Re: University credentials used by third parties

[Adam Carlson <ajcarlson () BERKELEY EDU>]

I will reserve comment on the gambling portion of the question because that is just bizarre and I don't have much to 
say about that.  Regarding a third-party website having a student's credentials cached, this is certainly true of RIM 
for the unmanaged Blackberry IMAP Service and Gmail for anyone who wants to download their campus mail to a Gmail 
account (unless they set up forwarding, which I think a fair number our students do instead).  If you are publishing 
IMAPS or POPS services to the world, then there's a high chance that someone will use some outside email provider to 
connect to your campus email server with POPS or IMAPS and download their mail (and have their credentials cached in 
the process).  Unfortunately, this could include http://www.haxor_bobs_email_emporeum.com or some similarly shady 
service provider with very lax security.   

This is really only a major problem if your email credentials are the same as your campus login/SSO credentials (which 
they are for us).  

However, for people that run wireless networks that require authentication you also need to look out for companies like 
this:

http://devicescape.com/

which allows people to cache their wireless credentials on their server so that your mobile devices can automatically 
log in to wireless networks with a captive portal.

This is from the Devicescape FAQ:

"Are my hotspot passwords stored on my device?

No, the username and password used to log in to a public hotspot is not
stored on your device. Instead, our web service stores this information
and supplies it to your device on-demand when the device wants to log
on. Note, however, that information about your personal networks, such
as security keys, is stored on your device."

I'm not sure what the answer to this problem is but I definitely agree that it's a problem.  I don't like the idea of 
RIM (the maker of Blackberry devices) caching usernames and passwords but I like it a lot more than some random website 
built around gambling on grades.  

Part of this could probably be solved via policy and training (explicitly telling students not to cache their 
credentials on outside websites) with maybe some technical controls (firewalling off certain service providers), but 
ultimately it is out of our control.  It will be almost impossible to tell the difference between some web application 
logging in on behalf of the student versus the student doing it themselves.  

I definitely recommend separating email credentials from login credentials whenever possible simply because it is more 
likely that email credentials would get cached in more places (not only in online service providers but also on mobile 
devices with email functionality, desktop email applications (Outlook etc.) ).  

-Adam

Justin Sherenco wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Recently a local on-line news site
> (http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-students-can-wager-on
> -grades-via-website/) wrote an article about a new website that lets
> students bet on their own grades.  The betting aspect aside I was
> intrigued by this line "they have to register and upload their schedules
> to grant the site access to school records."  To investigate further I
> went through the account set up process and found that the student has the
> option to allow the site to automatically download their student records
> (see attached ultinsic2.jpg).  It actually asks for their academic user
> name and password!  EMU is currently not on their list of supported
> schools but they mention will be rolling out nationally.  We have policies
> and standards in place that say don't give out you password and in my
> opinion giving credentials to this site would violate them.  Are there any
> other Universities investigating the use of usernames and passwords used
> by third party web applications not sanctioned by the University?  Any
> talk on actually blocking a site like this from automatically logging in
> (system stability/privacy/security issues?) or is this more of users
> choice?  
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Regards,
>
> Justin
>
>  
>
> -------------------------------------
>
> Justin Sherenco, CISSP
>
> Easten Michigan University
>
> Security Analyst
>
> http://it.emich.edu/security
>
>  
>
>  
>
>  
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Adam Carlson
Chief Security Officer
Information Technology
Residential and Student Service Programs
Tel: 510-643-0631
Email: ajcarlson () berkeley edu

"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." ~Louis D. Brandeis