The Importance of Authentication Mechanisms and Encryption
All VPN products have one thing in common: they create a secure communication channel by using an authentication mechanism to verify your identity and encrypting all the data that flows between your computer and the VPN server. Every product does this differently – some use SSL certificates, usernames and passwords, pre-shared secret keys or a mix of any of them. The security of any VPN channel is only as good as its weakest link, and the proper handling of VPN secrets, certificates and identities is critical to the overall safety of the entire system.
What happens if my VPN credentials are stolen?
Generally speaking, compromised credentials are terrible news for everyone – which is why their security is mission critical. If someone gets their hands on your identity or configuration file, for example, they can:
- Decrypt any traffic they might have previously intercepted: without the right decryption keys, this traffic is mostly useless. However, with your VPN identity, they could reveal all traffic activity and either use it themselves or sell it to other parties.
- Impersonate you and connect to sensitive resources: without any further checks in place, this would allow them to access restricted resources such as your company’s intranet or your home’s smart devices, leveraging it to introduce backdoors or sabotage the entire infrastructure.
- Commit a crime and link it back to you: not all VPN providers offer zero-logging guarantees, and some enterprise VPNs intentionally log all your traffic; if the attackers were to commit a crime, their traffic would be linked back to your identity, causing you many legal headaches.
How can attackers intercept my data?
There are many ways in which your VPN identity can be stolen. The truth is that proper management of VPN identities is not easy, and many companies that offer VPN products have limited experience in securely managing these identities. If VPN servers, client applications and communication channels are not secured, malicious actors can exploit vulnerabilities in any of them to intercept your configuration files and extract your certificates or keys. Just like most people use the same password on multiple websites, even prestigious VPN products often suffer from inadequate handling and storage of their customers’ identities, as well as lackluster rotation and reuse policies.
How does Keyforge work?
Blackshell’s proprietary Keyforge technology is our solution to the problem of identity management. All Blackshell customers can automatically benefit from Keyforge whenever they connect to one of our servers by enabling it in the organization options. Keyforge acts as an intermediary layer between our clients, APIs and VPN servers, ensuring proper handling and management of VPN keys:
- Automatic identity provisioning, rotation and revocation; with Keyforge, you will never use the same identity twice, and all previously provisioned identities are revoked once they are no longer needed. Lifetimes and deletion policies can be changed by the organization administrators.
- Granular auditing of key history and activity: with the correct compliance settings, organizations can turn on the historical tracing of all employee keys; this can then be exported for use in audits and reports. If the option is not enabled, Keyforge will not keep a history of user keys
- Keyforge and our server infrastructure are all designed under strict zero trust principles, building on top of the encryption standards offered by WireGuard and OpenVPN to further harden the authentication mechanisms.
The proper management of VPN identities and the implementation of robust security measures, are essential for safeguarding sensitive information in today's interconnected digital landscape.
