Re: sshd for windows

[ktabic <lists () ktabic co uk>]

> Thats totally true, but worthless.  Authentication isn't the problem, it's 
> the transmission that's in the clear, so now you're sending your loging name 
> and password in cleartext.  Sure, they're stored in NTLMv2 format at the 
> other end, but what does that matter if they just put a sniffer on the wire?

NTLMv2 is not the storage meathod of passwords in Windows 2k/XP, thats
what the SAM and the Active Directory do. NTLMv2 is a challenge/response
authentification meathod.
When connecting to a windows 2000 telnet server, from the windows
2000/XP telnet client, the authentification of the session is done via
NTLMv2. It goes like this:
Client: Opens TCP port to server and sends username
Server: Sends a random string of bytes to the client (called the
challenge)
Client: Prompts user for password (or just uses the users password
hash), hashes the password then uses the hash to encrypt the random
string of bytes. This encrypted string is sent back to the server. It is
called the Response
Server: Decrypts the received encrypted sting of bytes, using the
offical password hash that is stored on the server.
Server: If the decrypted random string of bytes matches the original
string of bytes that was sent to the client, the user is authentic. If
not the password was wrong, and the rest of the connection is refused.
At no point in the authentification, is the password itself sent in
plain text, nor is it sent in an encrypted form. All the
authentification is performed using hashes of the password as a key to
encrypt a random string. 
The server itself doesn't need to know the users password, just the
password hash, and that isn't sent from the the client machine, but is
already stored on the server (or the ADS)

ktabic
-- 
Woot!


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