pace-it, security + 5.1: summary of authentication services

Summary of authentication services.

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– Function and purpose of authentication services.

– Authentication services.

PACE-IT

Function and purpose of authentication services.Summary of authentication services.

Function and purpose of authentication services.

A best practice in network security is to require authorization when access is desired either to the network or resources on the network.Authentication services are basically the first step in the

authorization process. Authentication services require requesters to prove that they are who they say they are by the submission of some type of credentials (e.g., usernames and passwords). The service then examines the credentials against a database.The database will contain information on which credentials the authentication service will accept. If accepted, one of two things occurs—the authorization is granted or the authentication service passes the approved credentials to an authorization service.


Authentication services.Summary of authentication services.

Authentication services.

Authentication services may be part of an AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) protocol.

AAA protocols will validate the credentials of the requester (authentication), grant access to the resource (authorization), and then log the requestor’s activity (accounting). All of these separate functions can be combined into a single protocol.In other cases, the individual services (i.e., authentication, authorization, and accounting) are actually separated. In this situation, the services will be set up in a manner in which they will pass information back and forth in order to form a holistic, secure environment.



– RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service).

» A remote access service that is used to authenticate remote users and grant them access to authorized network resources.

» It is a popular AAA protocol used to help ensure that only authenticated end users are using the network resources they are authorized to use.

• The accounting features are very robust.» Only the requester’s (the end user’s) password is

encrypted.

– TACACS+ (Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus).

» A remote access service that is used to authenticate remote devices and grant them access to authorized network resources.

» It is a popular AAA protocol used to help ensure that only authenticated remote network devices are using the network resources they are authorized to use.

• The accounting features are not as robust as those of RADIUS.

» All transmissions between devices are encrypted.



– Kerberos.» Authentication protocol, which uses TCP or UDP port

88.» A system of authentication and authorization that

works well in environments that have a lot of clients.» The Key Distribution Center (KDC) is the main

component.» The KDC has two parts—the authentication server (AS)

and the Ticket-Granting Service (TGS).» When a user logs in, a hash of his or her username and

password is sent to the AS; if the AS likes the hash, it responds with a ticket granting ticket (TGT) and a timestamp.

» The client sends the TGT with timestamp to the TGS.» The TGS responds with a service ticket (can also be

called an access token or just a token).» The service ticket (token) authorizes the user to access

specific resources.» As long as the TGT is still valid, the TGS will grant

authorization by issuing a new service ticket.



– LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol).

» A directory service protocol that can be used to authenticate clients.

• LDAP requests are sent over TCP port 389.» Applications that are LDAP compliant will validate

(authenticate) the client and then retrieve the requested information stored in the directory.

– Secure LDAP.» Encrypted version of LDAP using SSL (Secure Socket

Layer) over TCP port 636.• All communication between the client and LDAP is

secure.

– SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language).

» An XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard that is used to allow systems to exchange authentication and authorization information.


What was covered.Summary of authentication services.

Authentication services are the first step in the authorization process. Authentication services check to ensure that requesters are who they claim to be through a process of validating the requesters’ credentials (e.g., usernames and passwords) against information contained in a database. If the credentials are accepted, they are then passed onto the authorization service. If the credentials are rejected, so is the requester.

Topic

Function and purpose of authentication services.

Summary

Authentication services may form part of an AAA protocol. AAA protocols will perform authentication, authorization, and accounting services for networks and network resources. Popular authentication services include: RADIUS, TACACS+, Kerberos, LDAP, Secure LDAP, and SAML.


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