ctubbsii commented on pull request #1787:
URL: https://github.com/apache/accumulo/pull/1787#issuecomment-729251958


   > @ctubbsii is your request specifically that the PR be changed to allow for 
upgrades that maintain user credentials?
   
   I didn't necessarily have a request. Just an observation that merging this 
as-is would break users on upgrade, and that it overlapped with an old JIRA 
issue.
   
   > e.g. would an approach where the algorithm is configurable but defaults to 
the current SHA-256 be acceptable? that would allow existing users to continue 
to work as-is while allowing those with more stringent requirements to make a 
trade-off decision on starting from a new set of user credentials vs trying to 
get an exception in a certification process?
   
   That approach would allow new users to use stronger hashing, while not 
affecting current users. However, if we make it configurable, that would 
provide a path for eager security-conscious users to break themselves by 
switching the algorithm. I think a better approach would be to implement an 
upgrade path to SHA-512 by detecting the old format when a user authenticates, 
and the system automatically replacing it with a new ZK node using the crypt(3) 
format with commons-codec. On startup, we can warn if there are any users in ZK 
that have passwords hashed with the old format, with instructions to 
authenticate to upgrade.
   
   This would take care of the upgrade issue, ensure stronger security by 
default, would not allow users to break themselves, and would use a standard 
serialization that is robust in the face of new algorithms being added in 
future.
   
   If somebody wants to do this, I know I would appreciate it, and I think it 
would add great value to the project. @BukrosSzabolcs is welcome to tackle it, 
if they are interested.


----------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service.
To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the
URL above to go to the specific comment.

For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at:
[email protected]


Reply via email to