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Re: how can I change my password by SVN client?

From: <kmradke_at_rockwellcollins.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 09:14:31 -0500

Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel_at_gmail.com> wrote on 08/31/2009 06:57:30 PM:
> 2009/8/31 David Weintraub <qazwart_at_gmail.com>:
> > Subversion doesn't have its own native security. This is actually a
better
> > way because it allows you to use external security regimens.
> >
> > For example, we use LDAP and connect to our Active Server via Apache.
Now, I
> > don't have to worry about settiing up users independently. If a user
is in
> > the Windows server's engineering group, they automatically have access
to
> > Subversion without me doing anything. Once they leave, they have no
more
> > access.
> >
> > Even better, their Subversion password is the same as their Windows
> > password. No more forgetting their password.
> >
> > If I use ssh+svn://, the operating system handles logging in and out.
My
> > name and password is the same as my Unix account.
>
> What? No-no-no-no-no. This is used by some, but the far safer and more
> useful way to do is to designate an svn user, who's
> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file This relies on SSH keys, not
> passwords, which allows single-sign-on style user access by having an
> ssh-agent (or a Gnome or KDE "wallet", which is out of band of
> Subversion's key storage).

> No user passwords. None. Nyet. Nil. Nein. Nada. A user selected
> password is normally used to unlock the relevant SSH key, and a Gnome
> or KDE wallet can manage that. And this way, the repository URL's look
> ile 'svn+ssh://svn@reposerver/var/lib/svn/repository', or a similar
> structure. This allows user login to that server to be quite distinct
> and even unnecessary. This is the approach that Sourceforge uses, for
> example. The public SSH key in is set to designate the relevant
> Subversion user based on which key is used. It's a very handy
> approach, and avoids the security issues that I tend to rant about, at
> the cost of some setup time.

This setup is a pain for both the user and the administrator. Additional
steps must be performed by each before work can begin.
(And ssh keys are really no better than a password, you are just
 forcing the user to have different piece of secret information.)

Why not use something like kerberos? Windows will transparently
checkout a ticket. No password needed and no additional setup needed
by either the user or the administrator for new users. Granted, this
only works well in a corporate environment, but it is a very big win
when dealing with less technical users...

The beauty of Subversion is that it lets YOU choose the
appropriate authentication method for your environment.

Kevin R.

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Received on 2009-09-01 16:23:08 CEST

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