Integration Challenges

Computerworld - The Problem: Integrating back-end directory services with authentications schemes isn't always easy.
Alan Neubauer, senior network support analyst for the Florida Supreme Court system, ran into integration problems between the court's directory in the Novell Modular Authentication System (NMAS) and fingerprint software from Identix Inc. in Los Gatos, Calif.
Even after adding other Novell Inc. software, like a certificate server and an international cryptology infrastructure, he couldn't get the application to run smoothly, Neubauer says.
At Novell's recommendation, he upgraded to a more feature-rich NMAS 2.0 and woke to a gaping security hole. "You log on using the fingerprint reader. Log off. Then log back on again. All you have to do is wait three minutes [and] 40 seconds, and it will reauthenticate you without you ever having to put your finger on the reader," he explains.
Gabrial Waters, Novell's access and security products manager, says the security problem was related to Neubauer's screen-saver program. Neubauer says Novell had a patch for the problem before he upgraded, but Novell failed to tell him in advance.

One solution: Try a different directory service.
The glitch was enough to get Neubauer to test the Identix application on a competing directory service: Microsoft Corp.'s Active Directory (AD). "[Identix] ran flawlessly," he says. So now he's replacing 12 NMAS servers with Active Directory servers and hopes to go live in March.

A Different View: Each integration project has its own challenges, depending on the software involved.
Samir Hamouni, manager of the biometrics project for the city of Stockholm, says he had no such problems linking his Saflink Corp. fingerprint application to NMAS. He adds that AD would never be able to scale to the size of his enterprise. "Novell has everything we need in the NMAS 2.1 software module. The installation went fast. What took time was scanning all the fingerprints into the system," he says.
- Deborah Radcliff