Overview Of Security Methods; Selecting Appropriate Authentication Methods - Netscape DIRECTORY SERVER 6.2 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Overview of Security Methods

Overview of Security Methods
Directory Server offers a number of methods that you can use to design an
overall security policy that is adapted to your needs. Your security policy
should be strong enough to prevent sensitive information from being modified
or retrieved by unauthorized users while simple enough to administer easily. A
complex security policy can lead to mistakes that either prevent people from
accessing information that you want them to access or, worse, allow people to
modify or retrieve directory information that you do not want them to access.
Directory Server provides the following security methods:
• Authentication—A means for one party verifies another's identity. For
example, a client gives a password to Directory Server during an LDAP
bind operation.
• Password policies—Defines the criteria that a password must satisfy to be
considered valid, for example, age, length, and syntax.
• Encryption—Protects the privacy of information. When data is encrypted, it is
scrambled in a way that only the recipient can understand.
• Access control—Tailors the access rights granted to different directory users,
and provides a means of specifying required credentials or bind attributes.
• Account inactivation—Disables a user account, group of accounts or an entire
domain so that all authentication attempts are automatically rejected.
• Signing with SSL—Maintains the integrity of information. If information is
signed, the recipient can determine that it was not tampered with during
transit.
• Auditing—Allows you to determine if the security of your directory has been
compromised. For example, you can audit the log files maintained by your
directory.
These tools for maintaining security can be used in combination in your security
design. You can also use other features of the directory such as replication and data
distribution to support your security design.

Selecting Appropriate Authentication Methods

A basic decision you need to make regarding your security policy is how users
access the directory. Will you allow anonymous access, or will you require every
person who uses your directory to bind to the directory?
138 Netscape Directory Server Deployment Guide • December 2003