Dos and Don'ts of Client Authentication on the Web

by Kevin Fu, Emil Sit, Kendra Smith, and Nick Feamster

In the Proceedings of the 10th USENIX Security Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 2001.


Abstract

Client authentication has been a continuous source of problems on the Web. Although many well-studied techniques exist for authentication, Web sites continue to use extremely weak authentication schemes, especially in non-enterprise environments such as store fronts. These weaknesses often result from careless use of authenticators within Web cookies. Of the twenty-seven sites we investigated, we weakened the client authentication on two systems, gained unauthorized access on eight, and extracted the secret key used to mint authenticators from one.

We provide a description of the limitations, requirements, and security models specific to Web client authentication. This includes the introduction of the interrogative adversary, a surprisingly powerful adversary that can adaptively query a Web site.

We propose a set of hints for designing a secure client authentication scheme. Using these hints, we present the design and analysis of a simple authentication scheme secure against forgeries by the interrogative adversary. In conjunction with SSL, our scheme is secure against forgeries by the active adversary.

The technical report includes details not released in the USENIX proceedings.


Download the paper
Cookie eaters Web page