Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Challenge/response questions?
From: "Schumacher, Adam J" <ADAMSCHUMACHER () CREIGHTON EDU>
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:23:38 -0500
We use security questions plus having access to a secondary email account or cellphone capable of receiving text messages to reset passwords. We provide 15 possible questions to choose from, of which they must select three (and answer a random selection of 2). Best practices for questions would involve things that aren't likely to change over time (excludes "whats your favorite _____?" type questions), things that aren't too easy to guess or find out, and have high entropy (lots of possible answers). Some examples of decent questions might include: What is your oldest sibling's birthday? What is the address of the first house you lived in? What hospital where you born at? What was the color of your first car? What was the make/model of your first car? On 4/10/09 12:57 PM, "Witmer, Robert" <r.witmer () SNHU EDU> wrote:
There must be a better way! We have a customized single sign on solution and are looking at self service password resets from a web page. Everything after authentication has been worked out. Currently we are thinking of using challenge/response type questions to verify account ownership. However, either most of the information is available on line (mother's maiden name = genealogy sites) or includes personally identifying information (SSN last 4) that we don't collect and don't want to use. Anyone have a better idea? If not, anyone have better challenge/response questions? Regards, Bob
sha1( Adam Schumacher Information Security Engineer Creighton University Don't share your password with ANYONE, EVER. This means YOU! 402-280-2383 402-672-1732 ) = 1a72637cf94189654ab1a827520a5e41738f41b0
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Current thread:
- Challenge/response questions? Witmer, Robert (Apr 10)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Mike Waller (Apr 10)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Bob Bayn (Apr 10)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Kevin Shalla (Apr 10)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? McCrary, Barbara (Apr 10)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? j.price (Apr 10)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Dave Ferguson (Apr 13)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Schumacher, Adam J (Apr 13)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Gary Flynn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Gary Flynn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Gary Flynn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Gary Flynn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Bob Bayn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Gary Flynn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Charles Buchholtz (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Gary Flynn (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Leon DuPree (Apr 14)
- Re: Challenge/response questions? Ken Connelly (Apr 14)
(Thread continues...)