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53 lines
2.8 KiB
Text
53 lines
2.8 KiB
Text
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Kerberos is a network authentication protocol. It is designed to
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provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using
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secret-key cryptography. A free implementation of this protocol is
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available from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kerberos is
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available in many commercial products as well.
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The Internet is an insecure place. Many of the protocols used in the
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Internet do not provide any security. Tools to "sniff" passwords off
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of the network are in common use by malicious hackers. Thus,
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applications which send an unencrypted password over the network are
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extremely vulnerable. Worse yet, other client/server applications rely
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on the client program to be "honest" about the identity of the user
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who is using it. Other applications rely on the client to restrict its
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activities to those which it is allowed to do, with no other
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enforcement by the server.
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Some sites attempt to use firewalls to solve their network security
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problems. Unfortunately, firewalls assume that "the bad guys" are on
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the outside, which is often a very bad assumption. Most of the really
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damaging incidents of computer crime are carried out by insiders.
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Firewalls also have a significant disadvantage in that they restrict
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how your users can use the Internet. (After all, firewalls are simply
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a less extreme example of the dictum that there is nothing more secure
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then a computer which is not connected to the network --- and powered
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off!) In many places, these restrictions are simply unrealistic and
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unacceptable.
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Kerberos was created by MIT as a solution to these network security
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problems. The Kerberos protocol uses strong cryptography so that a
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client can prove its identity to a server (and vice versa) across an
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insecure network connection. After a client and server has used
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Kerberos to prove their identity, they can also encrypt all of their
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communications to assure privacy and data integrity as they go about
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their business.
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Kerberos is freely available from MIT, under copyright permissions
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very similar those used for the BSD operating system and the X Window
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System. MIT provides Kerberos in source form so that anyone who wishes
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to use it may look over the code for themselves and assure themselves
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that the code is trustworthy. In addition, for those who prefer to
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rely on a professionally supported product, Kerberos is available as a
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product from many different vendors.
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In summary, Kerberos is a solution to your network security problems.
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It provides the tools of authentication and strong cryptography over
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the network to help you secure your information systems across your
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entire enterprise. We hope you find Kerberos as useful as it has been
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to us. At MIT, Kerberos has been invaluable to our
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Information/Technology architecture.
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Additional information is available from the MIT Kerberos website:
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http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/
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