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    Radius authentication passphrase length

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    • B
      billm
      last edited by

      OK, here's my comments on the Encrypt() function

      
              // Loop 16 times (md5() output / 2)
              // This limits the effective password to 16 characters - is this really in the radius spec???
              for ($i=0;$i<=15;$i++) {
                  // Convert md5 hex output to decimal
                  if (2*$i>strlen($md5checksum)) $m=0; else $m=hexdec(substr($md5checksum,2*$i,2));
                  // Do nothing????
                  if ($i>strlen($keyRA)) $k=0; else $k=ord(substr($keyRA,$i,1));
                  // get the decimal character value for this character in the password
                  if ($i>strlen($password)) $p=0; else $p=ord(substr($password,$i,1));
                  // xor the md5 character with the password character
                  $c=$m^$p;
                  // Convert back to 8-bit output
                  $output.=chr($c);
              }
      
      

      In reading the PECL code, I think what it's doing is XORing only the first 16 chars and leaving the rest alone

      for (i = 0;  i < 16;  i++)
                              h->request[h->pass_pos + pos + i] =
                                  md5 _^= h->pass[pos + i];

      Gut feel is that this also is wrong, but try adding:
      $outstr = substr_replace($password, $output, 0);
      right before the return in Encrypt() and return $outstr instead of $output

      The answer is in the PECL code I'm sure, I just don't have the time to do all the research on this one.

      –Bill_

      pfSense core developer
      blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
      twitter - billmarquette

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      • B
        buraglio
        last edited by

        In reading the RFC (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2865.html Section 5.2), it sounds like it's skipping the second step to me:

        If the password is longer than 16 characters, a second one-way MD5
              hash is calculated over a stream of octets consisting of the
              shared secret followed by the result of the first xor.  That hash
              is XORed with the second 16 octet segment of the password and
              placed in the second 16 octets of the String field of the User-
              Password Attribute.

        If necessary, this operation is repeated, with each xor result
              being used along with the shared secret to generate the next hash
              to xor the next segment of the password, to no more than 128
              characters.

        This isn't really my core competency so I may be wrong.

        https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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        • S
          sullrich
          last edited by

          @buraglio:

          In reading the RFC (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2865.html Section 5.2), it sounds like it's skipping the second step to me:       
               
                If the password is longer than 16 characters, a second one-way MD5
                hash is calculated over a stream of octets consisting of the
                shared secret followed by the result of the first xor.  That hash
                is XORed with the second 16 octet segment of the password and
                placed in the second 16 octets of the String field of the User-
                Password Attribute.

          If necessary, this operation is repeated, with each xor result
                being used along with the shared secret to generate the next hash
                to xor the next segment of the password, to no more than 128
                characters.

          This isn't really my core competency so I may be wrong.

          Heh.  We'll definately want to get these fixes back to m0n0wall once this is settled.

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          • B
            buraglio
            last edited by

            I'm going to do more reading on it.  Do you believe that the asumption that it is skipping the second step (as referenced above) is correct?

            https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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            • S
              sullrich
              last edited by

              @buraglio:

              I'm going to do more reading on it.  Do you believe that the asumption that it is skipping the second step (as referenced above) is correct?

              Yep.

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              • B
                billm
                last edited by

                OK, I have something for you to test - it's not complete, but it'll allow you (hopefully) to test passwords up to 32 chars.  If it works, I'll clean it up a bit and make it support the full 128 chars we should.

                http://www.pfsense.org/~billm/radius_auth.diff

                –Bill

                pfSense core developer
                blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
                twitter - billmarquette

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                • B
                  buraglio
                  last edited by

                  Excellent, I'll patch and have some results for you by early tomorrow.

                  nb

                  https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                  • B
                    billm
                    last edited by

                    Just updated the patch - should work up to 128 chars now.  I'll run some quick tests through it myself.

                    –Bill

                    pfSense core developer
                    blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
                    twitter - billmarquette

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                    • B
                      buraglio
                      last edited by

                      What version are you patching this against?  I'm running BETA2 (BETA4 has issues booting on my dell 2850's) and had some errors with redirection after applying the patch.  I updated to the /usr/local/captiveportal in CVS (as well as added the authLDAP.inc that it requires) but still have some errors.  I'd like to mirror what you have been testing on if possible to rule out any version issues.

                      https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                      • B
                        billm
                        last edited by

                        @buraglio:

                        What version are you patching this against?  I'm running BETA2 (BETA4 has issues booting on my dell 2850's) and had some errors with redirection after applying the patch.  I updated to the /usr/local/captiveportal in CVS (as well as added the authLDAP.inc that it requires) but still have some errors.  I'd like to mirror what you have been testing on if possible to rule out any version issues.

                        I don't have the box in front of my now that I'm at work, but it should apply cleanly against revision 1.12.2.1 of radius_authentication.inc:
                        http://pfsense.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/pfSense/usr/local/captiveportal/radius_authentication.inc?rev=1.12.2.1;content-type=text%2Fplain

                        Here's the patched Encrypt() function (all I changed)

                        
                        /*
                         * $password = users password
                         * $key = shared secret
                         * $RA = Request Authenticator (random value it seems like)
                         */
                        function Encrypt($password,$key,$RA) {
                                global $debug;
                        
                                if ($debug)
                                    echo "
                        key: $key
                        password: $password
                        
                        * * *
                        
                        \n";
                        
                                $output="";
                                $passlen = strlen($password);
                                /* figure out the number of xor rounds we need to run through */
                                for ($i=16; $i <= 128; $i += 16) {
                                        if ($len <= $i) {
                                                $rounds = $i/16;
                                                break;
                                        }
                                }
                        
                                $z = 0; // How many chars have we xor'd
                                for ($x=1; $x<=$rounds; $x++) {
                                        $keyRA=$key.$RA;
                                        $md5checksum=md5($keyRA);
                        
                                        // Loop 16 times (md5() output / 2)
                                        // This limits the effective password to 16 characters - is this really in the radius spec???
                                        for ($i=0;$i<=15;$i++) {
                                                // Convert md5 hex output to decimal (md5 lengths are 32 chars)
                                                if (2*$i>32) $m=0; else $m=hexdec(substr($md5checksum,2*$i,2));
                                                // get the decimal character value for this character in the password
                                                if ($z>$passlen-1) $p=0; else $p=ord(substr($password,$z,1));
                                                // xor the md5 character with the password character
                                                $c=$m^$p;
                                                // Convert back to 8-bit output
                                                $output.=chr($c);
                                                $z++;
                                        }
                                        $RA=$output;
                                }
                        
                                return $output;
                        }
                        
                        

                        –Bill

                        pfSense core developer
                        blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
                        twitter - billmarquette

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                        • B
                          buraglio
                          last edited by

                          OK, I got it all cleaned up and patched it.  It is yielding the same error from the debug info.  From the debug output it looks liek it's grabbing 16 characters.

                          "username is blahblah with len 8 encryptedpassword is …........with len 16 ........"

                          https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                          • B
                            billm
                            last edited by

                            Any debug from the Encrypt() function?  I tested it with 15-17 character passwords and it seemed to do the right thing there.  I don't have a way to test against RADIUS, but the function looks good now :-/

                            –Bill

                            pfSense core developer
                            blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
                            twitter - billmarquette

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                            • B
                              buraglio
                              last edited by

                              No real debug info from the Encrypt() function.  I can dig a little deeper.  I can also give you access to the box if you'd like.

                              https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                              • B
                                buraglio
                                last edited by

                                So it does allow for shorter paswords but generates some errors:

                                
                                radius-port: 1812
                                radius-host: 10.10.102.2
                                username: blahblah
                                
                                key: TestRadiusKey
                                password: testpasswd
                                username is blahblah with len 8 encryptedpassword is šJ»[à6%¤2ÍǃhÄ with len 10 nasHostname is portal-a.lab.local with len 18 
                                writing 95 bytes
                                
                                Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/local/captiveportal/radius_authentication.inc:48) in /usr/local/captiveportal/index.php on line 335 
                                radius-port: 1813
                                radius-host: 10.10.2.25
                                username: blahblah
                                
                                username is blahblah with len 8 nasHostname is portal-a.lab.local with len 18 
                                writing 113 bytes
                                [/code]
                                
                                The errors on the RADIUS server for a >16 char passphrase are as i'd expect for an incorrect passphrase.  
                                
                                

                                https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                                • B
                                  billm
                                  last edited by

                                  @buraglio:

                                  No real debug info from the Encrypt() function.  I can dig a little deeper.  I can also give you access to the box if you'd like.

                                  It'd be helpful to be able to point at a radius server with an account that has a 17 (or larger) character password.  I've got no way of testing that I'm following the RFC correctly - 16 and under still work with the new code I assume?

                                  –Bill

                                  pfSense core developer
                                  blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
                                  twitter - billmarquette

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                                  • B
                                    buraglio
                                    last edited by

                                    It authenticates with the new code with a RADIUS box with >=16 passwords but the redirection after fails with some php errors.  I assume that is a cosmetic fix and not critical.  I can work on getting a radius box up probably tomorrow if that'd be helpful.

                                    https://www.forwardingplane.net/

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • B
                                      billm
                                      last edited by

                                      @buraglio:

                                      It authenticates with the new code with a RADIUS box with >=16 passwords but the redirection after fails with some php errors.  I assume that is a cosmetic fix and not critical.  I can work on getting a radius box up probably tomorrow if that'd be helpful.

                                      So it now authenticates accounts with > 16 char passwords?  And authenticates accounts with < 16 char passwords?  Only a PHP error to cleanup?  Good news.  Maybe the PHP error is coming from the $debug define.

                                      –Bill

                                      pfSense core developer
                                      blog - http://www.ucsecurity.com/
                                      twitter - billmarquette

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                                      • B
                                        buraglio
                                        last edited by

                                        @billm:

                                        @buraglio:

                                        It authenticates with the new code with a RADIUS box with >=16 passwords but the redirection after fails with some php errors.  I assume that is a cosmetic fix and not critical.  I can work on getting a radius box up probably tomorrow if that'd be helpful.

                                        So it now authenticates accounts with > 16 char passwords?  And authenticates accounts with < 16 char passwords?  Only a PHP error to cleanup?  Good news.  Maybe the PHP error is coming from the $debug define.

                                        –Bill

                                        Actually it only authenticates 16 char or below passwords.  I mistyped.  Sorry.

                                        https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                                        • B
                                          buraglio
                                          last edited by

                                          Has anyone else noticed this behavior?  Would it be beneficial for me to set up a RADIUS box and give you access to test against?

                                          https://www.forwardingplane.net/

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                                          • S
                                            sullrich
                                            last edited by

                                            @buraglio:

                                            Has anyone else noticed this behavior?  Would it be beneficial for me to set up a RADIUS box and give you access to test against?

                                            Yes, please do.  Bill does not have access to a tesitng environment for this.

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