path: root/web/passport

* Updates

	<b>Sep 20, 2001:</b> Microsoft has just announced some changes
	to passport that are rather interesting.  This document
	reflects the Passport system without taking into account the
	new changes.

	Read about it <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2001/sep01/09-20passport.asp">here</a>.

	For an analysis of security problems with passport, check <a
	href="http://avirubin.com/passport.html">http://avirubin.com/passport.html</a>.
	The bottom line is that you should not put any sensitive
	information on passport.

	I have received many comments from people, and I have updated
	the page accordingly.  From removing incorrect statements, to
	fixing typos, to include mentions to other software pieces.

	I also corrected my statement about IIS and a trojan horse, I
	should read a more educated press in the future.  My apologies
	to Microsoft and its employees on this particular topic.  IIS
	did not have a trojan horse built in.

* Microsoft Hailstorm and Passport

	Microsoft Passport is a centralized database hosted by
	Microsoft that enhances the consumer experience with the Web
	by providing a single logon system that they can use across a
	number of participant web sites.

	As you might know by now from our extensive <a
	href="faq.html">FAQ</a>, the Mono project has nothing to do
	with Microsoft Hailstorm or <a
	href="http://www.passport.com">Microsoft Passport.</a>

	Still a lot of people have asked us our opinion on them.

** Passport

	Passport is important not because of it being a breakthrough
	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.  

		* <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. 

		Security holes have been found in <a
		href="http://slashdot.org/articles/00/04/14/0619206.shtml">IIS
		in the past.</a>  If all the world's data is stored on
		a central location, when a single security hole is
		detected, it would allow an intruder to install a
		backdoor within seconds into the corporate network
		without people ever noticing. 

		Microsoft itself has been recently hit by worms,
		imagine if all your business depended on a single
		provider for providing all or your authentication
		needs
	</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.

	 	A distributed system using different software
		platforms and different vendors would be more
		resistent to an attack, as holes in a particular
		implementation of the server software would not affect
		every person at the same time.  

		A security hole attack might not even be relevant to
		other software vendors software.

		* <b>Allow for multiple registrars:</b> Users should
		be able to choose a registrar (their banks, local
		phone company, service provider, Swiss 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.  

	For instant messaging (another piece of the Hailstorm bit),
	you want to use a non-centralized system like Sun's <a
	href="http://www.jxta.org">JXTA</a>.  Some people mailed me to
	mention Jabber as a messaging platform and other people
	pointed out to the <a
	href="http://java.sun.com/products/jms/">Java Message
	Service</a>.   The JMS does support a number of very
	interesting features that are worth researching.

	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.

** Implementation: In short

	To keep it short: <b>DNS, JXTA, xmlStorage.</b>


** Deploying it

	The implementation of such a system should be a pretty
	straightforward task 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 too 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 include 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. 

** Passport and endangering Open Source.

	A few people have said: `Mono will allow Passport to be
	available for Linux and that is bad'.  This is plain
	missinformation.

	Currently, you can obtain Passport for Linux from Microsoft
	itself and deploy it today on your Web server.  Mono does not
	even enter the picture here.  Go to passport.com and download
	the toolkit and you will see with your own eyes that passport
	is <B>already</b> available for Linux. 

** 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).

	This is not part of Mono.  We are not trying to deal with this
	problem. 

	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.

** Other Passport Comments

	An interesting study on the security of passport is available at: <a
	href="http://avirubin.com/passport.html">http://avirubin.com/passport.html</a>

** Other Alternatives

	Some people have pointed out <a
	href="http://www.xns.org">XNS</a>

Send comments to me: Miguel de Icaza (<a
	href="mailto:miguel@ximian.com">miguel@ximian.com</a>)