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

["Calderon, Juan Carlos (GE, Corporate, consultant)" <juan.calderon () ge com>]

Don that is an interesting suggestion

Do you have more specific information, since I only know that SSL/IPSec
can be end-to-end in a per link basis, but the idea of a real End-to-End
encryption using SSL, that is the case of Chintan is interesting. 

Any link or whitepaper on how to do this in Tomcat as you mention?

Regards,
Juan Carlos

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com]
On Behalf Of bigbert007
Sent: Martes, 08 de Septiembre de 2009 10:34 p.m.
To: webappsec () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Securing password between webserver & appserver.

Till - great recommendation, I'll expand on it.

Depending on the back end app server, there is usually a mechanism in 
place for creating a trust between the web server and appserver and then

encrypting that connection with SSL.  When credentials are entered the 
entire pipe is encrypted from the client > webserver > app server based 
upon that trust relationship and SSL- encrypted connection

Websphere has this option available as does Tomcat.  I suspect that 
Coldfusion and other app servers have something similar.

Good luck.

Don

Till Elsner wrote:
> What about securing (i.e. encrypting) the connection between web 
> server and app server itself, like connecting to the app server from 
> the web server via a SSH-forwarded local port? You could keep the 
> original authentication method and have the entire communication 
> encrypted anyway.
>
> Greetings
> Till
>
> Am 07.09.2009 um 08:04 schrieb Chintan Oza:
>
> > Dear All,
> >
> > We have a web application which perform user authentication on
> > id+password basis.
> >
> > The architecture is like this.
> > Browser<-HTTPS->WebServer<-->AppServer
> >
> > We have a requirement where password should not be available to the
> > WebServer (even in hashed format).
> >
> > Only solution that I can think of is having an Applet performing PKI
> > encryption on the password before submitting the form.
> >
> > Please suggest if there are any better alternatives.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Chintan