Security of Your Partition Challenge
For SafeNet Luna PCIe HSMs with Password Authentication, the partition password used for administrative access by the Crypto Officer is also the partition challenge secret or password used by client applications.
For SafeNet Luna PCIe HSMs with PED Authentication, the partition authentication used for administrative access by the Crypto Officer is the secret on the black PED key(s) for that partition. The partition challenge secret or password used by client applications is a separate character string, set by the Partition SO and then changed by the Crypto Officer (mandatory) for the CO's use. This is one way in which we implement separation of roles in the SafeNet Luna HSM security paradigm.
How Secure Is the Challenge Secret or Password?
The underlying concern is that a password-harvesting attack might eventually crack the secret that protects the partition. Layers of protection are in place, to minimize or eliminate such a risk.
First, such an attack must be run from a SafeNet Luna Client computer. For interaction with HSM partitions on a SafeNet network appliance, like SafeNet Luna Network HSM, a SafeNet Luna Client computer is one with SafeNet software installed, on which you have performed the exchange of certificates to create a Network Trust Link (NTL). That exchange requires the knowledge and participation of the appliance administrator and the Partition SO (who might, or might not, be the same person). It is not possible to secretly turn a computer into a Client of a SafeNet Luna HSM partition - an authorized person within your organization must participate.
Second, for SafeNet Luna HSMs with password authentication, you set the partition password directly when you create the partition, so you can make it as secure as you wish (for an example of guidance on password strength, see http://howsecureismypassword.net/ or http://xkcd.com/936/)
For SafeNet Luna HSMs with PED authentication, an optional partition password (also called a challenge secret) may be added for the initialized Crypto Officer (CO) and/or Crypto User (CU) roles. See role createchallenge of the LunaCM Command Reference Guide for the proper command syntax.
Using LunaCM or LunaSH, you can change the partition password (or challenge secret) if you suspect it has been compromised, or if you are complying with a security policy that dictates regular password changes.
As long as you replace any password/challenge secret with one that is equally secure, the possible vulnerability is extremely small.
Conversely, you can choose to replace a secure, random password/challenge-secret with one that is shorter or more memorable, but less secure - you assume the risks inherent in such a tradeoff.
Third, SafeNet Luna HSM partition policy 15: Ignore failed challenge responses can be set to 0 (off). When that policy is off, the HSM stops ignoring bad challenge responses (that is, attempts to submit the partition secret) and begins treating them as failed login attempts. Each bad login attempt is counted. Partition policy 20: Max failed user logins allowed determines how high that count can go before the partition is locked out.
Once a partition is locked by bad login attempts, it cannot be accessed until the HSM Security Officer (SO) unlocks it. This defeats an automated harvesting attack that relies on millions of attempts occurring at computer-generated speeds. As well, after one or two lockout cycles, the HSM SO would realize that an attack was under way and would rescind the NTL registration of the attacking computer. That computer would no longer exist as far as the HSM partition was concerned. The SO or your security organization would then investigate how the client computer had been compromised, and would correct the problem before allowing any new NTL registration from that source. See Failed Logins for more information.
As the owner/administrator of the HSM, you determine any tradeoffs with respect to security, convenience, and other operational parameters.
