Re: Self-service password reset approaches

[Steve Werby <steve.werby () UTSA EDU>]

Dave,

 

It's good to see others considering the progressive approach that other
industries have already adopted. Security questions are fraught with
problems and put the users' accounts with other organizations at risk.

 

We've been designing and developing a system to move from password
resets via answering security questions to resets via unique code sent
to an alternate email address or mobile phone number via SMS. It's
entirely optional, but since we'll be phasing out (and deleting) the
security questions and answers, the next available disclosed alternative
will be a physical visit to an authorized office who will require ID to
be displayed. We're bundling the new process with a change from a
typical password complexity/composition policy to a 15+ character
passphrase. We're doing usability testing with a range of users right
now and our pilot starts in March.

 

-- 

Steve Werby

Information Security Officer

Office of Information Security (OIS)

The University of Texas at San Antonio

 

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of David Curry
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:18 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Self-service password reset approaches

 

It's been a few years since this has come up on the list, so here goes.

 

For various administrative reasons having nothing to do with security we
need to make some big changes to our self-service password reset
approach, and I'm trying to capitalize on the opportunity to improve its
security at the same time. At the moment, we do what (we think) many
other schools do -- provide student id number, netid (username), and
date of birth, and you can reset your password. The problem with this
is, of course, it was never that hard to come up with that information
in the first place, and the combination of students doing more and more
stuff online and the growing use of social media makes it just that much
easier.

 

So... what other approaches are you taking?

 

There is of course the "pick a few security questions" approach. But
it's hard to come up with a set of questions whose answers aren't
trivial to guess (either because they have little if any entropy or
because the answer is on Facebook). And if you do manage to come up with
a set of hard questions, people can't remember what their answers were.
Do you use this approach? If so, how have you addressed these problems?

 

We've been tossing around the idea of using something similar to the
"email confirmation" links you see many forum-type websites use. In this
approach, we would ask the user for some identifying information (netid,
student id number, etc.) and then look up the email addresses we have on
file. The user could choose any non-university email address in the
list, and we would send a randomly-generated URL to that account, which
the user could then click on to reset his/her password. Users for whom
we have no alternative email on file (or for whom all the ones we have
on file are "no good") would have to call the help desk. Does anybody
use an approach like this? How well is it working (or not working)?

 

Any other "interesting" approaches out there?

 

Thanks,

--Dave

 

--

DAVID A. CURRY, CISSP * DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SECURITY

THE NEW SCHOOL * 55 W. 13TH STREET * NEW YORK, NY 10011

+1 212 229-5300 x4728 * david.curry () newschool edu