[Info-vax] VMS humor

[John Reagan]

On Wednesday, December 30, 2020 at 11:21:28 AM UTC-5, Craig A. Berry wrote:
> On 12/30/20 7:25 AM, VAX... at SendSpamHere.ORG wrote: 
> > In article <74ad5ee7-5ee4-4aac... at googlegroups.com>, John Reagan <xyzz... at gmail.com> writes: 
> >> On Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at 5:49:23 PM UTC-5, Michael Moroney wrote: 
> >>> Does anyone else wonder if the drug manufacturers use the VMS password 
> >>> generator to name new drugs? :-) 
> >> On x86, it will be harder to pronounce: 
> >> 
> >> $ set password/generate=16/algo=mixed 
> >> Old password: 
> >> 
> >> knE~yAZ7dv=K]+Ui 
> >> 3t;yh58-6T1[Oa7; 
> >> 40Ie652I[6xlW3Yl 
> >> ud58{>!1&R17h7uo 
> >> dRcp7Se{'8^1<mK0 
> >> 
> >> Choose a password from this list, or press RETURN to get a new list 
> > 
> > And harder to remember! That'll insure that the user records their 
> > password somewhere besides in their memory.
> And goes against current NIST guidelines for long, easy-to-remember 
> passwords that do not routinely expire. Of course most auditors go by 
> what NIST said a decade or two ago, so a lot of folks won't have any 
> choice about following older practices.
Easy-to-remember and high entropy don't mix.

Here's the section from the latest NIST 800-63B https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html#memsecret

5.1.1.2 Memorized Secret Verifiers

Verifiers SHALL require subscriber-chosen memorized secrets to be at least 8 characters in length. Verifiers SHOULD permit subscriber-chosen memorized secrets at least 64 characters in length. All printing ASCII [RFC 20] characters as well as the space character SHOULD be acceptable in memorized secrets. Unicode [ISO/ISC 10646] characters SHOULD be accepted as well. To make allowances for likely mistyping, verifiers MAY replace multiple consecutive space characters with a single space character prior to verification, provided that the result is at least 8 characters in length. Truncation of the secret SHALL NOT be performed. For purposes of the above length requirements, each Unicode code point SHALL be counted as a single character.

If Unicode characters are accepted in memorized secrets, the verifier SHOULD apply the Normalization Process for Stabilized Strings using either the NFKC or NFKD normalization defined in Section 12.1 of Unicode Standard Annex 15 [UAX 15]. This process is applied before hashing the byte string representing the memorized secret. Subscribers choosing memorized secrets containing Unicode characters SHOULD be advised that some characters may be represented differently by some endpoints, which can affect their ability to authenticate successfully.

Memorized secrets that are randomly chosen by the CSP (e.g., at enrollment) or by the verifier (e.g., when a user requests a new PIN) SHALL be at least 6 characters in length and SHALL be generated using an approved random bit generator [SP 800-90Ar1].

Memorized secret verifiers SHALL NOT permit the subscriber to store a “hint” that is accessible to an unauthenticated claimant. Verifiers SHALL NOT prompt subscribers to use specific types of information (e.g., “What was the name of your first pet?”) when choosing memorized secrets.

When processing requests to establish and change memorized secrets, verifiers SHALL compare the prospective secrets against a list that contains values known to be commonly-used, expected, or compromised. For example, the list MAY include, but is not limited to:

    Passwords obtained from previous breach corpuses.
    Dictionary words.
    Repetitive or sequential characters (e.g. ‘aaaaaa’, ‘1234abcd’).
    Context-specific words, such as the name of the service, the username, and derivatives thereof.

If the chosen secret is found in the list, the CSP or verifier SHALL advise the subscriber that they need to select a different secret, SHALL provide the reason for rejection, and SHALL require the subscriber to choose a different value.

Verifiers SHOULD offer guidance to the subscriber, such as a password-strength meter [Meters], to assist the user in choosing a strong memorized secret. This is particularly important following the rejection of a memorized secret on the above list as it discourages trivial modification of listed (and likely very weak) memorized secrets [Blacklists].

Verifiers SHALL implement a rate-limiting mechanism that effectively limits the number of failed authentication attempts that can be made on the subscriber’s account as described in Section 5.2.2.

Verifiers SHOULD NOT impose other composition rules (e.g., requiring mixtures of different character types or prohibiting consecutively repeated characters) for memorized secrets. Verifiers SHOULD NOT require memorized secrets to be changed arbitrarily (e.g., periodically). However, verifiers SHALL force a change if there is evidence of compromise of the authenticator.

Verifiers SHOULD permit claimants to use “paste” functionality when entering a memorized secret. This facilitates the use of password managers, which are widely used and in many cases increase the likelihood that users will choose stronger memorized secrets.

In order to assist the claimant in successfully entering a memorized secret, the verifier SHOULD offer an option to display the secret — rather than a series of dots or asterisks — until it is entered. This allows the claimant to verify their entry if they are in a location where their screen is unlikely to be observed. The verifier MAY also permit the user’s device to display individual entered characters for a short time after each character is typed to verify correct entry. This is particularly applicable on mobile devices.

The verifier SHALL use approved encryption and an authenticated protected channel when requesting memorized secrets in order to provide resistance to eavesdropping and MitM attacks.

Verifiers SHALL store memorized secrets in a form that is resistant to offline attacks. Memorized secrets SHALL be salted and hashed using a suitable one-way key derivation function. Key derivation functions take a password, a salt, and a cost factor as inputs then generate a password hash. Their purpose is to make each password guessing trial by an attacker who has obtained a password hash file expensive and therefore the cost of a guessing attack high or prohibitive. Examples of suitable key derivation functions include Password-based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) [SP 800-132] and Balloon [BALLOON]. A memory-hard function SHOULD be used because it increases the cost of an attack. The key derivation function SHALL use an approved one-way function such as Keyed Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) [FIPS 198-1], any approved hash function in SP 800-107, Secure Hash Algorithm 3 (SHA-3) [FIPS 202], CMAC [SP 800-38B] or Keccak Message Authentication Code (KMAC), Customizable SHAKE (cSHAKE), or ParallelHash [SP 800-185]. The chosen output length of the key derivation function SHOULD be the same as the length of the underlying one-way function output.

The salt SHALL be at least 32 bits in length and be chosen arbitrarily so as to minimize salt value collisions among stored hashes. Both the salt value and the resulting hash SHALL be stored for each subscriber using a memorized secret authenticator.

For PBKDF2, the cost factor is an iteration count: the more times the PBKDF2 function is iterated, the longer it takes to compute the password hash. Therefore, the iteration count SHOULD be as large as verification server performance will allow, typically at least 10,000 iterations.

In addition, verifiers SHOULD perform an additional iteration of a key derivation function using a salt value that is secret and known only to the verifier. This salt value, if used, SHALL be generated by an approved random bit generator [SP 800-90Ar1] and provide at least the minimum security strength specified in the latest revision of SP 800-131A (112 bits as of the date of this publication). The secret salt value SHALL be stored separately from the hashed memorized secrets (e.g., in a specialized device like a hardware security module). With this additional iteration, brute-force attacks on the hashed memorized secrets are impractical as long as the secret salt value remains secret

And Appendix A

Appendix A—Strength of Memorized Secrets

This appendix is informative.

Throughout this appendix, the word “password” is used for ease of discussion. Where used, it should be interpreted to include passphrases and PINs as well as passwords.

A.1 Introduction

Despite widespread frustration with the use of passwords from both a usability and security standpoint, they remain a very widely used form of authentication [Persistence]. Humans, however, have only a limited ability to memorize complex, arbitrary secrets, so they often choose passwords that can be easily guessed. To address the resultant security concerns, online services have introduced rules in an effort to increase the complexity of these memorized secrets. The most notable form of these is composition rules, which require the user to choose passwords constructed using a mix of character types, such as at least one digit, uppercase letter, and symbol. However, analyses of breached password databases reveal that the benefit of such rules is not nearly as significant as initially thought [Policies], although the impact on usability and memorability is severe.

Complexity of user-chosen passwords has often been characterized using the information theory concept of entropy [Shannon]. While entropy can be readily calculated for data having deterministic distribution functions, estimating the entropy for user-chosen passwords is difficult and past efforts to do so have not been particularly accurate. For this reason, a different and somewhat simpler approach, based primarily on password length, is presented herein.

Many attacks associated with the use of passwords are not affected by password complexity and length. Keystroke logging, phishing, and social engineering attacks are equally effective on lengthy, complex passwords as simple ones. These attacks are outside the scope of this Appendix.

A.2 Length

Password length has been found to be a primary factor in characterizing password strength [Strength] [Composition]. Passwords that are too short yield to brute force attacks as well as to dictionary attacks using words and commonly chosen passwords.

The minimum password length that should be required depends to a large extent on the threat model being addressed. Online attacks where the attacker attempts to log in by guessing the password can be mitigated by limiting the rate of login attempts permitted. In order to prevent an attacker (or a persistent claimant with poor typing skills) from easily inflicting a denial-of-service attack on the subscriber by making many incorrect guesses, passwords need to be complex enough that rate limiting does not occur after a modest number of erroneous attempts, but does occur before there is a significant chance of a successful guess.

Offline attacks are sometimes possible when one or more hashed passwords is obtained by the attacker through a database breach. The ability of the attacker to determine one or more users’ passwords depends on the way in which the password is stored. Commonly, passwords are salted with a random value and hashed, preferably using a computationally expensive algorithm. Even with such measures, the current ability of attackers to compute many billions of hashes per second with no rate limiting requires passwords intended to resist such attacks to be orders of magnitude more complex than those that are expected to resist only online attacks.

Users should be encouraged to make their passwords as lengthy as they want, within reason. Since the size of a hashed password is independent of its length, there is no reason not to permit the use of lengthy passwords (or pass phrases) if the user wishes. Extremely long passwords (perhaps megabytes in length) could conceivably require excessive processing time to hash, so it is reasonable to have some limit.

A.3 Complexity

As noted above, composition rules are commonly used in an attempt to increase the difficulty of guessing user-chosen passwords. Research has shown, however, that users respond in very predictable ways to the requirements imposed by composition rules [Policies]. For example, a user that might have chosen “password” as their password would be relatively likely to choose “Password1” if required to include an uppercase letter and a number, or “Password1!” if a symbol is also required.

Users also express frustration when attempts to create complex passwords are rejected by online services. Many services reject passwords with spaces and various special characters. In some cases, the special characters that are not accepted might be an effort to avoid attacks like SQL injection that depend on those characters. But a properly hashed password would not be sent intact to a database in any case, so such precautions are unnecessary. Users should also be able to include space characters to allow the use of phrases. Spaces themselves, however, add little to the complexity of passwords and may introduce usability issues (e.g., the undetected use of two spaces rather than one), so it may be beneficial to remove repeated spaces in typed passwords prior to verification.

Users’ password choices are very predictable, so attackers are likely to guess passwords that have been successful in the past. These include dictionary words and passwords from previous breaches, such as the “Password1!” example above. For this reason, it is recommended that passwords chosen by users be compared against a “black list” of unacceptable passwords. This list should include passwords from previous breach corpuses, dictionary words, and specific words (such as the name of the service itself) that users are likely to choose. Since user choice of passwords will also be governed by a minimum length requirement, this dictionary need only include entries meeting that requirement.

Highly complex memorized secrets introduce a new potential vulnerability: they are less likely to be memorable, and it is more likely that they will be written down or stored electronically in an unsafe manner. While these practices are not necessarily vulnerable, statistically some methods of recording such secrets will be. This is an additional motivation not to require excessively long or complex memorized secrets.

A.4 Randomly-Chosen Secrets

Another factor that determines the strength of memorized secrets is the process by which they are generated. Secrets that are randomly chosen (in most cases by the verifier or CSP) and are uniformly distributed will be more difficult to guess or brute-force attack than user-chosen secrets meeting the same length and complexity requirements. Accordingly, at LOA2, SP 800-63-2 permitted the use of randomly generated PINs with 6 or more digits while requiring user-chosen memorized secrets to be a minimum of 8 characters long.

As discussed above, the threat model being addressed with memorized secret length requirements includes rate-limited online attacks, but not offline attacks. With this limitation, 6 digit randomly-generated PINs are still considered adequate for memorized secrets.
A.5 Summary

Length and complexity requirements beyond those recommended here significantly increase the difficulty of memorized secrets and increase user frustration. As a result, users often work around these restrictions in a way that is counterproductive. Furthermore, other mitigations such as blacklists, secure hashed storage, and rate limiting are more effective at preventing modern brute-force attacks. Therefore, no additional complexity requirements are imposed.