diff options
author | Miguel de Icaza <miguel@gnome.org> | 2001-07-13 03:56:51 +0400 |
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committer | Miguel de Icaza <miguel@gnome.org> | 2001-07-13 03:56:51 +0400 |
commit | ce8a3a0f64346fe1f3339a4b79c4c7e542ef2f03 (patch) | |
tree | 57b023a8a001e416c02be4b4c2873b9ea4e1c48c /web/passport | |
parent | 90ef332cd65537940f896001b1f2e5489d7e5829 (diff) |
Finish passport document
svn path=/trunk/mono/; revision=105
Diffstat (limited to 'web/passport')
-rw-r--r-- | web/passport | 192 |
1 files changed, 190 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/web/passport b/web/passport index 9d935875906..5a7ccb60af6 100644 --- a/web/passport +++ b/web/passport @@ -14,10 +14,198 @@ ** Passport - There is nothing in Passport really advanced technologically - speaking. + Passport is important not because of it being breaktrough + technologically speaking, but because the company is in a + position to drive most people toward being suscribers of it. + + At the time of this writing passport is required to use the + free mail service <a href="http://www.hotmail.com">Hotmail</a> + to get customized support for the <a + href="http://www.msn.com">MSN portal</a>, <a + href="http://msdn.microsoft.com">Microsoft Developers + Network</a> and according to the original announcement from + Microsoft <a href="http://www.americanexpress.com">American + Express</a> and <a href="http://www.ebay.com">EBay</a> will be + adopting it. + + There is already a <a + href="http://www.passport.com/Directory/Default.asp?PPDir=C&lc=1033">Large + list</a> of participating sites. + + There are many current users of it and Microsoft will be + driving more users towards Passport as it <a + href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6343275.html">integrates + it</a> in their upcoming release of Windows. + + Microsoft has also <a + href="http://www.passport.com/Business/JoinPassportNetwork.asp?lc=1033">developed + a toolkit</a> to enable current web merchants to integrate + their services with passport. + + To the end user, there is a clear benefit: they only have to + log into a single network and not remember multiple passwords + across sites on the internet. Companies that adopt passport + will have a competition advantage over those that dont. + Microsoft lists a list of <a + href="http://www.passport.com/Business/Default.asp?lc=1033">benefits</a> + to companies. + + +** The problems of Passport + + There are a number of concerns that different groups have over + Passport. Sometimes I have some, sometimes I do not. But + overall, consumers and businesses can have better solutions. + + <ul> + * <b>Single Point of Failure:</b> As more services and + components depend on remote servers, functionality can + grind to a halt if there is a failure on the + centralized Passport system. + + Such a failure was predicted, and we recently <a + href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6473003.html">witnessed</a> + got a lot of people worried. + + The outgage lasted for seven days. Think what this + could do to your business. + + * <b>Trust:</b> Not everyone trusts Microsoft to keep + their information confidential. Concerns are not only + at the corporate level policy, but also the fact that + the source code for Microsoft products is not + available, means that trojans or worms could be built + into the products by malicious engineers. This is not + unheard of, as the <a + href="http://slashdot.org/articles/00/04/14/0619206.shtml">Microsoft + Internet Server</a> had a trojan horse built into that + allowed anyone that knew about this to control any + server running IIS. + + * <b>Security:</b> With a centralized system like + Passport, imagine the repercussions of a malicious + hacker gaining access to the Passport database. + Personal information and credit card information about + almost everyone using a computer could be stored there. + + Hackers have already <a + href="http://slashdot.org/articles/00/10/27/1147248.shtml">broken + into Microsoft</a> in the past. And the company was + unable to figure out for how long their systems had been hacked. + </ul> + + Microsoft might or might not realize this. The idea behind + Passport is indeed a good one (I can start to get rid of my + file that keeps track of the 30 logins and passwords or so + that I use across the various services on the net myself). ** Alternatives to Microsoft Passport + An alternative to Microsoft Passport needs to take the above + problems into consideration. Any solution of the form `We + will just have a competing offering' will not work. + + The system thus has to be: + + <ul> + * <b>Distributed:</b> The entire authentication + system should not create an internet `blackout' in the + case of failure. + + * <b>Allow for multiple registrars:</b> Users should + be able to choose a registrar (their banks, local + phone company, service provider, Swizz bank, or any + other entity they trust. + + * <b>Mandate good security measures:</b> As a + principle, only Open Source software should be used + for servers in the registrar, and they should conform + to a standard set of tools and software that can be + examined by third parties. + </ul> + + An implementation of this protocol could use the DNS or a + DNS-like setup to distribute the information of users with the + possibility of replicating and caching public information + about the user. + + It could also just use the user e-mail address as the `key' to + choose the registrar (msn.com, hotmail.com -> passport.com; + aol.com -> aol.passport.com; you get the idea). + + The <a + href="http://www.soapware.org/xmlStorageSystem">xmlStorage</a> + idea from <a href="http://www.scripting.com">Dave Winer</a> + could be used to store the information. + + A toolkit for various popular web servers could be provided, + authenticated and should be open sourced (for those of you who + think that a binary program would give more security and would + prevent people from tampering: you are wrong. You can always + use a proxy system that "behaves" like the binary, and passes + information back and forth from the real program, and snoops + in-transit information). + + Good cryptographers need to be involved in this problem to + figure out the details and the possible insecure pieces of a + proposal like this. + +** Deploying it + + The implementation of such a system should be a pretty + straightforward tasks once security cryptographers have + designed such a beast. + + The major problems are: + + <ul> + * <b>People might just not care:</b> In a poll to US + citizens a couple of decades ago, it was found that + most people did not care about the rights they were + given by the Bill of Rights, which lead to a number of + laws to be passed in the US that eliminated most of + the rights people had. + + * <b>The industry will move way to slow:</b> + Microsoft's implementation is out in the open now: it + is being deployed, and soon it will be insinuated to + many, many users. The industry needs to get together + soon if they care about this issue. + + By the time the industry reacts, it might be too + late. + </ul> + +** Passport and Mono + + The .NET class libraries includes a Passport class that + applications might use to authenticate with Passport. Since + we do not have information at this point on the exact protocol + of Passport, it is not even feasible to implement it. + + If at some point the information is disclosed, it could be + implemented. + + If a competing system to Passport existed, we could probably + hide all the authentication information to use a number of + different passport-like systems. + + If a user does not want to use Passport at all, he could + always turn it off (or completely remove the class from the + library). After all, this is free software. + + Currently, we are too far from the point where this is a real + issue. + +** Disclaimer + + This is just a group of personal thoughts of mine that I have + placed here because I get asked this question a lot lately. + The views of this page are not a statement from my employer + (Ximian, Inc). + Nat Friedman (Ximian's co-founder) has his own ideas on how a + competing system to Passport could be designed, but I will let + <a href="http://www.nat.org">him</a> post his own story. +Send comments to me: Miguel de Icaza (<a href="mailto:miguel@ximian.com">miguel@ximian.com</a>)
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