OSSN-0081: sha512_crypt is insufficient for password hashing¶
Summary¶
Use of sha512_crypt for password hashing in versions of Keystone prior to Pike, is insufficient and provides limited protection against brute- forcing of password hashes.
Affected Services / Software¶
OpenStack Identity Service (Keystone). OpenStack Releases Ocata, Newton.
Discussion¶
Keystone uses sha512_crypt for password hashing. This provides insufficient and limited protection, since sha512_crypt algorithm has a low computational cost factor, therefore making it easier to crack passwords offline in a short period of time. The correct mechanism is to use the more secure hashing algorithms with a higher computational cost factor such as bcrypt, scrypt, or pbkdf2_sha512 instead of sha512_crypt.
Recommended Actions¶
It is recommended that operators upgrade to the Pike release where all future passwords would be bcrypt hashed.
Operators should also force password changes on all users [1], which will result in the users newly generated passwords being bcrypt hashed.
Contacts / References¶
Author: Luke Hinds <lhinds@redhat.com>
[2] : http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-63b.pdf
This OSSN : https://docs.openstack.org/security-notes/OSSN-0081.html
Original LaunchPad Bug : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ossn/+bug/1668503
Mailing List : [Security] tag on openstack-dev@lists.openstack.org
OpenStack Security Project : https://launchpad.net/~openstack-ossg
