Password Synchronization

Server-based Password Synchronization:
Managing Multiple Passwords

Self-service Password Reset Layer
v.3.2-004

PistolStar, Inc. dba PortalGuard
PO Box 1226
Amherst, NH 03031 USA

Phone: 603.547.1200
Fax: 617.674.2727
E-mail: sales@portalguard.com
Website: www.portalguard.com

© 2012, PistolStar, Inc. dba PortalGuard. All Rights Reserved.

Tech Brief — Server-based Password Synchronization

PortalGuard Server-based Password Synchronization:
Managing Multiple Passwords

Table of Contents

Summary ................................................................................................. 2
The Basics............................................................................................... 2
Password Complexity Challenges............................................................ 2
PortalGuard Server-based Password Synchronization ............................ 3
Features .................................................................................................. 3
Benefits ................................................................................................... 3
How it Works ........................................................................................... 4
Account Linking ............................................................................ 4
Self-service Password Reset Process .......................................... 5
Configuration ........................................................................................... 6
Deployment ........................................................................................... 10
IIS Install................................................................................................ 10
System Requirements ........................................................................... 10
Platform Layers ..................................................................................... 11

© 2012, PistolStar, Inc. dba PortalGuard All rights reserved. Page 1


Summary
A common concern across organizations is that users have too many passwords to man-
age, each with a separate management interface to become familiar with. This creates
user frustration and increased costs around Help Desk and IT support. Enterprise single
sign-on (SSO) is looked at as a solution but for many organizations it proves too costly
and many encounter internal resistance due to security concerns.

Password synchronization is a possible midpoint that can ease user frustrations by ena-
bling access to different systems using the same password and a single interface. This
proves easier to implement than SSO and most solutions can force enrollment and do not
require client-side software.

However, organizations have struggled with forgotten passwords as a sticking point with
password synchronization as each system must be reset independently.

PortalGuard addresses these challenges by providing a cost-effective, flexible approach to
server-based password synchronization plus self-service password reset allowing users to
easily manage passwords for multiple systems from a single, consistent interface.

The Basics
The process of password synchronization correlates the passwords for multiple user ac-
counts, enabling users to authenticate to all systems leveraging a single password. Since
only one password needs to be remembered, overall system security can now be in-
creased by enforcing stronger password policies such as more frequent expiration.

Password Complexity Challenges
Password complexity rules often differ from system to system. These differences are a
common hurdle when implementing password synchronization since a password that is
acceptable on one system may be rejected by another thus preventing password synchro-
nization altogether. This can be a difficult problem to troubleshoot as it may only occur for
a small subset of user-chosen passwords. Identifying password complexity rules for all
systems that will be included in the synchronization process is a critical first step to mitigat-
ing this challenge.

After identification, a typical response to this issue may be to change the password rules
on one or more systems to reach a common set that can be enforced for each. This ap-
proach can often be impeded by potential compliance issues or trepidation that the change
may cause other unforeseen maintenance issues (e.g. legacy service or embedded ac-
counts). Alignment of password policies across systems may not even be technically fea-
sible if the systems do not support a common set of enforceable password rules. As an
example, Microsoft Active Directory cannot natively enforce a maximum password length
or prevent new passwords from containing specific characters. IBM System i servers typi-
cally have a maximum password length of 10 and can only accept letters, numbers and
the ‘$’, ‘@’, ‘#’ and ‘_’ characters in new passwords. AD and System i server password
policies cannot be aligned natively because they only support incompatible proprietary
password complexity rules.



PortalGuard helps reconcile these problems by enforcing a consistent set of password
rules that are always enforced when a password is changed or reset through it. By config-
uring the PortalGuard policies such that they will only allow new passwords that comply
with all included systems, password synchronization will not be prevented due to pass-
word policy rules.

PortalGuard Server-based Password Synchronization
PortalGuard offers a comprehensive password synchronization solution which supports
Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, IBM System i, any LDAP v3-compliant direc-
tory and custom SQL user tables. Beyond being easy to implement and forcing user en-
rollment, PortalGuard enables self-service password reset, recovery and account unlock to
manage forgotten passwords.

Users can now be allowed to reset forgotten passwords from one place, including the Win-
dows logon screen, corporate web portal login or a stand-alone website. When performing
resets across all systems, PortalGuard passes the password change down to all linked
accounts in real-time.

PortalGuard also has an optional component for further Active Directory integration. This
Active Directory Password Filter can prevent users from setting domain passwords native-
ly through the Ctrl-Alt-Del Windows Password Change process that do not comply with
custom rules that AD itself cannot enforce. This ensures that what may be the most com-
mon interface for changing user passwords will comply with the necessary rules for pass-
word synchronization to occur seamlessly

Features

 Ability to link a user’s primary account (e.g. Active Directory) to accounts on multiple
systems/directories
 All password changes, resets and account unlocks through PortalGuard flow to all linked
systems in real-time
 Align password complexity rules to reduce barriers to password propagation across sys-
tems
 The requirement to link to accounts is policy driven which can be specific to the user,
group or password repository
 Account linking can be enforced or made optional - enforcement points include website
login and Windows desktop login
 Supported user account repositories include:
 Microsoft Active Directory
 Novell eDirectory
 And LDAP v3-compliant directory
 IBM System i
 Custom SQL user tables

Benefits

 Password Synchronization - eliminates the need for users to remember different pass-
words for each system/directory
 Ease of Use - the user can manage passwords for multiple systems from a single, con-
sistent interface



 Self-service - accounts can be unlocked and passwords can be reset from one place,
including the Windows login screen, a corporate web portal login or a stand-alone web-
site
 Seamless Integration with existing website logon pages using PortalGuard in “Sidecar”
mode
 Lower Costs - reduces password-related Help Desk calls and required IT support
 Increased Productivity and user adoption for new services/websites

How it Works

Account Linking

Step 1: The user logs into a Windows workstation or an existing internal website. Portal-
Guard is notified of the logon and checks its policies to see if the user:
 Is required to link to an account in another directory, and
 If they have yet to do so
If both conditions are true, PortalGuard will prompt the user to enter a username in the
secondary directory and the current password for that account. The user must know the
account’s current password to link it to their primary account.

Step 2: Once the user provides the correct password, the secondary account password
will be immediately synchronized with the primary if necessary.



Self-service Password Reset Process

Step 1: The user has forgotten their password and clicks “Forgot Password?” link on the
Windows logon screen or website logon page.

Windows 7 Desktop Support Windows XP Desktop Support

Step 2: The user chooses to reset their forgotten password and proves their identity by
correctly answering a series of challenge questions and/or entering a One-time Password
(OTP) sent to their mobile phone or email.

Challenge Questions and Answers

One-time Password (OTP)



Step 3: The user enters a new password that satisfies all linked account systems. The
PortalGuard server resets all linked accounts to use this password and unlocks the ac-
count as well.

Step 4: Immediate feedback is given to the user that the password reset was successful
on all linked accounts. The user is now able to login to all linked systems with the new
password.

Configuration
NOTE: All the following settings are policy specific, so you can have different values for
different users/group/hierarchies.

Configurable through the PortalGuard Configuration Utility:

Password Synchronization
 Linked Repositories



Password Policies:
 Minimum length
 Maximum length
 Minimum lowercase characters
 Minimum uppercase characters
 Minimum numeric characters
 Minimum non-alphanumeric characters
 Enforce Active Directory complexity (3 out of 4 character classes)
 Password rule grouping (subsets)
 Use of a visual password strength meter
 Password history
 Prevention of passwords containing dictionary words
 Use of regular expression for custom rules



Deployment
Implementation of the PortalGuard platform is seamless and requires no changes to Active
Directory/LDAP schema. A server-side software installation is required on at least one IIS
server on the network.

To enforce account linking on Windows workstations, the PortalGuard Desktop must be
deployed. This is done using a standard MSI which can be pushed out silently. To enforce
account linking on an existing website login, PortalGuard Sidecar mode must be integrat-
ed.

To enforce custom password complexity rules for native Ctrl+Alt+Del Windows password
changes, the Active Directory Password Filter must be installed on all Active Directory do-
main controllers. This is also packaged as a MSI for easier deployment. This component is
compatible with all versions of Windows Server and has separate MSIs for either 32-bit or
64-bit architectures.

IIS Installation
A MSI is used to install PortalGuard on IIS 6 or 7.x. If installing PortalGuard on IIS 7.x/
Windows Server 2008, make sure to have installed the following feature roles prior to
launching the MSI:

1. All the Web Server Management Tools role services
2. All the Application Development role services
3. All IIS 6 Management Compatibility role services

The MSI is a wizard-based install which will quickly guide you through the installation.

System Requirements
This version of PortalGuard supports direct access and authentication to cloud/browser-
based applications, only.

PortalGuard can be installed directly on the following web servers:

 IBM WebSphere/WebSphere Portal v5.1 or higher
 Microsoft IIS 6.0 or higher
 Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or higher
 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or later

PortalGuard can link the following accounts for password synchronization:

 Microsoft Active Directory - Windows 2000 Active Directory domain or later
 Novell eDirectory 8.7 or later
 IBM System i - V5R2 or later
 Any LDAP v3-compliant directory
 Custom SQL user tables



The PortalGuard Web server also has the following requirements on Windows operating
systems:

 .NET 2.0 framework or later must be installed
 (64-bit OS only) Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64)

PortalGuard is fully supported for installation on virtual machines. Furthermore, Portal-
Guard can currently be installed on the following platforms:

 Microsoft Windows Server 2000
 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (32 or 64-bit)
 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32 or 64-bit)
 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

PortalGuard works with Windows Terminal Services on Win2003 servers and Remote
Desktop Services on Win2008 servers.

If you have a platform not listed here, please contact us at sales@portalguard.com to see
if we have recently added support for your platform.

Platform Layers
Beyond password synchronization, PortalGuard is a flexible authentication platform with
multiple layers of available functionality to help you achieve your authentication goals
(visual on pg.12):

 Contextual Authentication
 Tokenless Two-factor Authentication
 Real-time Reports / Alerts
 Knowledge-based
 Password Management
 Self-service Password Reset
 Single Sign-on



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Password Synchronization

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