encrypt authentication credentials with payload in the clear?

Stephen Samuel samuel at bcgreen.com
Fri Mar 7 07:50:28 EST 2003


Scott Bolte wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 09:25:43 -0500, James Dennis wrote:
> 
>>If this is what they want, why use ssh? Using SSH here will almost 
.....
>>I feel like sending traffic cleartext is just a bad idea accross the 
>>board. What if someone su's or logs into other systems or exposes 
>>database account credentials to something containing personal info 
>>and/or credit card numbers from those cleartext ssh sessions?!? ...
> 
> 	That's why I want to use forced commands which gain access
> 	to a set of proxy services. The proxies will preclude the
> 	inadvertent su, or the bare download of sensitive data.

Perhaps a more sane approach would be to use a key escrow system for
ssh.  As I remember it, ssh can/does use symetric encryption for session
data, so key escrow would allow 'authorized' snoops (unfortunately
including people who manage to break into such authorized accounts) to
listen in on the session data without exposing it to the entire
intervening internet community.

-- 
Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426                samuel at bcgreen.com
		   http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/
Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and
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