NASA NEX & OpenID -- Observations -- Andreas Matheus Secure Dimensions

Does NASA accept OpenID login? Does NASA accept OpenID login and rely on the level of user identity assurance level 0? –NO! But what do they do? For the NEX – NASA EARTH EXCHANGE – they do the following (c) Secure Dimensions2NASA NEX & OpenID

Go to the NEX homepage If you go they require you to login via HTTP BASIC AUTH, using your NEX accounthttps://c3.nasa.gov –=> No username/password = no login If you go then you can choose a login methodhttps://c3.nasa.gov/nex –E.g. OpenID as I do not have an account 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions3NASA NEX & OpenID

NEX Login No – don‘t have one  Yes – do have one 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions4NASA NEX & OpenID

Sign In with your OpenID 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions5NASA NEX & OpenID

After Login... Your Browser gets redirected back to ?NASA? Looks like a perfect Phishing Attack to me! 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions6NASA NEX & OpenID

After accepting the redirect back to NASA Surprise – You arrive a the „Create New OpenID User“ page 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions7NASA NEX & OpenID

What happens next? You need to fill out the form You will receive an to confirm Your account creation with NASA is then pending (c) Secure Dimensions8NASA NEX & OpenID

„Conclusions“ from Observation NASA NEX does not allow straight OpenID login! NASA NEX is accepting OpenID login, but only if your identity was checked by NASA before So essentially, NASA has applied their on extra security to lift OpenID identity assurance level 0 to their own level Problem: –You will end up in one NEX account for each of your OpenID accounts –Not interoperable if each „federation“ service provider uses on selection of OpenID providers 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions9NASA NEX & OpenID

This fits the SAML2 / OpenID proposal SAML 2 as the standard for exchanging user assertions and establishing identity assurance throught trusted Identity Providers Users from trusted IdPs are directly accepted Users from OpenId IdPs require extra checking Advantage of SAML2 base vs. NASA approach –Not each Service Provider must create accounts themselves – trusted Identity Providers would do that –Guarantee to the user that once accredited at the SAML2 / OpenID IdP, the account would work with all Service Providers and not only NEX from NASA 2012 (c) Secure Dimensions10NASA NEX & OpenID