From: Stefan Fritsch Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 17:35:54 +0000 (+0000) Subject: mention insecure password storage as pointed out by Graham X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=db41dd1ceb8780ec49868acf7d47026878ab92a9;p=thirdparty%2Fapache%2Fhttpd.git mention insecure password storage as pointed out by Graham git-svn-id: https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpd/httpd/trunk@1554281 13f79535-47bb-0310-9956-ffa450edef68 --- diff --git a/docs/manual/mod/mod_auth_digest.xml b/docs/manual/mod/mod_auth_digest.xml index 0f58d639258..afedd6cd641 100644 --- a/docs/manual/mod/mod_auth_digest.xml +++ b/docs/manual/mod/mod_auth_digest.xml @@ -33,8 +33,11 @@

This module implements HTTP Digest Authentication (RFC2617), and provides an alternative to mod_auth_basic where the - password is not transmitted as cleartext. However, the security - improvement over basic authentication is very small. Encrypting the + password is not transmitted as cleartext. However, this does + not lead to a significant security advantage over + basic authentication. On the other hand, the password storage on the + server is much less secure with digest authentication than with + basic authentication. Therefore, using basic auth and encrypting the whole connection using mod_ssl is a much better alternative.

@@ -79,9 +82,11 @@ man-in-the-middle attacker can trivially force the browser to downgrade to basic authentication. And even a passive eavesdropper can brute-force the password using today's graphics hardware, because the hashing - algorithm used by digest authentication is too fast. Therefore - using mod_ssl to encrypt the whole connection is - recommended.

+ algorithm used by digest authentication is too fast. Another problem is + that the storage of the passwords on the server is insecure. The contents + of a stolen htdigest file can be used directly for digest authentication. + Therefore using mod_ssl to encrypt the whole connection is + strongly recommended.

mod_auth_digest only works properly on platforms where APR supports shared memory.