Can Derby authentication be used securely?

[Rick Hillegas <Ri...@Sun.COM>]

I am trying to figure out how Derby BUILTIN and LDAP authentication can 
be used without storing a master password in plaintext. I would 
appreciate the community's advice.

1) With BUILTIN authentication, there is no encrypted storage for 
server-wide credentials. E.g., the credentials needed to authenticate 
and bring down the Derby engine. I think that these credentials must be 
supplied in plaintext either in derby.properties or in the script which 
starts the server.

2) With LDAP authentication, I think that the master LDAP password 
(derby.authentication.ldap.searchAuthPW must be stored in plaintext the 
same way.

Am I confused? Is there a recommended workaround for this vulnerability?

Thanks,
-Rick

Re: Can Derby authentication be used securely?

[Daniel John Debrunner <dj...@apache.org>]

Rick Hillegas wrote:
> I am trying to figure out how Derby BUILTIN and LDAP authentication can 
> be used without storing a master password in plaintext. I would 
> appreciate the community's advice.
> 

> 2) With LDAP authentication, I think that the master LDAP password 
> (derby.authentication.ldap.searchAuthPW must be stored in plaintext the 
> same way.

If the LDAP server supports anonymous searches then 
derby.authentication.ldap.searchAuthPW is not required.

http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/10.2/tuning/rtunsearchauthpw.html

Dan.

Re: Can Derby authentication be used securely?

[John Embretsen <Jo...@Sun.COM>]

I see there is some discussion around this in
http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/DERBY-866

Rick Hillegas wrote:
> I am trying to figure out how Derby BUILTIN and LDAP authentication can 
> be used without storing a master password in plaintext. I would 
> appreciate the community's advice.

-- 
John

Re: Can Derby authentication be used securely?

[John Embretsen <Jo...@Sun.COM>]

Rick Hillegas wrote:
> I am trying to figure out how Derby BUILTIN and LDAP authentication can 
> be used without storing a master password in plaintext. I would 
> appreciate the community's advice.
> 
> 1) With BUILTIN authentication, there is no encrypted storage for 
> server-wide credentials. E.g., the credentials needed to authenticate 
> and bring down the Derby engine. I think that these credentials must be 
> supplied in plaintext either in derby.properties or in the script which 
> starts the server.

I think this is true, and it's a pity. It's a classical problem, though, see 
e.g. [1]. It helps setting the file permissions so that derby.properties is 
readable only by the user running the Network Server, but you would have to rely 
on additional layers of security as well.

> Is there a recommended workaround for this vulnerability?

Not sure... Use a different (non-BUILTIN) authentication provider?


[1]: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=441605

-- 
John