Question

I was wondering if anyone has done some performance testing with two different approaches for security. Mostly concerned with the server side of things.

1) Using active directory, the user account is validated each time a message is sent.

2) Using certificate, each message is encrypted with a certificate.

My guess would be that decrypting the message is more computer intensive hence the active directory approach is likely to perform better.

Answer 1

Being a starter on MSMQ, I will do my best to answer the question here.

[1.] Securing a queue against access from accounts you don’t want

Answer: My understanding is that if I use a private queue, it will implicitly do that. In other words, if anyone does not know about it, then how “outsiders” can access it ?

[2.] Ensuring a message is from the account it says it is (authentication)

Answer: I can debate about this. I am not sure it will make a difference in my particular environment since everything is driven by a custom app with structured data sent. If data is not structured the way it should be, the message will simply be ignored.

[3.] Ensuring no one can see the message body (encryption)

Answer: More relevant here, I do think that some level of encryption to prevent any “peeking” of the data.

Finally, I was not aware that the SID was inside the message header.

Let me know how performance is affected but these various security settings. Also, what’s your advice on security with regards to MSMQ ?

Thx for all the info…
Christian Martin