It has been a common theme here for some years now to increase our password security. Two years ago (or was it three?) we rolled out Universal Passwords in an effort to gain more flexibility in the passwords we support. We've had password sync between Novell, AD, and Solaris for y-e-a-r-s, so our users have grown used to single sign-on. I've talked a couple of times about password complexity and how it works in a multiple system environment, twice in October (the 16th, and 17th). I've even talked about why Novell had to resort to Universal Passwords, because the NDS Password was too secure.
When we got our new Vice Provost, we got a person who wasn't familiar with the history of our organization. These sorts of things are always a mixed blessing. In this case, he wanted to get password aging going. The previous incumbent had considered it, but the project was on perma-hold while he worked certain political issues. The new guy managed to make a convincing argument to the University leadership, and the fiat to do password aging came down from the very top. And So It Shall Be. And Is. As with our existing password sync systems, this is a system we built from internal components and uses no Novell IDM stuff at all. It works for us.
Yesterday we got asked to make certain that the Novell password was case-sensitive.
I thought it already was, as Universal Passwords are case sensitive. But testing showed that you could set a mixed-case password on an account, and log in to Novell with the lower-case password. It won't allow workstation login on domained PCs as the AD password is mixed-case. In the case of students who only ever login using web-services, they sometimes got a shock when using a lab for the first time and the password they'd been using for months didn't work.
There are two things working against us here.
Looking at what would break if we turn NDS passwords off, I got a large list. We have some older servers in the tree (NetWare 6.0, and one lone NetWare 5.1 out there), and some console utilities would just plain break. Plus, at least one of us is still using ArcServe of an unknown version and I have zero clue if that would break if we remove NDS passwords (I'm guessing so, but I have no proof). Also, all older clients, such as the DOS boot disks used by our desktop group for imaging and any lingering Win9x we have out there, would break. Not Good.
The list of what'll break if we go to eDir 8.8 is shorter. As that allows the continued setting of the NDS Password, the amount of broken things out there is reduced. We'll have to put a specific dsrepair.nlm on all servers in the tree, but that is easier than working around breaking things. So, we're going to go to eDir 8.8.
This is not without its own problems, as some things DO still break. That lone NetWare 5.1 server will have to go. I've been assured that it is redundant and can go, but it'll need to ACTUALLY go. The NetWare 6.0 servers should be fine, as they're all at a DS rev that'll work with 8.8. Some of the 8.7.3 servers are still at 8.7.3.0 and should get updated for safety's sake. Also, all administrative workstations need to have NICI 2.7.x installed on them in order to understand the new eDir dialect, but that's a minor detail.
We won't be able to take advantage of some of the other nifty things eDir 8.8 introduces, as were still 95% NetWare when it comes to replica holders. Encrypted replication and multiple eDir instances will have to wait.
I HOPE to get eDir 8.8 in before class start, as the downtime required for DIB conversion is not trivial, and the first 4 weeks of class are always pretty hard on the DS servers due to updates.
When we got our new Vice Provost, we got a person who wasn't familiar with the history of our organization. These sorts of things are always a mixed blessing. In this case, he wanted to get password aging going. The previous incumbent had considered it, but the project was on perma-hold while he worked certain political issues. The new guy managed to make a convincing argument to the University leadership, and the fiat to do password aging came down from the very top. And So It Shall Be. And Is. As with our existing password sync systems, this is a system we built from internal components and uses no Novell IDM stuff at all. It works for us.
Yesterday we got asked to make certain that the Novell password was case-sensitive.
I thought it already was, as Universal Passwords are case sensitive. But testing showed that you could set a mixed-case password on an account, and log in to Novell with the lower-case password. It won't allow workstation login on domained PCs as the AD password is mixed-case. In the case of students who only ever login using web-services, they sometimes got a shock when using a lab for the first time and the password they'd been using for months didn't work.
There are two things working against us here.
- We did NOT set the "NMAS Authentication = On" setting in the Client we push. This means that while we are setting a universal password, none of our Novell Clients have been told to use them.
- LDAP logins to edir 8.7.3 use the NDS password by default first, and those are caseless. This means that anything using an LDAP bind, all of our web-sites that require authentication, will have a caseless password.
Looking at what would break if we turn NDS passwords off, I got a large list. We have some older servers in the tree (NetWare 6.0, and one lone NetWare 5.1 out there), and some console utilities would just plain break. Plus, at least one of us is still using ArcServe of an unknown version and I have zero clue if that would break if we remove NDS passwords (I'm guessing so, but I have no proof). Also, all older clients, such as the DOS boot disks used by our desktop group for imaging and any lingering Win9x we have out there, would break. Not Good.
The list of what'll break if we go to eDir 8.8 is shorter. As that allows the continued setting of the NDS Password, the amount of broken things out there is reduced. We'll have to put a specific dsrepair.nlm on all servers in the tree, but that is easier than working around breaking things. So, we're going to go to eDir 8.8.
This is not without its own problems, as some things DO still break. That lone NetWare 5.1 server will have to go. I've been assured that it is redundant and can go, but it'll need to ACTUALLY go. The NetWare 6.0 servers should be fine, as they're all at a DS rev that'll work with 8.8. Some of the 8.7.3 servers are still at 8.7.3.0 and should get updated for safety's sake. Also, all administrative workstations need to have NICI 2.7.x installed on them in order to understand the new eDir dialect, but that's a minor detail.
We won't be able to take advantage of some of the other nifty things eDir 8.8 introduces, as were still 95% NetWare when it comes to replica holders. Encrypted replication and multiple eDir instances will have to wait.
I HOPE to get eDir 8.8 in before class start, as the downtime required for DIB conversion is not trivial, and the first 4 weeks of class are always pretty hard on the DS servers due to updates.
I think you can set a UP policy for your students and teachers and another UP policy for your admin users and non-UP compatible stuff, in the other policy you can just disable UP.