selecting master key enctype for a new database

Phil Tracy ptracy at northwestern.edu
Mon Jun 20 13:28:33 EDT 2005


I need to create a new realm, and I'm wondering if anyone has a 
recommendation about which enctype to use for the master key.

The kdb5_util program seems to still default to des-cbc-crc when creating a 
database (I'm running MIT Kerberos 1.4.1), and I'm not sure if there's a 
good reason for this.  I'd like to use one of the new, stronger enctypes 
like aes256, but I'm not sure what the pros and cons are.

I suppose that all of the slave KDCs would have to be upgraded to a version 
of Kerberos that supports whatever master key enctype I choose, but I don't 
anticipate a problem there.  Are there client issues?  Cross-realm trust 
issues?  Something else?  I don't plan to run anything but MIT Kerberos for 
a KDC, but if anyone knows of any gotchas with specific enctypes/vendors, 
that might be useful information.  Thanks.

--
Phil Tracy
ptracy at northwestern.edu
Information Systems Architecture
Northwestern University Information Technology




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