RE: iSeries passwords -- MIDRANGE-L

Rob,

When you sign on to the iSeries using iSeriesNavigator or CA
(or whatever it's called now) your password is encrypted on
the PC before it is sent over the wire.  This is because the
stored password on the iSeries is never unencrypted - there
is no facility on the iSeries to unencrypt passwords (and if
there was, it would be a big potential exposure!  Everyone
would target that program).  Rather, the submitted password
is encrypted using the same algorithm, and then the
submitted encrypted password is compared to the stored
encrypted password.  An exact match is a good password,
anything else is a failed signon attempt.

However, when you do a CHGPWD type function, the QPWDVLDPGM
exit program must receive the old password and the new
password in clear text in order to allow the program to
operate on them.  So, regardless of the interface
(iSeriesNav, Green Screen, etc,) If the passwords are
submitted to the QPWDVLDPGM in clear text, they must travel
over the wire in clear text (because, again, passwords are
never unencrypted by the system).  

HTH,

the



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> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-
> bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 11:36 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: RE: iSeries passwords
> 
> Why would this exit point require that your password be
> sent in the clear?
> 
> Remember, iSeries Navigator prompts you for the new
> password.  That
> prompting might be done with some sort of security.  Then
> it would
> validate this on your iSeries.  And how it validates this
> on your iSeries,
> I don't know, but if they can make a secure 5250 client
> that doesn't send
> passwords in the clear I am sure that someone can make an
> iSeries
> Navigator method for doing so also.  Now, once it is on
> the server and
> calls this exit point program it's not on your network.
> Thus who cares if
> it is in the clear?  It never leaves the bus.
> 
> Rob Berendt
> --
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
> little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
> Benjamin Franklin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "McGivern, Tom" <Tom.McGivern@xxxxxxx>
> Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> 11/18/2003 02:18 PM
> Please respond to
> Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-
> l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> 
> To
> "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-
> l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> cc
> 
> Subject
> RE: iSeries passwords
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The problem is, how do you change your password over the
> network.  This
> exit would require that your password be sent in clear
> text across the
> network, so it could validate the content, if it were
> already encrypted,
> then it doesn't know what the input was.
> 
> That's why ops-nav doesn't have it (IMO)..
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andy
> Nolen-Parkhouse
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 10:43 AM
> To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
> Subject: RE: iSeries passwords
> 
> 
> Rob,
> 
> I agree that you're probably right.  But this exit program
> is a
> user-written program which receives the old and new
> passwords as clear
> parameters and could do what it wants with them, including
> writing them
> to a database. While adding an exit point requires a
> little more
> sophistication to implement than just changing a system
> value, it
> requires the same level of authority (*ALLOBJ and *SECADM)
> as changing
> the QPWDVLDPGM system value.
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> Andy
> 
> 
> > I bet this:
> >
> > The password validation exit program
> >
> http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/iseries/v5r2/ic2924/info/api
> s/xsyvlphr.h
> > tm
> >
> > Rob Berendt
> 
> 
> 
> 
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