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Password Security Password Guide for IT Users, Developers, System Administrators, and Senior Management

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Password Security Password Guide for IT Users, Developers, System Administrators, and Senior Management Guide Password security Password guide for IT users, developers, system administrators, and senior management. Table of contents Introduction ....................................................................................................... 3 Overall recommendations .................................................................................... 4 Hacker approaches ............................................................................................. 5 Password challenges ........................................................................................... 7 Tip #1 – What is a strong password? .................................................................... 9 Tip #2 – Multifactor authentication ..................................................................... 12 Tip #3 – How to deal with password overload ...................................................... 13 Tip #4 - Awareness and training ......................................................................... 17 Tip #5 - Changing all default passwords .............................................................. 18 Tip #6 - Focus on administrator, service and remote user accounts ........................ 19 Tip #7 – Account lockout and login monitoring ..................................................... 20 Tip #8 – Secure handling of passwords in systems ............................................... 22 Tip #9 - Organizational password policy .............................................................. 24 References....................................................................................................... 25 Appendix ......................................................................................................... 26 Kastellet 30 2100 København Ø Telefon: + 45 3332 5580 E-mail: [email protected] Based on Danish version: 1st edition, August 2016. Revised edition, February 2020. Front page illustration: LuisPortugal/Getty Images. 2 Introduction Access to usernames and passwords is a coveted gateway for hackers into, in particular, public and private companies’ sensitive information. Passwords are often easy to obtain or crack, making them an extremely effective point of entry to gain access to information. Passwords remain one of the best ways to protect sensitive and confidential information and prevent unauthorized access. Most password guides recommend the use of different passwords for different accounts, just as they advise the use of longer and more complex passwords to make it harder for hackers to break them. Many IT users struggle to come up with new passwords that fulfil the password criteria in terms of uniqueness, length and complexity. As a result, storing passwords in places that allow them to be easily accessed may be a tempting option. However, not all storage techniques are safe, increasing the risk of passwords falling into the wrong hands. In other words, in an effort to improve security, the exact opposite may occur. This guide describes some of the most popular hacking techniques and some of the risks of password use, providing a number of password security tips to suit the risk profiles and specific security needs of organizations. This guide is directed at: IT users and is intended to serve as inspiration for new ways to address password and password protection issues. Tips 1-3 provide examples of strong passwords. The management level responsible for defining specific password policy best practices. For further information, please read Tips 1-4. The IT operations/supplier level where it may be relevant to prepare procedures based on the organization’s specific needs rather than on general best practices. In many cases, the IT operations department will be the right partner to include in decisions on acquisitions of the proper technology to support the organization’s special needs in terms of composition, use and protection of passwords. For further information, please read Tips 5-8. IT developers/system administrators responsible for ensuring that user interaction with passwords – as well as communication and storage of passwords – is performed in a way that protects their confidentiality and integrity. For further information, please read Tips 6-8. Senior management responsible for maintaining focus on information security within the organization, including defining the IT security framework. The senior management is responsible for securing the resources necessary to achieve the desired security level. For further information, please read Tips 4 and 9. 3 Overall recommendations The following pages detail the issues concerning password selection and use, and provide recommendations on how to address them. The recommendations and principles listed below are general, not exhaustive, and in some cases additional or alternative measures may be required. Choice of passwords: Choose a password strength that is appropriate for the asset the password protects. Remember that password length is more important than password complexity. Do not recycle passwords. Use a password manager to help remember the many unique passwords. Supplement the password with multifactor authentication where possible. Password policies: Do not set fixed complexity requirements for passwords but offer advice on how to choose safe passwords. Assess whether mandatory password changes improve or decrease the level of security. Use single sign-on to expedite user access to the organization’s systems. Implement multifactor authentication where possible, and as a minimum for all remote access solutions and privileged accounts. Do not recycle frequently used or leaked passwords. Support best practices for safe handling of passwords through regular awareness activities. 4 Hacker approaches Access to IT systems is often governed by usernames and passwords, making them valuable to hackers as tools of entry. Hackers target attacks by, for instance, exploiting their knowledge of users and their passwords. This knowledge may be transferred to a number of tools that help hackers to “guess” or read passwords, for instance through installation of a key logger that registers all keyboard activity. Described below are some of the techniques used by hackers to obtain or crack passwords. Social engineering Social engineering is a widely popular technique used to gain Spear phishing access to passwords. In social Spear phishing is similar to regular phishing engineering, the hacker tries to but differs in the sense that it is targeted lure the password from the towards a specific recipient and uses social user, for instance by sending an engineering techniques. Spear phishing email posing as someone whom attempts are often directed at specific the user knows and trusts. individuals, and the emails are typically Typically, the hacker will send customized to appear particularly relevant, an email to the intended target, convincing and credible to the recipient by asking them to reply to the using the person’s name, information related email, thereby disclosing specifically to the recipient, or relevant files information that the hacker can harvested by the hacker in a previous subsequently use to launch an reconnaissance phase. attack. Another technique involves sending an email that looks trustworthy, but which contains an embedded link to a false website or an attached file containing malicious code (malware). If the recipient clicks on the link or opens the attached file, malicious code may be installed or activated on their computer, allowing the hacker access to the username or password, or to internal IT systems containing sensitive business information. Password reuse Many users often recycle passwords – at work as well as at home. Password reuse carries a high risk that the hacker may gain access to more than one system when a password is leaked or otherwise compromised. It is particularly critical when the same password is indiscriminately used for access to systems with low security as well as to systems with high security demands. Dictionary, rainbow table and brute force In a so-called dictionary attack, the hacker deploys a list of potential, often commonly used, passwords. The attack is an attempt to guess passwords by systematically trying combinations and variations of common words. 5 Using a list containing a wide number of different words increases the likelihood of finding the right password. However, from the hacker’s perspective, the problem with this technique is that many IT systems have features that block multiple password attempts. A rainbow table is a password cracking tool that can be used to find out what plaintext password produces a particular hash. The technique is similar to the dictionary and brute force attack techniques but differs in the sense that the attack is performed by looking into pre-computed rainbow tables and a number of hash calculations. This technique reduces the amount of data in the rainbow table as opposed to a simple lookup table with one entry per hash. The reason they are called rainbow tables is that each column uses a different reduction function. If a hacker knows the hash value of a password1, it can be used Password spray attacks to facilitate brute force A hacker may attack a system by entering popular attacks (further passwords across all accounts of a particular information on hashing of system. In a large organization with hundreds of passwords can be found users, chances are high that the hacker will in Tip #8 in the eventually guess one or more passwords. This appendix).
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