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Free SSCP Exam Braindumps (page: 25)

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PDF with 1074 Questions

Which of the following is NOT true of the Kerberos protocol?

  1. Only a single login is required per session.
  2. The initial authentication steps are done using public key algorithm.
  3. The KDC is aware of all systems in the network and is trusted by all of them
  4. It performs mutual authentication

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

Kerberos is a network authentication protocol. It is designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key cryptography. It has the following characteristics:
It is secure: it never sends a password unless it is encrypted. Only a single login is required per session. Credentials defined at login are then passed between resources without the need for additional logins.
The concept depends on a trusted third party ­ a Key Distribution Center (KDC). The KDC is aware of all systems in the network and is trusted by all of them. It performs mutual authentication, where a client proves its identity to a server and a server proves its identity to the client.
Kerberos introduces the concept of a Ticket-Granting Server/Service (TGS). A client that wishes to use a service has to receive a ticket from the TGS ­ a ticket is a time-limited cryptographic message ­ giving it access to the server. Kerberos also requires an Authentication Server (AS) to verify clients. The two servers combined make up a KDC.
Within the Windows environment, Active Directory performs the functions of the KDC. The following figure shows the sequence of events required for a client to gain access to a service using Kerberos authentication. Each step is shown with the Kerberos message associated with it, as defined in RFC 4120 "The Kerberos Network Authorization Service (V5)".

Kerberos Authentication Step by Step
Step 1: The user logs on to the workstation and requests service on the host. The workstation sends a message to the Authorization Server requesting a ticket granting ticket (TGT).
Step 2: The Authorization Server verifies the user's access rights in the user database and creates a TGT and session key. The Authorization Sever encrypts the results using a key derived from the user's password and sends a message back to the user workstation.
The workstation prompts the user for a password and uses the password to decrypt the incoming message. When decryption succeeds, the user will be able to use the TGT to request a service ticket.
Step 3: When the user wants access to a service, the workstation client application sends a request to the Ticket Granting Service containing the client name, realm name and a timestamp. The user proves his identity by sending an authenticator encrypted with the session key received in Step 2.
Step 4: The TGS decrypts the ticket and authenticator, verifies the request, and creates a ticket for the requested server. The ticket contains the client name and optionally the client IP address. It also contains the realm name and ticket lifespan. The TGS returns the ticket to the user workstation. The returned message contains two copies of a server session key ­ one encrypted with the client password, and one encrypted by the service password.
Step 5: The client application now sends a service request to the server containing the ticket received in Step 4 and an authenticator. The service authenticates the request by decrypting the session key. The server verifies that the ticket and authenticator match, and then grants access to the service. This step as described does not include the authorization performed by the Intel AMT device, as described later.
Step 6: If mutual authentication is required, then the server will reply with a server authentication message.
The Kerberos server knows "secrets" (encrypted passwords) for all clients and servers under its control, or it is in contact with other secure servers that have this information. These "secrets" are used to encrypt all of the messages shown in the figure above. To prevent "replay attacks," Kerberos uses timestamps as part of its protocol definition. For timestamps to work properly, the clocks of the client and the server need to be in synch as much as possible. In other words, both computers need to be set to the same time and date. Since the clocks of two computers are often out of synch, administrators can establish a policy to establish the maximum acceptable difference to Kerberos between a client's clock and server's clock. If the difference between a client's clock and the server's clock is less than the maximum time difference specified in this policy, any timestamp used in a session between the two computers will be considered authentic. The maximum difference is usually set to five minutes.
Note that if a client application wishes to use a service that is "Kerberized" (the service is configured to perform Kerberos authentication), the client must also be Kerberized so that it expects to support the necessary message responses.
For more information about Kerberos, see http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/.


Reference:

Introduction to Kerberos Authentication from Intel
and
http://www.zeroshell.net/eng/kerberos/Kerberos-definitions/#1.3.5.3 and
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4120.txt



Which of the following is addressed by Kerberos?

  1. Confidentiality and Integrity
  2. Authentication and Availability
  3. Validation and Integrity
  4. Auditability and Integrity

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

Kerberos addresses the confidentiality and integrity of information. It also addresses primarily authentication but does not directly address availability.


Reference:

KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 42.
and
https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4120.txt
and
http://learn-networking.com/network-security/how-kerberos-authentication-works



Kerberos is vulnerable to replay in which of the following circumstances?

  1. When a private key is compromised within an allotted time window.
  2. When a public key is compromised within an allotted time window.
  3. When a ticket is compromised within an allotted time window.
  4. When the KSD is compromised within an allotted time window.

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

Replay can be accomplished on Kerberos if the compromised tickets are used within an allotted time window.
The security depends on careful implementation:enforcing limited lifetimes for authentication credentials minimizes the threat of of replayed credentials, the KDC must be physically secured, and it should be hardened, not permitting any non-kerberos activities.


Reference:

Official ISC2 Guide to the CISSP, 2007 Edition, page 184
also see:
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 42.



Like the Kerberos protocol, SESAME is also subject to which of the following?

  1. timeslot replay
  2. password guessing
  3. symmetric key guessing
  4. asymmetric key guessing

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

Sesame is an authentication and access control protocol, that also supports communication confidentiality and integrity. It provides public key based authentication along with the Kerberos style authentication, that uses symmetric key cryptography. Sesame supports the Kerberos protocol and adds some security extensions like public key based authentication and an ECMA-style Privilege Attribute Service.
The users under SESAME can authenticate using either symmetric encryption as in Kerberos or Public Key authentication. When using Symmetric Key authentication as in Kerberos, SESAME is also vulnerable to password guessing just like Kerberos would be. The Symmetric key being used is based on the password used by the user when he logged on the system. If the user has a simple password it could be guessed or compromise. Even thou Kerberos or SESAME may be use, there is still a need to have strong password discipline.
The Basic Mechanism in Sesame for strong authentication is as follow:
The user sends a request for authentication to the Authentication Server as in Kerberos, except that SESAME is making use of public key cryptography for authentication where the client will present his digital certificate and the request will be signed using a digital signature. The signature is communicated to the authentication server through the preauthentication fields. Upon receipt of this request, the authentication server will verifies the certificate, then validate the signature, and if all is fine the AS will issue a ticket granting ticket (TGT) as in Kerberos. This TGT will be use to communicate with the privilage attribute server (PAS) when access to a resource is needed.
Users may authenticate using either a public key pair or a conventional (symmetric) key. If public key cryptography is used, public key data is transported in preauthentication data fields to help establish identity.
Kerberos uses tickets for authenticating subjects to objects and SESAME uses Privileged Attribute Certificates (PAC), which contain the subject's identity, access capabilities for the object, access time period, and lifetime of the PAC. The PAC is digitally signed so that the object can validate that it came from the trusted authentication server, which is referred to as the privilege attribute server (PAS). The PAS holds a similar role as the KDC within Kerberos. After a user successfully authenticates to the authentication service (AS), he is presented with a token to give to the PAS. The PAS then creates a PAC for the user to present to the resource he is trying to access.


Reference:

http://srg.cs.uiuc.edu/Security/nephilim/Internal/SESAME.txt and
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 43.






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