The World Wide Web Security FAQ



5. Protecting Confidential Documents at Your Site

Q17: What types of access restrictions are available?

There are three types of access restriction available:
  1. Restriction by IP address, subnet, or domain

    Individual documents or whole directories are protected in such a way that only browsers connecting from certain IP (Internet) addresses, IP subnets, or domains can access them.

  2. Restriction by user name and password

    Documents or directories are protected so that the remote user has to provide a name and password in order to get access.

  3. Encryption using public key cryptography

    Both the request for the document and the document itself are encrypted in such a way that the text cannot be read by anyone but the intended recipient. Public key cryptography can also be used for reliable user verification. See below.


Q18: How safe is restriction by IP address or domain name?

Restriction by IP address is secure against casual nosiness but not against a determined hacker. There are several ways around IP address restrictions. With the proper equipment and software, a hacker can "spoof" his IP address, making it seem as if he's connecting from a location different from his real one. Nor is there any guarantee that the person contacting your server from an authorized host is in fact the person you think he is. The remote host may have been broken into and is being used as a front. To be safe, IP address restriction must be combined with something that checks the identity of the user, such as a check for user name and password.

IP address restriction can be made much safer by running your server behind a firewall machine that is capable of detecting and rejecting attempts at spoofing IP addresses. Such detection works best for intercepting packets from the outside world that claim to be from trusted machines on your internal network.

One thing to be aware of is that if a browser is set to use a proxy server to fetch documents, then your server will only know about the IP address of the proxy, not the real user's. This means that if the proxy is in a trusted domain, anyone can use that proxy to access your site. Unless you know that you can trust a particular proxy to do its own restriction, don't add the IP address of a proxy (or a domain containing a proxy server) to the list of authorized addresses.

Restriction by host or domain name has the same risks as restriction by IP address, but also suffers from the risk of "DNS spoofing", an attack in which your server is temporarily fooled into thinking that a trusted host name belongs to an alien IP address. To lessen that risk, some servers can be configured to do an extra DNS lookup for each client. After translating the IP address of the incoming request to a host name, the server uses the DNS to translate from the host name back to the IP address. If the two addresses don't match, the access is forbidden. See below for instructions on enabling this feature in NCSA's httpd


Q19: How safe is restriction by user name and password?

Restriction by user name and password also has its problems. A password is only good if it's chosen carefully. Too often users choose obvious passwords like middle names, their birthday, their office phone number, or the name of a favorite pet goldfish. These passwords can be guessed at, and WWW servers, unlike Unix login programs, don't complain after repeated unsuccessful guesses. A determined hacker can employ a password guessing program to break in by brute force. You also should be alert to the possibility of remote users sharing their user names and passwords. It is more secure to use a combination of IP address restriction and password than to use either of them alone.

Another problem is that the password is vulnerable to interception as it is transmitted from browser to server. It is not encrypted in any meanginful way, so a hacker with the right hardware and software can pull it off the Internet as it passes through. Furthermore, unlike a login session, in which the password is passed over the Internet just once, a browser sends the password each and every time it fetches a protected document. This makes it easier for a hacker to intercept the transmitted data as it flows across the Internet. To avoid this, you have to encrypt the data. See below.

If you need to protect documents against _local_ users on the server's host system, you'll need to run the server as something other than "nobody" and to set the permissions of both the restricted documents and server scripts so that they're not world readable. See Q9.


Q20: What is user authentication?

User verification is any system that for determining, and verifying, the identity of a remote user. User name and password is a simple form of user authentication. Public key cryptographic systems, described below, provide a more sophisticated form authentication that uses an unforgeable electronic signature.

Q21: How do I restrict access to documents by the IP address or domain name of the remote browser?

The details are different for each server. See your server's documentation for details. For servers based on NCSA httpd, you'll need to add a directory control section to access.conf that looks something like this:
   <Directory /full/path/to/directory>
<Limit GET POST> order mutual-failure deny from all allow from 192.198.2 .zoo.org allow from 18.157.0.5 stoat.outback.au </Limit> </Directory>

This will deny access to everybody but the indicated hosts (18.157.0.5 and stoat.outback.au), subnets (182.198.2) and domains (.zoo.org). Although you can use either numeric IP addresses or host names, it's safer to use the numeric form because this form of identification is less easily subverted (Q18).

One way to increase the security of restriction by domain name is to make sure that your server double-checks the results of its DNS lookups. You can enable this feature in NCSA's httpd (and the related Apache server) by making sure that the -DMAXIMUM_DNS flag is set in the Makefile.

For the CERN server, you'll need to declare a protection scheme with the Protection directive, and associate it with a local URL using the Protect directive. An entry in httpd.conf that limits access to certain domains might look like this:

   Protection LOCAL-USERS {
GetMask @(*.capricorn.com, *.zoo.org, 18.157.0.5) }
Protect /relative/path/to/directory/* LOCAL-USERS

Q22: How do I add new users and passwords?

Unix-based servers use password and group files similar to the like-named Unix files. Although the format of these files are similar enough to allow you to use the Unix versions for the Web server, this isn't a good idea. You don't want to give a hacker whose guessed a Web password carte blanche to log into the Unix host.

Check your server documentation for the precise details of how to add new users. For NCSA httpd, you can add a new user to the password file using the htpasswd program that comes with the server software:

   htpasswd /path/to/password/file username

htpasswd will then prompt you for the password to use. The first time you invoke htpasswd you must provide a -c flag to create the password file from scratch.

The CERN server comes with a slightly different program called htadm:

   htadm -adduser /path/to/password/file username

htadm will then prompt you for the new password.

After you add all the authorized users, you can attach password protection to the directories of your choice. In NCSA httpd and its derivatives, add something like this to access.conf:

   <Directory /full/path/to/protected/directory>

     AuthName          name.of.your.server
     AuthType          Basic
     AuthUserFile      /usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/passwd
     <Limit GET POST>
       require valid-user
     </Limit>

</Directory>
You'll need to replace AuthUserFile with the full path to the password file. This type of protection can be combined with IP address restriction as described in the previous section. See NCSA's online documentation (http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/) or the author's book (How to Set Up and Maintain a Web Site) for more details.

For the CERN server, the corresponding entry in httpd.conf looks like this:

   Protection AUTHORIZED-USERS {
     AuthType     Basic
     ServerID     name.of.your.server
     PasswordFile /usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/passwd
     GetMask      All
}
Protect /relative/path/to/directory/* AUTHORIZED-USERS
Again, see the documentation or the author's book for details.

Q23: Isn't there a CGI script to allow users to change their passwords online?

There are several, but the author doesn't know of any that have been sufficiently well tested to recommend. This is a tricky thing to set up, and a good general script has not yet been made publicly available. Some sites have solved this problem by setting up a second HTTP server for the sole purpose of changing the password file. This server listens on a different port from the primary server, and runs with sufficient permissions so that it can write to the password file (e.g., it runs as user "www").

Q24: Using per-directory access control files to control access to directories is so convenient, why should I use access.conf?

Instead of placing directory access restrictions directives in centralized configuration files, most servers give you the ability to control access by putting a "hidden" file in the directory you want to restrict access to (this file is called ".htaccess" in NCSA-derived servers and ".www_acl" in the CERN server). It is very convenient to use these files since you can adjust the restrictions on a directory without having to edit the central access control file. There are several problems with relying on .htaccess files too heavily. One is that with access control files scattered all over the document hierarchy, there is no central place where the access policy for the site is clearly set out. Another problem is that it is easy for these files to get modified or overwritten inadverently, opening up a section of the document tree to the public. Finally, there is a bug in many servers (including the NCSA server)that allows the access control files to be fetched just like any other file using a URL such as:
   http://your.site.com/protected/directory/.htaccess
This is clearly an undesirable feature since it gives out important information about your system, including the location of the server password file.

Another problem with the the per-directory access files is that if you ever need to change the server software, it's a lot easier to update a single central access control file than to search and fix a hundred small files.


Q25: How does encryption work?

Encryption works by encoding the text of a message with a key. In traditional encryption systems, the same key was used for both encoding and decoding. In the new public key or asymmetric encryption systems, keys come in pairs: one key is used for encoding and another for decoding. In this system everyone owns a unique pair of keys. One of the keys, called the public key, is widely distributed and used for encoding messages. The other key, called the private key, is a closely held secret used to decrypt incoming message. Under this system, a person who needs to send a message to a second person can encrypt the message with that person's public key. The message can only be decrypted by the owner of the secret private key, making it safe from interception. This system can also be used to create unforgeable digital signatures.

Most practical implementations of secure Internet encryption actually combine the traditional symmetric and the new asymmetric schemes. Public key encryption is used to negotiate a secret symmetric key that is then used to encrypt the actual data.

Since commercial ventures have a critical need for secure transmission on the Web, there is very active interest in developing schemes for encrypting the data that passes between browser and server.

More information on public key cryptography can be found in the book "Applied Cryptography", by Bruce Schneier.


Q26: What are: SSL, SHTTP, Shen?

These are all proposed encryption and user authentication standards for the Web. Each requires the right combination of compatible browser and server to operate, so none is yet the universal solution to the secure data transmission problem.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is the scheme proposed by Netscape Communications Corporation. It is a low level encryption scheme used to encrypt transactions in higher-level protocols such as HTTP, NNTP and FTP. The SSL protocol includes provisions for server authentication (verifying the server's identity to the client), encryption of data in transit, and optional client authentication (verifying the client's identity to the server). SSL is currently implemented commercially on several different browsers, including Netscape Navigator, Secure Mosaic, and Microsoft Internet Explorer, and many different servers, including ones from Netscape, Microsoft, IBM, Quarterdeck, OpenMarket and O'Reilly and Associates. Details on SSL can be found at:

http://home.netscape.com/info/SSL.html

SHTTP (Secure HTTP) is the scheme proposed by CommerceNet, a coalition of businesses interested in developing the Internet for commercial uses. It is a higher level protocol that only works with the HTTP protocol, but is potentially more extensible than SSL. Currently SHTTP is implemented for the Open Marketplace Server marketed by Open Market, Inc on the server side, and Secure HTTP Mosaic by Enterprise Integration Technologies on the client side. See here for details:

http://www.commerce.net/information/standards/drafts/shttp.txt

Shen is scheme proposed by Phillip Hallam-Baker of CERN. Like SHTTP it is a high level replacement for the existing HTTP protocol. It hasn't yet been implemented in production quality software at the current time. You can read about it at:

http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Shen/ref/security_spec.html


Q27: Are there any "freeware" secure servers?

There is a freeware implementation of SSL, known as SSLeay. This implementation comes as C source code that can be linked into such applications as Telnet and FTP. Among the supported applications are the freely redistributable Unix Web servers Apache and NCSA httpd, and several Unix-based Web browsers, including Mosaic. Outside United States borders this package can be used free of charge in both commercial and non-commercial applications. Within the United States, however, you will need to pay a licensing fee to RSA Data Security in order to use SSL for commercial applications (it might be easier to obtain one of the commercial versions of Apache-SSL, which provide the license as part of the purchase price).

There are several components to this software. You will need to obtain and install them all in order to have a working SSL-based Web server:

The SSLeay FAQ
http://www.psy.uq.oz.au/~ftp/Crypto/. You'll need to read this carefully.
SSLeay
This is the SSL library itself. It can be obtained via FTP at ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL/
Patches to various internet applications
These are source code patches to telnet, ftp, Mosaic, and the like to take advantage of SSL. They can be found via FTP at ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSLapps/.
Patches for the Apache server
Currently there are patches for the Apache 0.8.14h and 1.0.1a servers. The patches may work with other versions as well, but are not guaranteed. ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/SSL/
The Apache server source code
http://www.apache.org
You can obtain precompiled versions of Apache-SSL from two sources. Within the United States you can obtain Stronghold from Community ConneXion, Inc. Outside the United States boundaries, you can obtain Sioux from Thawte Communications, Ltd. Both these versions of Apache are available for free for non-profit organizations and educational institutions, and for a reasonable licensing fee for all others.

After installing an SSL-enabled server you will need to obtain a server certificate from the VeriSign corporation. These certificates are not free (currently $290), and must be renewed annually. The application process is straightforward. Connect to VerSign's Web site at http://www.verisign.com/, and find the server certificate application section. From here locate the appropriate application form for your server software, and fill it out. You'll be asked to provide your Web site's domain name, company name, and contact information. You'll also be asked to provide documentation, such as notarized letters of incorporation, to prove the identity of your organization.

After submitting the application form to VeriSign (and paying the application fee), you'll use SSLeay's genkey program to generate a public/private key pair and to submit a certificate request to VeriSign via e-mail. After VeriSign receives the certificate request, it will send a signed certificate to you by return e-mail. You'll then use SSLeay's getca program to install the certificate.

At this point users will be able to retrieve documents from your server and to submit forms without fear of interception. Your server's certificate provides remote users with proof of your server's identity. SSL can also be used to verify the users' identity to the server, providing more reliable authentication than the common password-based authentication schemes. To take advantage of this system, however, each user will have to obtain an individual certificate from VeriSign. Individual certificates are currently available for free from VeriSign.


Q28: How do I accept credit card orders over the Web?

You can always instruct users to call your 800 number :-). Seriously, though, you _shouldn't_ ask remote users to submit their credit card number in a fill-out form field unless you are using an encrypting server/browser combination. Your alternate is to use one of the credit card proxy systems described in the next section.

Even with an encrypting server, you should be careful about what happens to the credit card number after it's received by the server. For example, if the number is received by a server script, make sure not to write it out to a world-readable log file or send it via e-mail to a remote site.


Q29: What are: First Virtual Accounts, DigiCash, CyberCash, SET?

These are all schemes that have been developed to process commercial transactions over the Web without transmitting credit card numbers or other confidential information.

First Virtual

The First Virtual scheme is designed for low- to medium-priced software sales, fee-for-service information purchases, and other types of "intangible" merchandise that can be delivered over the Internet. It is not designed for the purchase of tangible items like computer hardware or dishwashers.

Before making purchases with the First Virtual system, the consumer first signs up for a First Virtual account by filling out an on-line application form at First Virtual's site (see below). The consumer then completes the process by telephone. During the sign up procedure he provides his credit card number and contact information, and receives a First Virtual personal identification number (PIN) in return. Thereafter, to make purchases at participating online vendors, the user provides his First Virtual PIN in lieue of his credit card information. First Virtual will later contact him by e-mail, giving him the chance to approve or disapprove the purchase before his credit card is billed. The consumer pays a one-time charge of $2.00 to open a First Virtual account. There are no additional charges, and no special software is required on the user's side of the connection.

Merchants wishing to accept First Virtual payments must open up an account with First Virtual for a one-time processing fee of $10.00. First Virtual will provide the merchant with simple software for validating users' PIN numbers and notifying First Virtual when a purchase has been made. It's straightforward to integrate this software into a "shopping cart" style CGI script. In addition to the one-time fee, First Virtual charges the merchant a transaction fee of $0.29 per transaction, plus 3% of the transaction price.

More information on First Virtualcan be obtained at:

http://www.fv.com/

DigiCash

DigiCash, a product of the Netherlands-based DigiCash company, is a digital cash system that works something like the familiar phone card or subway token. Under this system, users purchase "CyberBucks" from a bank that supports the DigiCash system. CyberBucks can be purchased remotely via credit card or wire transfer. These CyberBucks, in actuality a series of specially-encoded serial numbers, can be used just like real cash: used as payment for tangible merchandise, exchanged in return for intangible information, or traded among individuals. At any time you can deposit CyberBucks in a bank and receive "real" currency in return.

The software that supports DigiCash prevents the CyberBucks from being forged or spent more than once. Like true cash, DigiCash can be spent anonymously. You do not have to authenticate yourself in order to spend or receive DigiCash, and its use leaves no audit trail. This is in contrast to credit-card based systems like CyberCash and SET in which every transaction leaves a paper trail that can be used to gather information about the consumer's spending habits. In addition, DigiCash can be used to transmit money safely between peers, allowing ordinarily people to sell merchandise and services across the Internet without involving the banking system.

DigiCash requires special software to be installed on both the consumer's and merchant's computers. It is currently available for Windows NT, Windows 95, and some Unix systems. Since the system has only recently come out of its pilot phase it is not yet widely adopted, but this situation is expected to change. For more information, including a listing of DigiCash-accepting banks, see:

http://www.digicash.nl/

CyberCash

CyberCash, a product of the CyberCash Corporation, uses specialized software on the merchant and customer's sides of the connections to provide for secure payments across the Internet. For a consumer to make CyberCash payments, he must first download a free piece of software called the "Wallet" from CyberCash's Web site and initialize it with payment information and personal identifying information. Payment options currently include credit card numbers and bank accounts numbers. The wallet stores this information, in encrypted form, on the user's personal computer.

When a user goes to purchase an item from a CyberCash-accepting merchant, the wallet software pops up and requests the user to select the payment system. He may choose to charge the purchase against a credit card, in which case the charge will appear on his next credit card statment, or against his bank account, in which case the sum will be debited immediately. Software installed on the merchant's side of the connection validates and records the transaction by connecting to a server maintained by CyberCash, a process that takes 10-15 seconds. The Wallet maintains a record of each transaction, allowing the user to rapidly review his purchases and check taem against his credit card and/or bank statement. It is available for many platforms, including Macintosh, Windows 95 and Windows NT.

The system uses strong cryptography to prevent transaction information from being intercepted by unauthorized third parties. Further, because actual credit card account numbers are never recorded on the merchant's server, there is no chance that credit card numbers can be stolen by individuals who have broken into the merchant's computer system.

For a merchant to accept CyberCash payments he must open an account nwith a bank that supports the system. A CyberCash account is similar to the checking account that is set up for mail order houses that accept conventional credit card orders and has similar fees: a one-time fee of approximately $100 to create the account, a monthly fee of approximately $15 to keep the account open, and a transaction fee of 2-3% of the purchase price of each transaction. The exact fees are set by the regional banks themselves, so the numbers will vary somewhat. There are currently several hundred banks that support CyberCash accounts, and the number is growing steadily.

After setting up a CyberCash account, the merchant must install software called the "Electronic Cash Register" on his Web server. This software is launched when the user presses the "pay" button in a shopping cart script (or equivalent), and takes over the transaction, creating an entry in a transaction log that the merchant can feed into his order entry and shipping systems. The Cash Register is downloadable free of charge and available for many platforms, including Windows NT and Unix.

The main advantage of CyberCash over DigiCash is that it provides the customer with the same degree of consumer protection that credit cards provide. If a merchant fails to deliver a product or delivers unsatisfactory merchandise, the customer can appeal to the credit card company. Disadvantages include the loss of anonymity that accompanies any credit or debit card transaction, and the inability of CyberCash to handle peer to peer payments. In addition, the fees charged to merchants for processing credit card transactions make CyberCash impractical for small purchases, such as "play per pay" on-line video games. This last problem, however, has been addressed by CyberCash's recently-introduced "CyberCoin" system, which allows the customer to pay a lump sum to CyberCash in advance and then make small purchases against this sum.

More information on CyberCash is available at: http://www.cybercash.com

SET

SET, or Secure Electronic Transaction protocol, is an open standard for processing of credit card transactions over the Internet created jointly by Netscape, Microsoft, Visa and Mastercard. The main justification for SET is interoperability. By adhering to the standard, one vendor's software will be interoperable with any other vendor's software.

To address the high potential for fraud on the Internet, the SET standard uses a complex system of certifying authorities to vouch for the identify of every party in the transaction: customer, merchant, card-issuer and merchant's bank are all identified by signed, unforgeable certificates. To address privacy concerns, the transaction is separated in such a way that the merchant has access to information about what is being purchased, how much it costs, and whether the payment is approved, but no information on what payment method the customer is using. Similarly, the card-issuer has access to the purchase price, but no information on the type of merchandise involved. Despite these precautions, however, SET does not provide the complete anonymity that the DigiCash system has.

SET requires specialized software on both the customer's and merchant's side of the connection. On the customer's side, at least, the software can be delivered transparently in the form of Java Applets and/or ActiveX controls. Two SET-compliant products are currently in the offing. Microsoft Merchant is an Internet commerce system offered by the Microsoft Corporation. Based around Microsoft's Internet Information Server, Microsoft Merchant offers online credit card validation services using the Verifone service. In addition, Microsoft Merchant provides such frills as catalog management, shopping cart scripts, and sales tax calculations. Microsoft Merchant was in beta test in November 1996, but should be available by the time you read this.

For its part, the Netscape Corporation, in collaboration with its strategic partner First Data, offers LivePayment. This is an optional module for the Netscape Secure Commerce Server which provides secure credit card submission, validation and processing. You can add other modules to provide automatic catalog and inventory management, shopping carts, and corporate database interfaces. In its current incarnation, LivePayment uses a precursor to SET that is similar, but not identical, to the standard. A fully SET-compliant version of LivePayment is expected shortly.

Open Market Web Commerce System

Open Market, Inc., also offers an online commerce system. In the Open Market scheme, Open Market itself acts as the credit card company, handling subscriptions, billing and accounting. The scheme is integrated into its Open Marketplace Server, and requires a secure browser that supports the SHTTP or SSL protocols. Open Market's products are geared mainly to large corporations, banks, and service providers who wish to set up virtual "malls", and are priced accordingly. More information is available from Open Market at:

http://www.openmarket.com



Lincoln D. Stein, lstein@genome.wi.mit.edu
Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research
Last modified: Fri Nov 8 04:54:34 EST 1996