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Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

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Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#181
so what should i tell my mom to avoid her Gmail being hacked in future same way? (it wasn't hacked since they had only English language audience this time)

don't click on unknown links which take you to Google login page and never approve access to your data in any dialog?

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, PCI compliance requirements believe otherwise :(

The PCI requirement is to change passwords every 90 days.

And is patently silly, forcing the requirement to decrypt rarely used private keys every 90 days.

The requirement should depend on password and hash strength, not some arbitrary decision.

PCI does not recommend employing password entropy checkers either.

90 day password can be weak while passing all the requirements.

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> changing my passwords every 30 days is looking less and less important. Using some non-English Unicode text as password will make the password really strong. I sometimes include Malayalam text for passwords as it's my native language.

Then oauth based attacks like this come along and your password (however strong it may be) and two-factor auth are bypassed completely... It's interesting Apple can scale personally vetting apps for the app store but Google apparently can't be bothered to do the same for apps that could actually ruin businesses and lives with the data they could scoop up

It is not quite a virus, it works more akin to a trojan and exploits people not thinking about what they're clicking.

In 10s, why would Google docs ask for an oAuth prompt with big permissions?

People click through security dialogs, it is a known fact.

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#184
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people today authenticate their email account by typing their password into the DOM and sending it over the wire. It puts a ton of pressure on email providers to be secure. I consider my email password the absolute most important piece of information I have. So although I do agree with you (and have created sites in the past that do passwordless login), the general password problem doesn't really get solved with…

How about two-provider authentication? (2PA?) Send codes/links to two confirmed but independent accounts (email + Twitter, or Facebook + SMS) and require those to be entered. Probably not anymore secure--and a nightmare to manage. But look to consensus algorithms for authentication ideas.

Phone is a (slightly) harder target, but Twitter + email is equivalent to just email.

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's my guess that Mailinator is extremely irrelevant to their plan. They planned to propagate via BCC but they needed a "To:" address - preferably one that didn't bounce. So they hit the "h" key awhile, then added @mailinator.com

Would it have made a difference if they made the "To:" a non-existent address? Would a bounce also prevent delivery to BCC recipients?

Technically, they have to defeat greylisting and server validity checks anyway to get mails accepted to most modern mail servers.

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PCI requirement is to change passwords every 90 days.

And is patently silly, forcing the requirement to decrypt rarely used private keys every 90 days. The requirement should depend on password and hash strength, not some arbitrary decision. PCI does not recommend employing password entropy checkers either. 90 day password can be weak while passing all the requirements.

Everywhere I've worked appears to have their own way of circumventing the security of PCI requirements. On a military base I worked everyone used an easily recognizable pattern on the keyboard. Another place was something like [employer][symbol][123 or 321]. All too often people use the same pattern that the IT team uses when they reset your password. So if the IT team typically sets your password to WhyCombin@tor1, then everyone's going to cycle through 1-10.

Making people reset their password every 90 days probably causes more problems than it solves and incentivizes more easily guessable passwords.

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see are asterisks, weird.

Bravo. Masterclass username for this comment. I'm dying. (For those who may have missed it in this HN crowd, let me momentarily invoke a veil of joke-explainer and offer this http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hunter2 of the joke.)

Haha, I've been around for a while but that one I missed. Awesome.

Re: Ask HN: Google Doc email virus?

#190
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how the code has Javadoc comments, in case other developers need to maintain the worm or use its public API.

That's gotta be a copy-paste job. If someone was actually cheeky enough to comment their malware they would've left jokes, puns, etc.

Indeed, those comments come from a Google Analytics quick start: https://github.com/chriskwan/gmailytics/blob/master/quicksta...
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