Re: BUG #5687: RADIUS Authentication issues - Mailing list pgsql-bugs

From Alan T DeKok
Subject Re: BUG #5687: RADIUS Authentication issues
Date
Msg-id 4CA8AFAB.3090703@freeradius.org
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: BUG #5687: RADIUS Authentication issues  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
Responses Re: BUG #5687: RADIUS Authentication issues  (Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net>)
List pgsql-bugs
Tom Lane wrote:
> Hm ... seems to me that is a network security problem, not our problem.
> Who's to say one of the spoofed packets won't pass verification?

  The packets are signed with a shared key.  Passing verification means
either the attacker knows the key, or the attacker has broken MD5 in
ways that are currently unknown.

> If you want to change it, I won't stand in the way, but I have real
> doubts about both the credibility of this threat and the usefulness
> of the proposed fix.

  The credibility of the threat is high.  Anyone can trivially send a
packet which will cause authentication to fail.  This is a DoS attack.

  The usefulness of the fix is to mitigate the threat, and the implement
the security features mandated by RFC 2865.  It's also how *all* RADIUS
implementations work.

  Alan DeKok.

pgsql-bugs by date:

Previous
From: Andrea Peri 2007
Date:
Subject: Re: Postgres 9.0 crash on win7
Next
From: Andrea Peri 2007
Date:
Subject: Re: Postgres 9.0 crash on win7