Hitachi ID Password Manager Windows / Active Directory integration
Hitachi ID Password Manager (formerly P-Synch), a component of the Hitachi ID Management Suite, actually supports more than just passwords -- it is, in reality, a platform for managing authentication factors and encryption keys. Password Manager is used by many organizations to reduce the volume of IT support calls relating to passwords and PINs, to improve user productivity by eliminating login problems and to strengthen the security of passwords and of user support processes. Password Manager includes built-in connectors to manage passwords on over 100 kinds of systems and applications.
Windows and Active Directory Integration
Password Manager uses the NTLM client built into the Windows server OS to manage passwords on individual Windows servers and on Active Directory domains.
Integration with Active Directory domains is also supported using LDAPS to one or more domain controllers. Please note that use of LDAPS requires that an SSL certificate be installed on each target DC (Windows does not allow password to be set over plaintext LDAP).
Password Manager can integrate with multiple domains, in multiple forests at the same time. Trust relationships are not required to do this.
Where Password Manager is used to clear intruder lockouts, it can automatically choose appropriate domain controller(s) on which to do so, so as to expedite propagation.
No agent software is installed locally on Windows servers or domain controllers, to manage users or passwords on Windows or Active Directory.
A DLL can be installed on Windows servers and/or AD domain controllers to intercept native password changes, subject them to an extra password policy and trigger password synchronization.
Hitachi ID Identity Manager can also manage objects outside of AD that pertain to AD users -- such as home directory shares and folders, mailboxes on Exchange or other e-mail systems, etc.
Triggering Password Synchronization
Native password changes made on Windows servers and domain controllers can trigger transparent password synchronization.
Updating Cached Credentials
After a password change with a web-based password management system, the cached credentials on a user's workstation will be different than the user's new domain password:
- When a user signs into Windows, Windows stores his domain
login ID and password in a cache in memory.
- When the user signs into other Windows resources (e.g., shares,
printers, Outlook/Exchange mail boxes, IIS web sites), Windows
first tries its cached domain password and if this fails Windows
prompts the user to type the correct password.
- If the user changes his domain password from the workstation with
the Ctrl-Alt-Delete process, Windows updates both the domain password
and the locally cached password -- there is no problem.
- If the help desk, another PC or a web application
changes the user's password on the domain, then the cached password
on the user's PC will be wrong. Subsequent attempts by the user to
access network resources will cause the OS to provide the (wrong)
cached password, will fail and will increment the user's "failed
login attempts" counter. This pattern of activity can ultimately
trigger an intruder lockout for the user.
- Intruder lockouts feed back to the help desk as increased call volume.
If a user signs off and back-on after a web-based password change, the Windows cache is refreshed and the intruder lockout problem described above is averted. This approach is not user friendly, however.
To eliminate this problem without forcing users to sign off and back on, Password Manager includes an ActiveX component that can silently update the user's Windows password cache after a web-based password change.
The cache-updating ActiveX component works on Windows XP, Vista and 7 workstations.
