JAjamiesonbecker·Jul 7, 2016
0. I believe that both LDAP and AD have complex models (well, arguably less complex than Vines/NDS/x.500/etc if you go back that far) and they're certainly more secure than NIS/NIS+ based on historical vulns, but I find it hard to argue that they're 'secure' based on their long and sordid history of vulns ( https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-439/... )
0a. and, well, I wouldn't want to connect boxes to LDAP because I prefer to log into my boxes, even when LDAP is unavailable, the VPN is down, etc. but, nscd et al.. caching doesn't work either on an autoscaled box in the cloud, nor would I want to expose my enterprise directory infrastructure to my VPC. I also don't want to introduce a new PAM and NSS configuration on every single box (with separate layering for different boxes into different projects etc) and introduce
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yet another avenue for mistakes and compromise... was that required, requisite, or optional? Ergo, obsolete. :) (imo)
1. (btw, We don't do server authentication. That is a key difference between a directory and Userify. We only distribute keys. The servers themselves authenticate their own users with Userify just like with the traditional model, whereas with a directory the LDAP/AD server itself performs every authentication.)
2. We also recommend purchasing and running Userify Enterprise locked down locally to your VPC/LAN, and our larger customers tend to prefer that as well (especially when connected to LDAP w/ the same disconnected model we designed into our core product). We also offer a free cloud-based edition for unlimited use because we're nice like that.
3. We're paranoid, just like you: we go through bi-monthly independent penetration tests, we encrypt all data w/ NaCl, we avoid using passwords where possible and has with bcrypt elsewhere, and we're hardened against XSS, CSRF, and any sort of injection. The shim source is available here: https://github.com/userify/shim (see https://userify.com/faq/ for more on the security stuff we do and we're open to more ideas) and, please, find our vulnerabilities. We'll pay you for them. https://support.userify.com/solution/articles/14000036246-fi... Sometimes even our larger partners don't do that unfortunately.. ( https://github.com/aws/aws-codedeploy-agent/issues/30 )
But, seriously, people who are happy with their current solution should probably stick with it. I don't expect to convince you to take another look, and I do agree that there are good arguments to be made that LDAP/AD is neither insecure nor obsolete. I just disagree with (most of) those arguments. ;)
note:
AD/LDAP connectivity in Userify: you can still authenticate natively via LDAP/AD, while Userify provides a user-friendly dashboard for key management for your teams. A particularly cool demo: remove or disable an account in Windows AD and seconds later watch all of the SSH sessions on all of the servers in all of the projects terminate. It's very slick.. and that's another thing that LDAP/AD directory authenticated solutions can't do.