Re: store passwords securely in the internet

[Adam Mooz <adam.mooz () gmail com>]

Interesting idea, I like the concept but it's far, far too fragile of an idea to use without some form of strong VPN 
like IPSec.  Please take what I'm about to say as constructive criticism.  First, you should be enforcing HTTPS with 
plaintext fallback disabled on the server end, use a redirect to allow users to "use" the HTTP protocol (such as lazy 
CEO's, etc...) but they'll be redirected to the HTTPS site.  Second, could you please confirm that the passwords are 
sent back to the user decrypted (but in the https tunnel)?  You should have something setup client-side so the 
passwords NEVER get sent across the wire unencrypted.  Something like a two-factor authentication where there is a 
login password (which could be tied into AD) and a second password to decrypt the password when it's received, or some 
other form of two-factor authentication (PKI, dynamically generated one-time tokens, etc..) 

It sounds strange I agree, but having to remember only two passwords instead of the umpteen that need to be remember 
when working with servers that don't have AD sync is much easier.  If you send the password in clear text, even through 
an HTTPS tunnel, the risk for a MITM gaining your root password is huge.  By only transmitting an encrypted version of 
the password you get:
a) a token-based system where no matter how many times the user requests the password it never looks the same twice 
coming across the wire (even within the HTTPS tunnel.)  

Hope this helps and what I'm trying to say is clear enough,
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Adam Mooz
Adam.Mooz () gmail com
http://www.AdamMooz.com

On 2010-04-06, at 5:40 PM, Andre Pawlowski wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> I've written a program to store your passwords secure in a container on a server. It's written for the Horde 
> framework and is called eleusis ( http://h4des.org/index.php?inhalt=eleusis ). The idea was to have your passwords 
> everytime available when you are online even when you are using an internet cafe or a pc at work.
>
> When the user creates a passwordstore, he must give a masterpassword. With this masterpassword every password you 
> want to save will encrypt with blowfish. For every step (reading, writing) you have to enter the masterpassword, 
> because nothing will write unencrypted to the hard disk. The masterpassword is never stored. When the user entered 
> the masterpassword, the program will decrypt the container and check the header. If the header is correctly 
> decrypted, the program will continue its work, if not, it will show you an error message.
>
> The whole project is written in php. A weak point of the program is the http protocol. When the user doesn't use 
> https to transfer the data the passwords will send decrypted over the net.
>
> I hope there is any use for this program and I'm glad if anyone of you send me any critics or suggestions.
>
> Regards
>
> -- 
>
> Andre Pawlowski
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ordnung braucht nur der Dumme, das Genie beherrscht das Chaos.
>       -Albert Einstein
>
>
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