Commercial implementations of Kerberos

In general, commercial vendors offer the same Kerberos code that is available at MIT. Thus, their main function is to provide support for organizations that do not wish to struggle with the arcane Kerberos build and install process. Commercial versions may provide GUI administration tools, more frequent updates and bug fixes, and pre-built (and guaranteed-to-work) binaries. They may also provide integration with various smart cards to provide more secure and movable user authentication. I have not found and individual Kerberos clients for sale. These companies provide enterprise solutions. Most of this information I obtained from the Web.


CyberSafe Corporation


(206) 391-6000
Rick DeCamp (NW regional sales manager)

Technical contact: Tim Schmitt support@cybersafe.com

CyberSafe has provided both products and services in the network security industry since our inception. In an increasingly diverse market, CyberSafe offers customers one-stop shopping for an integrated, focused approach to securing their enterprises. In addition to introducing the first commercial Kerberos product in the industry, CyberSafe has been responsible for these other industry firsts:

Date Event

1992 First commercial Kerberos Version 4 product shipped
First to offer Kerberos clients for desktop platforms

1993 First commercial Kerberos Version 5 product shipped

1994 First to integrate token cards with Kerberos (Security Dynamics' SecurID card)

1995 First to add incremental principal database propagation to CyberSafe Challenger

1996 First Kerberos authentication integrated with Oracle Universal Server

CyberSafe Challenger

With CyberSafe Challenger, users securely gain access to all their network resources with one password. After authentication, users have transparent and secured access to any applications that have been secured and to which they are authorized, thereby providing secure communications throughout an enterprise. Other features include:

CyberSafe products support heterogeneous environments and are available on more than a dozen platforms, including all popular UNIX platforms and all PC desktop platforms. Only CyberSafe offers a standards-based solution that covers the breadth of platforms we support. CyberSafe gives you one vendor, one security solution, and one support team.

Platforms Supported


Cygnus

Eric Negler (408) 542-9621

KerbNet

KerbNet is Cygnus' commercial implementation of MIT's Kerberos v5. Kerberos is a network security protocol for authentication of users and services and provides a baseline for implementing additional security measures.

Kerberos was designed around this objective and provides extensions to client and server applications as well as a trusted authentication server that verifies the identity of network resources. Kerberos, using DES, also enables encryption of any data sent over the network, including client-server transactions.

Securing your network with KerbNet has several advantages. Kerberos, with its single trusted authentication server architecture provides the basis for a single sign-on interface for users. Once the KerbNet Authentication Server is installed and configured, client and server applications can be 'Kerberized' to work with your KerbNet installation. For many users applications, such as email, ftp or telnet, this involves simply replacing your existing versions with Cygnus's off-the-shelf Kerberized versions. Using the KerbNet libraries or source code, in-house developers can dd KerbNet authentication and encryption to your existing client-server applications. Smart cards are supported.

Guaranteed authentication of users is the foundation for network security. If you can't validate the identity of users, any security measure is useless, and administration and audit are impossible. By deploying KerbNet, system managers can control and monitor access to network resources. KerbNet provides a complete network security authentication solution.

Sold thru Cambridge Technologies: Michael Hunziker (617) 374-8629

The KerbNet Toolkit includes kdc, gui, Oracle hooks to manage principals.

Commercial site license $500k unlimited use. Government discounts are available.

KerbNet Authentication Server

KerbNet Client

KerbNet Libraries


OpenVision

(510) 426-6400
(800) 223-6736

OpenVision - AXXiON-Authenticate

OpenVision created the Kerberos Version 5 reference implementation of the Generic Security Services API (GSS-API) - the de facto industry standard for network security integration. The GSS-API offers a complete set of accessible routines to allow you to incorporate all your applications under one security API umbrella.

As a Kerberos 5-based product, AXXiON-Authenticate relies on the most mature distributed security technology available today. Kerberos enhancements in AXXiON-Authenticate include:

        authentication 
        integrity 
        encryption 

For ONC RPC-based applications, AXXiON-Authenticate provides a security-enhanced RPC layer that can substitute for existing unprotected RPC libraries.

OpenVision Technologies has recently received permission to export its OpenV*Secure product, based on Kerberos V5, to sites outside the United States. We are posting this message to the Kerberos mailing list so as to address the frequent questions on this topic.

Two parallel versions of the product exist, OpenV*Secure and OpenV*Secure International, and the exportability status of both of them has recently changed. The products are identical with the following exceptions in the International version:

Both products use full-strength DES for authentication and encryption of the administration protocol data stream.

OpenVision claims that their Administration consoles allow one to remotely administer multiple Kerberos realms.

Pricing (discounts available):
Server or slave - $3200
Administration consoles - $1200
Clients - $100 (no Mac support)
Hosts $275 (< 50 users), $525 (> 50 users)


Open Horizon

(415) 869-2200

Connection

Connection is Open Horizon's flagship client/server middleware that integrates applications, databases, and industry-leading security services. Connection extends secure single sign-on to database applications without requiring any changes to those applications.

Cisco Systems

(Formerly TGV)

Cisco has integrated the client authentication portion of Kerberos within the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOSTM) software in Cisco access servers.


Xylogics

(Part of Bay Networks)

Annex Family

The Annex family of communication servers extends your corporate network to include local and remote multi-user system access. Annex offers a cost-effective and flexible solution for connecting asynchronous devices such as terminals, printers, and modems to multiprotocol Ethernet LANs.

Kerberos in the Annex Server
As an emerging standard, kerberos is one of the authentication mechanisms supported in the Annex servers. Currently, Annex servers support basic user authentication, a level of kerberos support that is competitive with other existing implementations. Annex servers do not retain tickets. Besides kerberos, Annex customers can use SecurID or the native authentication services supported by the Annex.

Based on user requirements, kerberos support in future releases of Annex software will be enhanced to include ticket retention, enabling the use of time stamps to control the duration of access to network services.