Single Password, Multiple Accounts Mohamed G. Gouda, Alex X. Liu, Lok M. Leung, Mohamed A. Alam Department of Computer Sciences The University of Texas at Austin June, 2005
Multiple Accounts Most users have multiple accounts on Internet Bank: http://www.chase.com Email: http://mail.yahoo.com Travel: http://www.travelocity.com Each account requires a password Insecure common practice: same password for all accounts To steal someone’s password, attackers can: set up a malicious server, or break into a low security server
Single Password Protocol (SPP) Allow a server to authenticate a client (without server knowing the client’s password at any time) Can counter the following: Malicious server attacks Password file attacks Message log attacks Server spoofing attacks
SPP Version 1 Currently used in HTTP Communication is encrypted using session key (SSL) Vulnerable to malicious server attacks C knows P S stores MD(P) C S: C, P
SPP Version 2 Use challenge/response Vulnerable to password file attacks C knows P S stores n, MD(n|P) C S: C C S: n C S: MD(n|P)
SPP Version 3 Vulnerable to message log file attacks C knows P S stores n, MD2(n|P) C S: C C S: n C S: MD(n|P)
SPP Version 4 Vulnerable to server spoofing attacks C knows P S stores ni, MD2(ni|P) C S: C C S: ni C S: MD(ni|P), ni+1, MD2(ni+1|P)
Server Spoofing Attacks Malicious server S knows: ni, MD2(ni|P) Benign server S’ knows: mi’, MD2(mi|P) C S S’ C C mi mi MD(mi|P), mi+1, MD2(mi+1|P) MD(mi|P), mi+1, MD2(mi+1|P)
Final Version SPP Two techniques: C knows P S stores ni, MD2(ni|S|P) Challenge/Response One-time server-specific tickets C knows P S stores ni, MD2(ni|S|P) C S: C C S: ni C S: MD(ni|S|P), ni+1, MD2(ni+1|S|P)
Related Work: One-Time Password Protocols Use different password for each authentication Protocols: [Lamport 81] [Rubin 95] Motivation: prevent eavesdropping Invented before SSL
Related Work: Strong Password Protocols Strong security properties Protocols: [Bellovin 92-EKE] [Wu 98-SRP]… Motivation Establish a session key (SPP uses SSL) Prevent dictionary attacks (SPP uses single strong password) Computational intensive (Not suitable for web) modular exponentiations, asymmetric encryptions/decryptions
Related Work: Single Sign-on Protocols Use one central server to authenticates clients for multiple servers. Thus one password/user. Protocols: Microsoft Password Protocol Disadvantages: Single point of failure Lacks of wide deployment High incentive for attackers
Conclusions Single Password Protocol (SPP) is Simple Efficient Secure