NetKnights presents 2FA system privacyIDEA at it-sa

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NetKnights GmbH will attend the business fair and conference it-sa this year in October. Being a partner at the stand of ownCloud in Hall 10.0-428, NetKnights places its core competence of Multi Factor Authentication just at the right spot. Keeping your own data under your control is the job of ownCloud. Securing the access to that data is the job of NetKnights and the privacyIDEA ownCloud App. It allows a flexible, enterprise grade two factor authentication at the File Sync And Share solution from ownCloud.

New features in privacyIDEA

Within the privacyIDEA Authentication Server there are a lot of interesting new features.

We will present the upcoming version 2.23 of privacyIDEA. Two of the innovative new features are the Pre-Event-Handler and Monitoring and Statistics.

The administrator can use the Pre-Event-Handler to add additional task before e.g. an authentication request is processed. These tasks and the conditions can be configured completely flexible. The administrator could configure privacyIDEA this way, that before authenticating a user, this very user gets an Email token enrollend and assigned – without user or admin interaction. This is only one possible scenario to use the Pre-Event-Handler.

The Monitoring and Statsitics module can use data from the Event Counter and use periodic tasks to gather any possible metrics. Within a blink of an eye the administrator can define, which data he wants to collect and e.g. create a metric of failed authentication requests. External tools like Grafana can then be used to create graphs.

We continue to strive making privacyIDEA one of the most flexible Multi Factor Authentication systems in the market.

Check it out! Get your own personal date at the it-sa!

 

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More flexibility at the two-factor authentication in ownCloud

Today we released the privacyIDEA ownCloud App in version 2.4. Apart from improvements in the configuration we added a new important feature, which makes it possible to exclude some users from the two-factor authentication.

With or without two-factor authentication?

The privacyIDEA ownCloud App activates the two-factor authentication for all users in a company. The authentication will be proceed by the privacyIDEA server.

In some cases it could be interesting to give users access to ownCloud without a second factor. If these users exist local in ownCloud, this wasn’t possible yet. But in version 2.4 the administrator can define user groups, who do not need a second factor to login. This could be useful for guest users who do not have access to sensitive files. This will minimize the workflow, because it is not necessary to enroll a second factor for a simple and temporary guest user.

Configuration

In version 2.4 we revised the configuration for the privacyIDEA ownCloud App as well. The setup and connection to the own privacyIDEA system should be much more easier for the administrator. We added for example test buttons, so the administrator can check the configuration, before it will be activated.

Apart from this we expand the configuration dialog to different languages.

About the privacyIDEA ownCloud App

The privacyIDEA ownCloud App expands a two factor authentication to an existing ownCloud installation. The privacyIDEA plugin forwards the second step of own Cloud’s user login to the authentication system privacyIDEA. In this system the administrator can manage the second factors of the users and can regulate which user needs to login in which way. Because of privacyIDEA the users are able to use many methods to authenticate like key fob token, smartphones, apps, SMS, mail, yubikey, or U2F-devices.

You can find a complete changelog for the privacyIDEA ownCloud App here.

If you have more questions feel free to contact us.

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privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition 2.22.1

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Today we released the version 2.22.1 of the privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition.

If you want to know more about the major changes from 2.21 to this version 2.22.1 please read our previous blog post.

Bug Fixes

In version 2.22.1 bugs in the Web UI and server have been fixed:

  • Login with Challenge Response tokens to the WebUI was improved.
  • The PIN, serial and username handling in the rollout and assignmed was fixed.
  • Annoying output in the browser console was removed.
  • Added check for serial number present.
  • Fixed validation of OCRA and TiQR token.
  • Added retry to cope with HSM issues.
  • Fixed unicode in resolverconf database table with Oracle.
You can find a complete Changelog at github.

About the privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition

The Enterprise Edition is released as version 2.X.1 a few weeks after the public release of version 2.X and contains necessary bug fixes.

The Enterprise Edition of the privacyIDEA Authentication System addresses companies and organizations, that need a reliable and stable update process. It is available for Ubuntu 16.04LTS, CentOS7/RHEL7 and the Univention Corporate Server. It is also available as an Appliance, that allows e.g. a simple setup of a master master replication.

Please get in touch, if you want to learn more or if you want to test the Enterprise Edition.

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privacyIDEA Authenticator with typo fixes and translation

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Today we released the privacyIDEA Authenticator version 1.0. We fixed typos and added a German translation.

The privacyIDEA Authenticator is available via the Google Play Store.

About the privacyIDEA Authenticator

Using the privacyIDEA Authenticator the smartphones of your users become the factor of possession for a secure login. The privacyIDEA Authenticator creates one time passwords according to the HOTP or TOTP algorithms. It is compatible with the Google Authenticator. However, in conjunction with the privacyIDEA Authentication System the privacyIDEA Authenticator also allows for a secure enrollment process. Thus neither the user nor an attacker can simply copy the secret key of the app during the enrollment process.

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privacyIDEA 2.22 allows flexible Authentication at VPNs and Firewalls

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In privacyIDEA 2.22 the flexibilty of using arbitrary user attributes in the RADIUS protocol was heavily improved. But there are a lot of other features and enhancements. You can find the complete article at privacyidea.org.

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Two factor authentication for thousands of users

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If a company or an organization wants to provide two factor authentication for thousands of users they are faced with totally new challenges.

Users will not come to the administrators desk. The administrator will not enroll a hardware token or initialize the user’s smartphone with the Google Authenticator on a per user basis. There are so many users, that the administrators or helpdesk users do not even know all the end users anymore. There must be a solution, that the enrollment process itself hands the authentication object to the user and ensures the identity of the user – preferably automatically!

Users might be spread over cities, countries – worldwide. They are ordinary end users and often not computer savvy. The rollout and the usage of two factor authentication should bother neither the end user nor the IT department too much.

Read more

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privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition for Univention Corporate Server

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The current version 2.21.4 of privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition is now available for Univention Corporate Server.

We already wrote about the new features in privacyIDEA 2.21 in a previous blog post. Now UCS users can also profit from these enhancements. privacyIDEA can be updated from version 2.20.1 to 2.21.4 easily from within the Appcenter.

Secure Rollout of Smartphones

privacyIDEA Authenticator

Using the smartphone and the privacyIDEA Authenticator App users can securely log in to e.g. the company’s VPN.

The most interesting feature of privacyIDEA 2.21.4 is the secure rollout of smartphones. During this process a part of the secret key is generated on the privacyIDEA server and the other part is generated on the privacyIDEA Authenticator App.

The privacyIDEA Authenticator App is currently available for Android phones via the Google Play Store.

You have questions? Ask us!

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privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition 2.21.1

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Today we released the stable version 2.21.1 of the privacyIDEA Enterprise Edition.

The Enterprise Edition as version 2.X.1 is released a few weeks after the corresponding major public release and contains necessary bug fixes. You can read about the features of version 2.21 like the secure smartphone enrollment in our previous blog post.

Version 2.21.1 fixes the following bug:

  • The LDAPS connection to the user directory like OpenLDAP or Active Directory only used TLS1.0. The administrator can now configure the user resolver to also use TLS1.1 or TLS1.2.

About the Enterprise Edition

The Enterprise Edition of the Multi-Factor-Authentication system privacyIDEA is ment for enterprises and organizations, which need a reliable update process. It is available for Ubuntu 16.04LTS, CentOS7, RHEL7 and the Univention Corporate Server. In addition the enterprise edition contains an appliance that helps you quickly and easily set up a high available master-master replication.

Please contact us if you have further questions, if you want to test the enterprise edtion or want to book a workshop.

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privacyIDEA 2.21 with a more secure smartphone enrollment

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Today privacyIDEA 2.21 was released. Read about it on the privacyIDEA project page.

With privacyIDEA 2.21 it will be possible to enroll smartphone based tokens in a more secure manner and mitigate the threat of simply copying the QR code of the enrolled token. NetKnights still runs a beta test of a new smartphone app. You are welcome to join the beta test!

Also there are enhancements in the event handlers, the rotating of the audit log and the customization of the UI.

The version 2.21 is available via the Ubuntu repositories for 16.04LTS and 14.04LTS and the python package index as a community version.

The enterprise version 2.21.1 will be realeased in a few weeks. Just contact us for any questions.

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privacyIDEA Authenticator – the better smartphone factor

privacyIDEA Authenticator Smartphone App

The smartphone is our daily tool and the digital copy of our own identity. This is not the place to discuss the social implications. We just state the fact.

The Smartphone as the second factor

Due to this fact many organisations and companies like to use smartphones for a security improved authentication process. The smartphone is “always” with the user and is the device, that is accepted by the user. Using applications like Google Authenticator the smartphone is supposed to become the second factor for authentication. Although the smartphone is obviously not as secure as a dedicated hardware token, the privacyIDEA Authentication System has supported smartphones as  a possible second factor right from the start.

But taking a look at a smartphone app like the Google Authenticator there are some security issues. We discussed this in detail in a previous blog post. The problems with the rollout process using the Key URI defined for the Google Authenticator, finally made us develop our own privacyIDEA Authenticator. As an Open Source company we use the Github-Repository to transparently develop the privacyIDEA Authenticator app.

Secure enrollment

The first and most important feature from the long feature list is securing the enrollment process. To do so, the privacyIDEA Authenticator allows to generate one key component on the smartphone itself and another key component on the privacyIDEA Server. The final OTP seed / key is generated from both components.

This way we avoid the easy cloning of the secret OTP seed during the enrollment process. By cloning the OTP seed users were easily able to create undistinguishable copies of the OTP token and thus making the smartphone as a second factor to identify the user useless. Using the privacyIDEA Authenticator you will be able to leave this problem behind.

Beta testing

The privacyIDEA Authenticator app is backward compatible with Google Authenticator and FreeOTP. Its full potential will be unleashed with the privacyIDEA Server starting with version 2.21. Starting with this version the mentioned two-step-enrollment is supported.

The privacyIDEA Authenticator app is available in a controlled beta state. privacyIDEA 2.21 will be available this month. Using the Python Package Index or the developer PPA repository for Ubuntu 14.04LTS or 16.04LTS you can already install the release candidate of the server.

Install using the Python Package Indes:

pip install privacyidea==2.21dev2

Or install using the PPA respository:

add-apt-repository ppa:privacyidea/privacyidea-dev

You can get more information about the installation in the online documentation.

If you want to test the privacyIDEA Authenticator app you are welcome to drop us a note. We will add you to the beta test. You have the possibility to influence the development of the app. The privacyIDEA Authenticator is currently available for Android. The installation during the beta tests is done via the Google play store. Thus you do not need to change any settings of your smartphone.

Get in touch to be part of the beta test!

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