Computer Security:

Principles and Practice

Fourth Edition, Global Edition

By: William Stallings and Lawrie Brown

Chapter 3
User Authentication
NIST SP 800-63-3 (Digital Authentication
Guideline, October 2016) defines digital user
authentication as:

“The process of establishing confidence

in user identities that are presented
electronically to an information system.”
(Table can be found on page 65 in the textbook)
 The four means of authenticating user
identity are based on:
Something the Something the Something the Something the
individual individual individual is individual does
knows possesses (static (dynamic
• Password, PIN, (token) biometrics) biometrics)
answers to • Smartcard, • Fingerprint, • Voice pattern,
prearranged electronic retina, face handwriting,
questions keycard, physical typing rhythm
key
 Risk Assessment for
User Authentication

• There are three Assuranc

e Level
separate
concepts:
Potential
impact

Areas of
risk
 Assurance Level
More
specifically is
Four levels of
defined as: assurance
Describes an
organization’s Level 1
degree of The degree of confidence • Little or no confidence in the
asserted identity's validity
certainty that a in the vetting process
used to establish the
user has identity of the individual
to whom the credential Level 2
presented a was issued • Some confidence in the asserted
identity’s validity

credential that
refers to his or Level 3
• High confidence in the asserted
her identity The degree of confidence identity's validity
that the individual who
uses the credential is the
individual to whom the Level 4
credential was issued • Very high confidence in the
asserted identity’s validity
 Potential Impact
• FIPS 199 defines three levels of potential impact on
organizations or individuals should there be a breach
of security:
o Low
• An authentication error could be expected to have a limited adverse
effect on organizational operations, organizational assets, or
individuals
o Moderate
• An authentication error could be expected to have a serious adverse
effect
o High
• An authentication error could be expected to have a severe or
catastrophic adverse effect
 Table 3.2

Maximum Potential Impacts for Each

Assurance Level
 Password-Based
Authentication
• Widely used line of defense against intruders
o User provides name/login and password
o System compares password with the one stored for that specified login

• The user ID:

o Determines that the user is authorized to access the system
o Determines the user’s privileges
o Is used in discretionary access control
Password Vulnerabilities
Offline Password
guessing Workstation Electronic
dictionary against hijacking monitoring
attack single user

Exploiting
Specific Popular Exploiting
multiple
account password user
password
attack attack mistakes
use
UNIX Implementation
Original scheme
• Up to eight printable characters in length
• 12-bit salt used to modify DES encryption into a
one-way hash function
• Zero value repeatedly encrypted 25 times
• Output translated to 11 character sequence

Now regarded as inadequate

• Still often required for compatibility with existing
account management software or multivendor
environments
 Improved
Implementations
OpenBSD uses Blowfish
block cipher based hash
algorithm called Bcrypt
• Most secure version of Unix
hash/salt scheme
Much stronger hash/salt • Uses 128-bit salt to create 192-bit
schemes available for Unix hash value

Recommended hash function

is based on MD5
• Salt of up to 48-bits
• Password length is unlimited
• Produces 128-bit hash
• Uses an inner loop with 1000
iterations to achieve slowdown
Password Cracking
Dictionary attacks Rainbow table
• Develop a large attacks
dictionary of possible • Pre-compute tables of
passwords and try each hash values for all salts
against the password file • A mammoth table of
• Each password must be hash values
hashed using each salt • Can be countered by
value and then using a sufficiently large
compared to stored hash salt value and a
values sufficiently large hash
length

Password crackers John the Ripper

exploit the fact that • Open-source password
people choose easily cracker first developed in
guessable passwords in 1996
• Uses a combination of
• Shorter password
brute-force and
lengths are also easier to dictionary techniques
crack
 Modern Approaches
• Complex password policy
o Forcing users to pick stronger passwords

• However password-cracking techniques have also

improved
o The processing capacity available for password cracking has increased
dramatically
o The use of sophisticated algorithms to generate potential passwords
o Studying examples and structures of actual passwords in use
Password File Access Control
Can block offline guessing attacks by denying access to
encrypted passwords

Vulnerabilities
Make
available
only to
privileged
users

Weakness Accident Users with

Access Sniff
in the OS with same
from passwords
Shadow that allows permission password
backup in network
password access to s making it on other
media traffic
file the file readable systems
 Password Selection Strategies
User education
Users can be told the importance of using hard to guess passwords and can be provided with guidelines for selecting strong passwords

Computer generated passwords

Users have trouble remembering them

Reactive password checking

System periodically runs its own password cracker to find guessable passwords

Complex password policy

User is allowed to select their own password, however the system Goal is to eliminate guessable passwords while allowing the user to
checks to see if the password is allowable, and if not, rejects it select a password that is memorable
 Proactive Password
Checking
• Rule enforcement
o Specific rules that passwords must adhere to

• Password checker
o Compile a large dictionary of passwords not to use

• Bloom filter
o Used to build a table based on hash values
o Check desired password against this table
 Table 3.3

Types of Cards Used as Tokens

 Memory Cards
• Can store but do not process data
• The most common is the magnetic stripe card
• Can include an internal electronic memory
• Can be used alone for physical access
o Hotel room
o ATM
• Provides significantly greater security when combined with a
password or PIN
• Drawbacks of memory cards include:
o Requires a special reader
o Loss of token
o User dissatisfaction
 Smart Tokens
• Physical characteristics:
o Include an embedded microprocessor
o A smart token that looks like a bank card
o Can look like calculators, keys, small portable objects
• User interface:
o Manual interfaces include a keypad and display for
human/token interaction

• Electronic interface
o A smart card or other token requires an electronic interface to communicate with a
compatible reader/writer
o Contact and contactless interfaces
• Authentication protocol:
o Classified into three categories:
• Static
• Dynamic password generator
• Challenge-response
 Smart Cards
• Most important category of smart token
o Has the appearance of a credit card
o Has an electronic interface
o May use any of the smart token protocols

• Contain:
o An entire microprocessor
• Processor
• Memory
• I/O ports
• Typically include three types of memory:
o Read-only memory (ROM)
• Stores data that does not change during the card’s life
o Electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM)
• Holds application data and programs
o Random access memory (RAM)
• Holds temporary data generated when applications are executed
 Electronic Identity Cards
(eID)
Use of a smart card as a national Most advanced deployment is the
identity card for citizens German card neuer Personalausweis

Can serve the same purposes as other national Has human-readable data printed on its
ID cards, and similar cards such as a driver’s surface
license, for access to government and • Personal data
commercial services • Document number
• Card access number (CAN)
• Machine readable zone (MRZ)

Can provide stronger proof of identity and can

be used in a wider variety of applications

In effect, is a smart card that has been verified

by the national government as valid and
authentic
 Table 3.4

Electronic
Functions
and Data
for
eID Cards

CAN = card access number

MRZ = machine readable zone
PACE = password authenticated connection establishment
PIN = personal identification number
 Password Authenticated
Connection Establishment (PACE)

For offline applications,

either the MRZ printed
on the back of the card
For online applications, or the six-digit card
access is established by access number (CAN)
the user entering the 6- printed on the front is
Ensures that the digit PIN (which should used
contactless RF chip in only be known to the
the eID card cannot be holder of the card)
read without explicit
access control
 Biometric Authentication
• Attempts to authenticate an individual based on unique
physical characteristics
• Based on pattern recognition
• Is technically complex and expensive when compared to
passwords and tokens
• Physical characteristics used include:
o Facial characteristics
o Fingerprints
o Hand geometry
o Retinal pattern
o Iris
o Signature
o Voice
Remote User Authentication
• Authentication over a network, the Internet, or a
communications link is more complex
• Additional security threats such as:
o Eavesdropping, capturing a password, replaying an
authentication sequence that has been observed

• Generally rely on some form of a challenge-response

protocol to counter threats
 Table 3.5
Some Potential
Attacks,
Susceptible
Authenticators,
and
Typical Defenses

(Table is on page 96 in the textbook)

 Eavesdropping
Adversary attempts to
learn the password by
some sort of attack that
Denial-of-Service involves the physical Host Attacks
proximity of user and
Directed at the user
adversary
file at the host where
Attempts to disable a passwords, token
user authentication passcodes, or
service by flooding the biometric templates
service with numerous are stored
authentication AUTHENTICATI
attempts
ON
SECURITY
Trojan Horse ISSUES
An Replay
application or physical Adversary repeats a
device masquerades as Client Attacks previously captured
an authentic user response
application or device Adversary attempts to
for the purpose of achieve user
capturing a user authentication
password, passcode, or without access to the
biometric remote host or the
intervening
communications path
Case Study:

ATM
Security
Problems
 Summary
• Digital user authentication • Biometric authentication
principles o Physical characteristics used in
o A model for digital user authentication biometric applications
o Means of authentication o Operation of a biometric
o Risk assessment for user authentication authentication system
o Biometric accuracy
• Password-based
• Remote user authentication
authentication o Password protocol
o The vulnerability of passwords
o Token protocol
o The use of hashed passwords
o Static biometric protocol
o Password cracking of user-chosen
o Dynamic biometric protocol
passwords
o Password file access control • Security issues for user
o Password selection strategies authentication
• Token-based authentication
o Memory cards
o Smart cards
o Electronic identity cards