Preventing Exposure of Access Credentials

BC.

In an 802.1X authentication process, the client device sends its access credentials (such as username and password) to the network access server (NAS) in an encrypted form. However, it is important to ensure that these credentials are not exposed during the authentication process. To achieve this, two protocols that can be configured are:

A. Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP): PEAP is an authentication protocol that encapsulates the EAP protocol within an encrypted and authenticated TLS tunnel. This provides secure transmission of the user's credentials during the authentication process.

B. Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS): EAP-TLS is an authentication protocol that uses digital certificates and TLS to authenticate the client device and the authentication server. EAP-TLS provides secure communication and protection against credential exposure.

C. Extensible Authentication Protocol-Message Digest 5 (EAP-MD5): EAP-MD5 is an authentication protocol that uses a simple MD5 hash algorithm to protect user credentials during the authentication process. However, it is not considered secure as it provides only weak protection against credential exposure.

D. Extensible Authentication Protocol-Tunneled Transport Layer Security (EAP-TTLS): EAP-TTLS is an authentication protocol that uses a TLS tunnel to protect user credentials during the authentication process. EAP-TTLS is similar to PEAP but provides more flexibility in terms of the inner authentication method used.

E. Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP): LEAP is an authentication protocol that uses a proprietary challenge-response mechanism to authenticate the client device. However, LEAP is not considered secure as it has several known vulnerabilities and can be easily compromised.

In summary, to ensure that access credentials are not exposed during the 802.1X authentication process, the recommended protocols to use are PEAP and EAP-TLS.