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Passwords alone are no longer sufficient. To address this RIT has moved to Duo's MFA service for the majority of services. Admins and developers, however, have access to large amounts of information and have privileges on servers that can cause significant damage if their credentials are compromised. Because of those risks, stronger and more efficient MFA is required for certain accounts. To achieve this, ITS has historically used OATH (One Time Passwords) for SSH and sudo access on linux Linux servers and recently started requiring either certificates + PIN or Duo for Windows logons.
OATH is deprecated and all OATH users are being moved to certificate-based authentication. ITS is issuing YubKeys YubiKeys that will be used to securely generate and store these certificates.
Requirements
- YubiKey 4 .3 or later (Typically this is a YubiKey 4 or newer)newer (needs to mention PIV or smartcard)
- Security keys will not work. These are generally FIDO only keys.
- Yubico Security Keys (blue)
- GitHub-branded security keys
- Security keys will not work. These are generally FIDO only keys.
- Latest version of OS
- Yubikey YubiKey Manager
- Windows
Expand title SCCM Software Center (Preferred Method) 
- Mac
- Linux
Requesting a YubiKey
- Fill out the following Google form
round 2 Yubikey singnup sheet - Google Sheets- Pick up at INS-1130
Considerations
- These docs are not the only way to accomplish the goal nor are YubiKeys required the only way to accomplish password-less authentication however the further you deviate from these docs the less knowledge ITS has to assist you.
- The OS requires a lock on the YubiKey. If using multiple computers, even if a computer is virtual, multiple devices will be needed – one device per instance of the OS.
- A YubiKey can be passed through RDP session(s) (Windows only)
- Each device will have a different certificate. A certificate can, however, be used for access to both Linux and Windows servers.
- Expert mode: While a YubiKey (i.e. a Yubico device) is not required, the docs and process are built assuming a Yubikey YubiKey is being used. Any device that can securely generate and store keys in a way that can be cryptographically verified will work.
Process Overview
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I. Certificate Enrollment
II. Submit certificate for verification
III. Configure clients to use certificates
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IV. Next steps
I. Certificate Enrollment
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Which Certificate Is Right For Me?
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The following is a suggested determination of which certificate process to follow. If you feel comfortable deviating, feel free to do so. |
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II. Submit certificate for verification
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| Include Page | Yubikey Smartcard Setup via Windows CA-issued Certificate (Yubikey Manager) | Yubikey Smartcard Setup via Windows CA-issued Certificate (Yubikey Manager) |
Else, follow this process below:
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| title | Self-Signed Certificate |
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Submit certificate for verification
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| title | Yubikey Attestation and Submission (Work in Progress) |
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Configure clients to use certificates
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III. Configure clients to use certificates
Windows: III. YubiKey Windows SSH Client Configuration
Mac: III. YubiKey Mac SSH Client Configuration
Linux: III. YubiKey Linux SSH Client Configuration
IV. Next steps
YubiKey Duo Setup - start.rit.edu/Duo
Other uses for certificates
- Sign and encrypt emails
- Main benefit comes from a chained certificate
- Trust follows the chain
- via Windows CA-issued certificate - valid for all RIT Windows domain-bound machines
- via publicly signed certificate - valid for everyone
- Trust follows the chain
- Using Your YubiKey for Email Signing/Encrypting with Outlook on Windows
- Using Your YubiKey for Email Signing/Encrypting with Outlook on Mac
- Main benefit comes from a chained certificate
- Signing Gitlab commits and tags
- Code signing
Other uses of YubiKeys
- Register the YubiKey as a security key within Duo by enrolling the device at start.rit.edu/Duofor various services.
- Configure the YubiKey as a safe place to store OTP (one time passcodes) for non-RIT services instead of using a phone app
- Register the Yubikey YubiKey to provide passwordless password-less authentication in Azure/M365 services
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Generating and distributing(?) certificates
Windows
Enroll certificates using the following Guide:
Configure Windows to automatically load certificates from the Yubikey for SSH use:
macOS
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If you plan on using your certificate with Windows and linux servers, you must generate the certificate using Windows. Once the certificate has been generated on Windows it can be used with any OS and with Windows and linux servers. |
Linux
| Note |
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If you plan on using your certificate with Windows and linux servers, you must generate the certificate using Windows. Once the certificate has been generated on Windows it can be used with any OS and with Windows and linux servers. |
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