SSL VPNs and client-application authentication
In a recent SearchSecurity webcast, speaker Lisa Phifer, vice president and
owner of consulting firm Core Competence, addressed technological developments
in virtual private networks. Here Lisa answers a user-submitted question that
she didn't have time to answer during the broadcast. If you missed our webcast,
New directions in VPNs, or would like to review it, you may listen to the
recorded webcast on-demand or download the presentation without audio.
Please address the impact of SSL VPNs on client-application authentication,
where the application attempts to use SSL certificate-based user authentication.
Since SSL VPNs terminate the user's SSL session, the application is no longer
able to authenticate the user on the basis of his SSL certificate. SSL VPNs
appear to preclude client certificate-based authentication.
Authentication capabilities depend upon the product, but there are SSL VPN
products that support client-side certificate authentication to back-end
applications. Any proxy can disrupt the end-to-end nature of communication
between a client and server. However, some products, like Whale Communications'
e-Gap and Aventail's EX-1500, do provide single sign-on capabilities for all
Intranet servers protected by the SSL VPN gateway. The proxy can relay
challenge/response authentication between the client and server, or (in your
case) relay client-side certificate authentication.
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