PistolStar Expands iSeries Support with Password Products

Published: September 12, 2006

by Alex Woodie

PistolStar last week unveiled expanded support for the iSeries server with its collection of software for making passwords easier to handle. The enhancements were added to both of its core products, including Password Power, a password framework that connects PistolStar's various password plug-ins for different platforms and applications, and Web Set Password, which simplifies the handling of passwords and user IDs in a Lotus Notes/Domino environments.

PistolStar, like many companies (including IT Jungle), got its start in 2001 following the collapse of the technology bubble. The company's founders had been providing Lotus Notes/Domino consulting, but when that business dried up, the founders made their way into utility development, and eventually settled on the market for streamlining the handling of passwords, which was becoming a real problem for Global 2000 businesses relying on applications operating on multiple platforms.

The company developed a set of products that simplified password management on IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform. The gist of these products, which still account for about 80 percent of the company's business, is that they enable users to authenticate themselves against Microsoft Active Directory or Novell eDirectory, instead of relying on the native authentication methods in Notes/Domino, which are inadequate in many ways.

Many Notes users would rather authenticate against ActiveDirectory than the Domino server because the authentication controls in the Notes/Domino platform are too complex and cumbersome for administrators and end-users, says PistolStar chief technical officer Gregg Browinski. "In Notes, to change the Notes ID password, you have to know the Notes ID password, whereas in Windows Active Directory, administrators can change the password any time," he says.

ActiveDirectory is the preferred target for this "authentication redirection" capability, which is delivered as a Domino server-based product called Web Set Password. "If you want to consolidate directories and manage the users' desktops, Active Directory is great for that," Browinski says. "It gives you a central place to manage accounts and ACLs and manage user policies, and push that down through user policies. Microsoft has done a great job to allow administrators to control desktops."

Web Set Password previously supported Domino running on Windows and Unix platforms, but now it supports iSeries-based Domino implementations, too.

In addition to authentication redirection, Web Set Password provides 35 other password security and management features not found in Lotus Domino R6 and R7, according to PistolStar. These capabilities include a self-registration utility that enables end-users to create their own user accounts without administrator involvement; a "three strikes" capability that prevents dictionary attacks; rules for enforcing tough-to-guess passwords and password expiration rules; and browser-based self-service password management, including the capability to reset or recover lost or forgotten passwords using challenge questions and other authentication mechanisms.

Besides Web Set Password, which is a server-based offering, PistolStar also offers Password Power, which the company defines as a framework of client-side password utilities, or plug-ins.

Like with its Web Set Password product, Password Power provides authentication redirection, which enables users to standardize password management and authentication processes on their directory of choice (Microsoft Active Directory for 70 percent of PistolStar's customers). The individual Password Power plug-ins then provide the platform- or application-specific password functionality the user requires.

PistolStar offers several password plug-ins, including plug-ins for the iSeries, for Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP environments, and for Lotus Notes, Domino, and Sametime.

Password Power provides several password-related capabilities, including password synchronization (where changes to the directory are propagated outward to the various systems, such as the iSeries), password reset, and SSO. SSO is currently not supported with the iSeries plug-in, although the company is exploring ways of using Kerberos to meet customers' needs, Browinski says.

Nashua, New Hampshire-based PistolStar is currently shipping Password Power version 8.1, as well as the new release of Web Set Password that supports iSeries-based Domino servers. OS/400 V5R3 and later operating systems are supported. Pricing is user-based and varies with the plug-ins selected. For more information, visit www.pistolstar.com.