[Rt-devel] Password storage format in RT3.6

[Ruslan Zakirov]

On 9/5/06, Arne Georg Gleditsh <argggh at linpro.no> wrote:
> Ruslan Zakirov wrote:
> > I think we should allow admins(if it possible) to:
> > * choose between MD5 and MD5 salted
> > * script that changes stored hashes at once. Is it possible to add
> > salt to MD5 hash with password string?
sure, I mean "without password string".

>
> Not that I am aware of.
>
> > It was big surprise to when I saw that we'd switched from md5 in
> > base64 to md5 in hex. And also it's very hard to auth against RT's DB
> > when some password hash strings are base64 encoded while other are
> > hex-encoded.
>
> This I can see.  Instead of overwriting the original password in the db,
> perhaps a new column should be added where updated passwords are written
> when users log in.  Existence of non-null entries in this column would
> then dictate that this be used for authentication instead of the old
> column.  External entities authenticating towards RT's database could
> then switch to using the new format when the administrator decides
> everyone has had sufficient time to log in to RT and so refresh their
> accounts.
>
> This also has issues, obviously.  Do password updates change both old
> and new columns?  Given that the old-format password store is a security
> liability, when do you remove it?  How should the application logic
> detect that it is removed and stop updating it?
Yeah, too complicated.

>
> Overall, I'm not sure this is not at least as painful as just migrating
> the way it is done today, switching any external entities to use the new
> format immediately and then telling the users to refresh their accounts
> by logging in to RT before attempting to access services provided by the
> mentioned external entities.  Mileage will no doubt vary.
>
> (The password scheme implemented by the proposed patch is general and
> widely deployed, so the need for further migrations should not arise in
> a good while.  That is, until someone decides we need to move to SSHA1
> or somesuch. :)
:) since 2.0 it was changed several times: unix crypt, md5 base64 and md5 hex.

>
> --
>                                                         Arne.
>


-- 
Best regards, Ruslan.