WebApp Sec: RE: Securing password between webserver & appserver.

["Martin O'Neal" <martin.oneal () corsaire com>]

> You are right.  Without changing your 
> architecture or requirements you would 
> have to have the client encrypt the 
> message before sending it through an 
> untrusted web server.
Just stating the obvious here though; if the web server is genuinely
untrusted, then logically none of this can be secured anyway.

An attacker at the web server is a classic MITM. All they need to do is
remove the client side auth code as it passes on the way out to the
client, and then they will always receive a clear-text password back
from the client. POW!

If you don't trust the server, then a web delivery mechanism probably
isn't the right architecture at all.

Martin...