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The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

troyhunt.com

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Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It asks for different characters from the password each time. So it'll ask for the 1st, 4th, and 5th characters. Next time you go to login it'll ask from 2nd, 8th, 14th. So a key logger is only getting a small portion of the password each time.

So they attacker just has to run the keylogger for enough time...

Only if they also capture the website output so they know which logged key press represents which character of the password.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#172

The worst is websites which not only disable pasting but don't even let you type your password in. Instead you have to use their janky on-screen keyboard to fumble your way through login. I got so fed up with TradeKing (which has horrible security practices in general) that I close my account.

> don't even let you type your password in. Instead you have to use their janky on-screen keyboard to fumble your way through login. Wow that's just insane. I'm glad I haven't run across any services like that. I'm not sure what their line of thought it; it only inconveniences normal users. A person attempting to try multiple passwords can likely figure out how to get around that restriction without issue.

It's a valid defense against hardware keyloggers, ignoring that you're way more likely to encounter a software keylogger.

If your account is interesting enough for criminals to break into your computer room and attach dongles to your PC (I'm imagining a Mission: Impossible style break here), congratulations: you've clearly made some good financial decisions in life :-)

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It asks for different characters from the password each time. So it'll ask for the 1st, 4th, and 5th characters. Next time you go to login it'll ask from 2nd, 8th, 14th. So a key logger is only getting a small portion of the password each time.

So they attacker just has to run the keylogger for enough time...

Yeah I was thinking they could do that. You'd only need to record a few logins.

Re brute forcing, some like firstdirect make you type a word as well and they probably block you after 3 fails so it would be quite hard to brute force. Tddirectinvesting only ask a 7 digit account number and 3 digits from the password so you could probably brute force coms of those with a botnet though they only let you transfer money to a pre nominated bank account so it would still be hard to nick people's money.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#174

It always amazes me that someone is hired to implement strong security and they come up with things like paste-blocking. Or "security questions." Security questions are a social engineers best friend. Unless you're savvy and your answers are all strong passwords themselves, and if they are you're probably using keepass or something like it with 400+ bit passwords and you hate wasting time on security questions too.

It's amazing to me how insecure email is these days. If you know somebody's email, and you have a plausible reason to have a conversation with them, you can very easily take over their email account and reset the password on every account attached to it. I often wonder how much the security of email (and by extension, every other account online) depends on people just not knowing how simple and easy it is to break in…

And that’s why I host all my email myself, and have my VPS with no password login (only key auth), and have 2FA enabled for the VPS control panel at the hoster, and have 2FA enabled for any change to the domain requiring a letter to be sent to me.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#175
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HSBC has this really odd system where they only ask for the (e.g.) 1st, 6th, and 7th characters of your password. That implies that they store plaintext or something reversible...

HSBC doesn't do that any more for me -- they've moved to a Google Authenticator-like 2FA approach[1], but Lloyds[2] does - they have one username and password, and a "memorable phrase" which they clearly store as plaintext because ask for the xth, yth and zth character as a secondary security measure. Lloyds tech folk reading this -- please consider fixing this. [1] http://i.imgur.com/QCGPDWz.png [2] http://i.imgur.c…

I have the memorable phrase and have to use the HSBC app for my password. Now, the fun thing is that my actual HSBC password is 40 characters randomness, so pretty secure. The mobile password that is used to derive the 2FA key must not be longer than 8 characters. So essentially I traded a long and secure password for an 8 character password.

I really really dislike HSBCs online banking as a whole, the password system plus the constant “We encountered an error, please try again later” messages.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#176
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give an example of how it is possible to take over an email account just by having an e-mail conversation with the owner?

I imagine he/she is referring to how most "security questions" use info that we typically don't hesitate to give out in casual conversation, even with total strangers.

I think if I had a casual conversation and they started asking what was your pets name, where did you go to school etc I'd think it a bit odd. As an aside I usually have to write down the answers I've given in a word doc and look them up if I need to do that stuff as I can't remember which memorable place it was and the like.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It asks for different characters from the password each time. So it'll ask for the 1st, 4th, and 5th characters. Next time you go to login it'll ask from 2nd, 8th, 14th. So a key logger is only getting a small portion of the password each time.

So they attacker just has to run the keylogger for enough time...

They also use 2FA i believe.. but then it makes logging in a right pain the ass for customers: 1) track down your massive identity number 2) enter 2nd, 5th, 8th characters of your password 3) locate your 2FA code from the HSBC device they send.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#178
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HSBC has this really odd system where they only ask for the (e.g.) 1st, 6th, and 7th characters of your password. That implies that they store plaintext or something reversible...

HSBC doesn't do that any more for me -- they've moved to a Google Authenticator-like 2FA approach[1], but Lloyds[2] does - they have one username and password, and a "memorable phrase" which they clearly store as plaintext because ask for the xth, yth and zth character as a secondary security measure. Lloyds tech folk reading this -- please consider fixing this. [1] http://i.imgur.com/QCGPDWz.png [2] http://i.imgur.c…

Why cant they just also hash those three letter combinations they ask you? Not nearly as secure but I see many people saying that the plaintext must be stored to achieve this, and all I am thinking is that it would require you to store multiple hashes for each user, each a portion of their password.

Still a lot easier to guess a portion of a password than a password, but it doesnt follow in my mind that it is definitely in plaintext.

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#179
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HSBC has this really odd system where they only ask for the (e.g.) 1st, 6th, and 7th characters of your password. That implies that they store plaintext or something reversible...

HSBC doesn't do that any more for me -- they've moved to a Google Authenticator-like 2FA approach[1], but Lloyds[2] does - they have one username and password, and a "memorable phrase" which they clearly store as plaintext because ask for the xth, yth and zth character as a secondary security measure. Lloyds tech folk reading this -- please consider fixing this. [1] http://i.imgur.com/QCGPDWz.png [2] http://i.imgur.c…

I do not agree that they store a password in plain text. You cannot say for sure. What if they hash each character and store each with its position in the db?

Re: The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fields

#180
Here in Norway, almost all financial and government institutions allow a form of authentication called BankID (https://www.bankid.no/en/company/). I use the mobile variant and it works for all government related stuff like taxes, health, relocation notices and also with all banks both when logging in and paying bills, signing contracts etc. It is a legally binding identification akin to signing a paper.

The procedure for the mobile version is to input your phone number and birthday on the login and you get a popup on the phone (via the gsm network and sim toolkit, not ip) to input your password along with a short phrase like "pink bridge" so you can verify that it was the web page that sent it. This also works with a lot of credit cards for paying online via 3dsecure.

It's become so common that a large majority of our customers (I work in a bank) are using this as the sole mechanism of identification.

(And yes, for the non mobile version of BankID you can paste the password!)

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