What is SecurID?

[roadrunner]

What is SecurID?
SecurID uses a hardware token with a value that changes every minute or so. The card is synchronized with an ACE/Server, which validates the authentication attempt. So long as you do not lose this card, your authentication will be secure.

When you are prompted for authentication, you will be given a passcode prompt. Depending on the type of SecurID card you have, you will either type in a PIN (four to eight alphanumeric digits in length) followed by the six-digit number currently displayed on your SecurID card, or you will enter the PIN on your SecurID card, press the diamond key, and type in the number displayed on the SecurID card. Because the SecurID card and ACE/Server are in sync, the ACE/Server knows what the SecurID card should read at any given moment.

Using SecurID involves purchasing both the ACE/Server (which runs on UNIX or Windows NT workstations) and SecurID keys. The hardware keys expire after a period of time. More information about SecurID can be found at http://www.rsasecurity.com/products/securid/index.html

-- PhoneBoy - 30 Dec 2003


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[zencoder]

SecurID is the product name of RSA's physical (and in a few cases, software) tokens. The server portion that is required for authentication to work was called RSA ACE/Server through major version 5. With version 6 and greater, the name has been changed to the more descriptive RSA Authentication Manager. The GUI for the application finally made a decent upgrade with 6, but the individual admin interface for user management still leaves a lot to be desired. Win 3.1 API, and ugly ugly ugly.

RSA Authentication Manager is supported on Win2k/2k3, Red Hat ES 3, and UNIX (Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX), but seems to be most popularly deployed on Server 2003 these days. Most Check Point enforcement modules have the RSA agent libraries/calls/software precompiled, and only require the SDCONF.REC and other files, plus some settings changes.

RSA ACE/AuthMgr is a somewhat picky application and can take a lot of learning. There is a fair amount of doco out there if one looks, and us experience folk are hiding under the occasional rock, if you can force us out.