doc/identitymgmt.html
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     1 <title>Issues in Identity Management for DTNs</title>
       
     2 
       
     3 <pre>
       
     4 <b><u>Issues in Identity Management for Delay Tolerant Networks</u></b>
       
     5 
       
     6 <small>
       
     7 Revision History
       
     8 02.06.04 Initial Revision, mh
       
     9 02.12.04 Update following DTN group meetings, mh
       
    10 </small>
       
    11 
       
    12 <u>I. Issues</u>
       
    13 
       
    14    - How do you secure an identity?
       
    15      
       
    16      Identities are 
       
    17 
       
    18    - How do you verify an identity?
       
    19    - Within a region how do you validate that a device should have
       
    20      access to resources, given that it has already obtained the
       
    21      relevant token?
       
    22    - Token expiration? Token renewal? Does expiration even make sense in
       
    23      a disconnected context? Perhaps it should be governed on a region by
       
    24      region basis.
       
    25    - Is there a concept of tranference between regions?
       
    26    - Can we use locality and identity to determine which network a 
       
    27      particular device can use to obtain credentials? (ie, based on 
       
    28      SSID location map, choose number to dial in order to obtain 
       
    29      access to a channel for which you have authority to access)
       
    30 
       
    31 
       
    32 <u>II. Identity Management Solutions</u>
       
    33 
       
    34     A. Ensim&reg; Unify and Ensim Server Manager
       
    35        [from Keshav]  
       
    36        - Use Active Directory to store identities
       
    37        - Use Unify to manage them
       
    38        - Mobile users get identity from Unify, and then can assert
       
    39          rights to resources without having to log in every time
       
    40 
       
    41        Questions:
       
    42        - How will this operate in the context of mobile stations?
       
    43        - How will this operate in a disconnected context, given that
       
    44          mobile users may never be directly connected to the datacenter?
       
    45 
       
    46        Active Directory and Linux
       
    47           Since Unify is a Windows based management system, with the option? of
       
    48 	  managing Linux servers as well, then the Linux servers would have to 
       
    49 	  talk to the Windows server - and authenticate against it. 
       
    50 
       
    51 	  http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1563
       
    52 	  
       
    53 	  Major Issues
       
    54 	  - Non-supported by MS
       
    55 	  - Possibly not multi-platform friendly
       
    56 	  - AD vs LDAP
       
    57 	  - AD4Unix needs to be installed on datacenter and seems to
       
    58 	    be potentially very finicky.
       
    59 
       
    60 	General Assessment
       
    61 	  No clear relationship between Unify and DTN, platform issues, 
       
    62 	  however, some ideas/problems solved may be relevant to DTN. 
       
    63 	  Basic utility is the idea of using Active Directory/LDAP for 
       
    64 	  authentication and authorization.
       
    65   
       
    66     B. Authd (Brent)
       
    67        - software package for obtaining and verifying user credentials
       
    68          based on RSA
       
    69        - cluster-wide RSA public/private key pair allows clients 
       
    70          to verify user identity from anywhere
       
    71     
       
    72     C. LDAP
       
    73        - supports SSL, Kerberos, cleartext passwords, and SASL
       
    74        - OpenLDAP (SleepyCat backend) http://www.openldap.org
       
    75        - client/server interaction
       
    76          - client establishes session (BIND)
       
    77 	 - client performs ldap operation (supported list)
       
    78 	 - client ends session (UNBIND)
       
    79 	 - session can be ABANDONed
       
    80        - supports ACLs to control access rights
       
    81       
       
    82       http://quark.humbug.org.au/publications/system_auth/sage-au/system_auth.html      
       
    83 
       
    84       Actualization Items
       
    85        - write an LDAP/PAM/NSS DTN proxy for authentication
       
    86           - encapsulate bind and operation(s) into single request
       
    87 	  - each query/update must be authenticated
       
    88 	  - asynchronize communication
       
    89 	  - supports whatever DTN security infrastructure we come up with
       
    90        - determine how acls are communicated
       
    91        - determine token issuing 
       
    92 
       
    93 </pre>