywords: Kerberos Message-ID: <1991Jan15.191554.29294@athena.mit.edu> Date: 15 Jan 91 19:15:54 GMT References: <9101130147.aa02165@stork.doc.ic.ac.uk> Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Distribution: inet Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 13 While it's nice to see people adapting Kerberos for their needs, I must point out two problems with this use of Kerberos: 1) You're not getting any increase in security because you are still sending the user's password in the clear. The only thing you're gaining is not having to maintain a password file(s). 2) Just getting an initial ticket is not sufficent to prove your identity. You've violated the basic assumption of client/server *each* sharing a secret with the KDC. Where there's only one secret the user can spoof the KDC and fool the server in question. Take a look at MIT's ksu.c for a way around this (which requires the server to have a secret).