[4806] in Kerberos
Re: Master database key
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Wed Mar 15 13:21:39 1995
To: kerberos@MIT.EDU
Date: 15 Mar 1995 18:13:51 GMT
From: jik@cam.ov.com (Jonathan I. Kamens)
In article <3k6q34$rq5@nms.telepost.no>, Fornavn Etternavn <SNOOLB@calvin.nhidh.nki.no> writes:
|> All the passwords in the Kerberos database are encrypted in the master database key.
|>
|> How is this key generated the first time?
kdb5_create prompts for a password, which is turned into a key just as user
passwords are turned into keys.
|> How is this key changed, and how often should it be changed?
There is, unfortunately, no easy way to change the master key of a database
(at least, there wasn't in krb5b2, and I don't think this has changed in
krb5b4pl3).
A number of months ago, I implemented changes to kdb5_edit to make it possible
to dump the database and at the same time change the master key and/or the
realm of the principals in the dumped database (this dump could then be
reloaded to effect the master-key change). Unfortunately, my changes were
lost in a disk crash (the responsibility for doing daily backups has since
been transferred from the person who was doing them (or, more accurately, not
doing them even though he was supposed to be) to me, and *I* do backups every
day :-). I hope to reimplement it at some point; it wasn't that hard to do,
other than the fact that the kdb5_edit code is gross....
--
Jonathan Kamens | OpenVision Technologies, Inc. | jik@cam.ov.com
