Network Security Example

Network Security Example Network Security â€" Essay Example > IntroductionKerberos is a network-authenticated protocol that was developed by Massachusetts institute of technology as a solution to network solution problems. It uses a secret key cryptography to provide strong tool of authentication and strong cryptography over the network to help the client secure the information systems and applications across the entire organisation. It uses a strong cryptography where a client can prove his or her identity to a server on an insecure network connection. Once the server and the client have proved their identity through Kerberos, they can now encrypt all of their communications to guarantee privacy of their data. David Mills, 2006.To use Kerberos in computer security systems, one must authenticate with a Kerberos server to gain access to the key server. To do this requires a Kerberos server on your network and a “Kerberized” version of key access. Users with Kerberos authentication server can authenticate users to key-servers. To gain acce ss to a Kerberized key server, the users must type their known name and password, as kerberos server provides authentic services only. The ticket granting server must with no doubts ascertain that the authentication server identifies the client as the true client he purports to be. S. M. Bellovin 1989. Kerberos is designed such that its authentication protocol demands that there has to be a Kerberos client-side authentication module on each key access client and a server- side authentication module. Donald Knuth 1997.AuthenticationKerberos security system uses key distribution center (KDC) to safeguard data and information from access to unauthorized users. A key distribution center is a part of a cryptosystem with symmetric encryption aimed at reducing the risks associated in exchanging keys. It operates in systems within which some users are permitted to use services at some times and not others. An operation with a key distribution center involves the user making a request to u se a service, The key distribution center use cryptographic techniques to verify the authentication of the users and whether the user has permission to access to the service requested or not. The server verifies the submitted ticket and if the user meets all the required conditions He or She is permitted access. In most cases, the key distribution center shares a key with each of all the other parties and produces a ticket based on a server key which the client receives and submits it to the appropriate server. G. R. Blakley 1979In Kerberos, authentication occurs between clients and servers. The client gets the service from the Kerberos service. The key distribution center implements the authentication service and the ticket granting service. The key distribution center maintains a copy of every password associated with every password associated with every principal and hence it is very important that the key distribution center be under tight security. Most key distribution cente r implementations keep the principals in a database, which is usually manipulated by an administration server. G. R. Blakley 1979.Time stamping entails provision of a sequence of characters showing the date and time at which an event occurred. The data is presented in a consistent manner allowing easy comparison of two different records and noting progress over time. It is usually used for logging events in which each event is marked with a timestamp. In key distribution center, the time server reads the actual time from a reference clock and distributes the information to the clients using a computer network. This can be done by use of Network Time Protocol (NTP). Y. Rekhter, R. Moskowitz, D. Karrenberg, G. de Groot, E. Lear.