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Securing
This section describes security features, including execution control lists, IDs, and TLS.
Web-based authentication
Define and set up authentication methods for web users, for example through basic password authentication, passkeys, time-based one-time password, or single sign-on.
Name-and-password authentication for Internet/intranet clients
Name-and-password authentication, also known as basic password authentication, uses a basic challenge/response protocol to ask users for their names and passwords and then verifies the accuracy of the passwords by checking them against a secure hash of the password stored in Person documents in the Domino® Directory.
Securing Internet passwords
Internet passwords can be subject to attacks by malicious sources. However, there are measures you can take to make Internet passwords more secure.
Using more secure password format
When you enter an Internet password and save the Person document, Domino® automatically one-way hashes the Internet password field. To improve the default password, use the more secure password format.

Securing
This section describes security features, including execution control lists, IDs, and TLS.
- Overview of Domino security
  Setting up security for your organization is a critical task. Your security infrastructure is critical for protecting your organization's IT resources and assets. As an administrator, you need to give careful consideration to your organization's security requirements before you set up any servers or users. Up-front planning pays off later in minimizing the risks of compromised security.
- Server access for Notes® users, Internet users, and Domino® servers
  To control user and server access to other servers, Domino® uses the settings you specify on the Security tab in the Server document as well as the rules of validation and authentication. If a server validates and authenticates the Notes® user, Internet user, or server, and the settings in the Server document allow access, the user or server is allowed access to the server.
- The database access control list
  Every .NSF database has an access control list (ACL) that specifies the level of access that users and servers have to that database. Although the names of access levels are the same for users and servers, those assigned to users determine the tasks that they can perform in a database, while those assigned to servers determine what information within the database the servers can replicate. Only someone with Manager access can create or modify the ACL.
- Domino® server and Notes® user IDs
  Domino® uses ID files to identify users and to control access to servers. Every Domino server, Notes® certifier, and Notes user must have an ID.
- The execution control list
  You use an execution control list (ECL) to configure workstation data security. An ECL protects user workstations against active content from unknown or suspect sources, and can be configured to limit the action of any active content that does run on workstations.
- Domino® server-based certification authority
  You can set up a Domino® certifier that uses the CA process server task to manage and process certificate requests. The CA process runs as a process on Domino servers that are used to issue certificates. When you set up a Notes® or Internet certifier, you link it to the CA process on the server in order to take advantage of CA process activities. Only one instance of the CA process can run on a server; however, the process can be linked to multiple certifiers.
- TLS security
  Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol that provides communications privacy and authentication for Domino® server tasks that operate over TCP/IP.
- TLS and S/MIME for clients
  Clients can use a Domino® certificate authority (CA) application or a third-party CA to obtain certificates for secure TLS and S/MIME communication.
- Encryption
  Encryption protects data from unauthorized access.
- Web-based authentication
  Define and set up authentication methods for web users, for example through basic password authentication, passkeys, time-based one-time password, or single sign-on.
  - Name-and-password authentication for Internet/intranet clients
    Name-and-password authentication, also known as basic password authentication, uses a basic challenge/response protocol to ask users for their names and passwords and then verifies the accuracy of the passwords by checking them against a secure hash of the password stored in Person documents in the Domino® Directory.
    - Authenticating web users against the Notes® ID passwords in the ID vault
      You can configure HCL Domino® to use the password in an ID vault to authenticate users that access the server over HTTP, IMAP, POP3, and LDAP internet protocols.
    - Setting up basic name-and-password authentication
      To enable basic name-and-password authentication, for both TCP and TLS, for all Internet protocols: Web (HTTP); IMAP; POP3; LDAP; SMTP Inbound; and IIOP, you must complete three separate procedures.
    - Session-based name-and-password authentication for Web clients
      To set up name-and-password authentication for Web clients who have access to a Domino® Web server, you can use one of two methods: basic name-and-password authentication or session-based name-and-password authentication. Session-based name-and-password authentication includes additional functionality that is not available with basic name-and-password authentication. A session is defined as the time during which a Web client is actively logged onto a server with a cookie. To specify settings that enable and control session authentication, you edit the Web Site document or the Server document, depending on your configuration.
    - Controlling the level of authentication for Internet clients
      You can select the level of restriction HCL Domino® uses when authenticating users in Domino Directories and LDAP directories, and the user has supplied a user name and password. This applies to all Internet protocols (HTTP, LDAP, IMAP, POP3).
    - Managing Internet passwords
      To manage the Internet passwords that you assign to users who have Person documents in the Domino® Directory, use a security settings policy document. You can manage Internet password quality and length, as well as allow users to change their Internet passwords using a Web browser, and control expiration period and change intervals.
    - Securing Internet passwords
      Internet passwords can be subject to attacks by malicious sources. However, there are measures you can take to make Internet passwords more secure.
      - Using more secure password format
        When you enter an Internet password and save the Person document, Domino® automatically one-way hashes the Internet password field. To improve the default password, use the more secure password format.
      - Using Internet password lockout
        Internet password lockout lets administrators set a threshold value for Internet password authentication failures for Domino® Web and Domino Web Access users.
      - Using xACLs to secure Internet passwords
        One way to secure Internet passwords is to use Extended ACLs, or xACLs, to control access based on levels in the naming hierarchy, and at the form and field level. For passwords stored in the Domino® Directory, administrators can set up xACLs to limit access to Internet passwords to the users themselves, for accessing their own passwords, and to administrators, for allowing administrative changes to passwords.
    - Anonymous Internet and intranet access
      When you set up anonymous access, Internet and intranet clients can access servers without identifying themselves. HCL Domino® does not record these clients' database activity -- for example, in the log file and in the User Activity dialog box.
    - Validation and authentication for Internet and intranet clients
      After you set up name-and-password access and create Person documents for Internet/intranet users, Domino® authenticates users either when they attempt to do something for which access is restricted, or Anonymous access is not allowed on the server.
  - Passkey authentication
    Learn how to enable passkey authentication on a Domino server or internet site for improved security.
  - Time-based one-time password (TOTP) authentication
    When users log on to a Domino Web server, you can require that they provide time-based one-time passwords in addition to their user names and passwords.
  - Multi-server session-based authentication (single sign-on)
    Multi-server session-based authentication, also known as single sign-on (SSO), allows Web users to log in once to a Domino® or WebSphere® server, and then access any other Domino or WebSphere servers in the same DNS domain that are enabled for single sign-on (SSO) without having to log in again.
  - Using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) to configure federated-identity authentication
    Federated identity is a means of achieving single sign-on, providing user convenience and helping to reduce administrative cost. In Domino® and Notes®, federated identity for user authentication uses the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard from OASIS.
  - Using OpenID Connect (OIDC) to configure federated-identity authentication
    Federated identity is a means of achieving single sign-on, providing user convenience and helping reduce administrative cost. One way that client applications can authenticate users is by using an OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider.
- Using a credential store to store credentials
  A Domino® server can use a credential store application as a secure artifact repository. Examples of secure artifacts include authentication credentials and security keys.
- History of supported key sizes in Notes and Domino
  Understand the RSA key sizes supported by Notes® and Domino® from past releases to the current release.

Using more secure password format

When you enter an Internet password and save the Person document, Domino® automatically one-way hashes the Internet password field. To improve the default password, use the more secure password format.

About this task

You can upgrade the password format for Person documents that already exist or automatically use the more secure password format for all Person documents that you create.

For existing Person documents

Procedure

From the Domino® Administrator, click People & Groups, and select the Person documents that you want to upgrade to a more secure password format.
Choose Actions > Upgrade to More Secure Internet Password Format.
If all servers in the Domino® domain run release 8.0.1 or greater, select Yes - Password verification compatible with Notes/Domino release 8.0.1 or greater. Otherwise select Yes - Password verification compatible with Notes/Domino release 4.6 or greater.

Note: Changing your Internet password in the Person document will upgrade the stored hash to a more secure SHA-256 format if the option for 8.0.1 or greater is set.

For new Person documents

Procedure

From the Domino® Administrator, click Configuration, and select All Server Documents.
Choose Actions > Edit Directory Profile.
If all servers in the Domino® domain run release 8.0.1 or greater, select Yes - Password verification compatible with release Notes/Domino release 8.0.1 or greater. Otherwise select Yes - Password verification compatible with Notes/Domino release 4.6 or greater.
Save and close the document.
Note:
- The Internet password stored hash will automatically use a more secure SHA-256 format if the option for 8.0.1 or greater is set.
- The more secure password format is required if you choose to synchronize a user's Internet password with their Notes® password.
Tip: Another way of preventing malicious sources from guessing passwords is to simply make them harder to guess – by making the passwords longer and more complex, using a variety of characters, avoiding the use of real words, and so on.