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Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

bradfrost.com

271–280 of 520 posts

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#271
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I currently use BitWarden (LastPass previously) and neither have had a problem logging into Citi's website though it's been quite some time since I tried to add a new entry from their site.

+1 for BitWarden. For anyone reading this unfamiliar, it's an open source password manager with all the usual features (including iOS Fingerprint enabled client etc, shared group passwords), but the server is also open-source, and you can host your vault on your own server. It's free for individuals/families, supported by Enterprise licensing (or you can roll your own).

[deleted]

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#272
Another rule: make all fields pastable. If you have a form I can't fill in with my password manager, I can copy and paste my username and password with my password manager. Unless... you make those fields so I can't paste into them. Then, I have to open two windows side by side and manually type in my 16 digit password with caps, numbers, and symbols. Tedious.

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#273

There's been a recent tendency to split login forms into username/password over two screens as mentioned in this article. It's maddening. Password managers can't deal with this, unsurprisingly. I don't see the benefit this provides for anyone.

For good reason. It gives you more flexibility for when to throw login challenges to mitigate credential stuffing attacks.

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#274

Another rule: make all fields pastable. If you have a form I can't fill in with my password manager, I can copy and paste my username and password with my password manager. Unless... you make those fields so I can't paste into them. Then, I have to open two windows side by side and manually type in my 16 digit password with caps, numbers, and symbols. Tedious.

It's easier to just hack the HTML IME. If pasting is blocked in JS, and the site has a (probably ancient) version of jQuery installed, just throw this in the console:

    $('*').unbind('paste');

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#275

Another rule: make all fields pastable. If you have a form I can't fill in with my password manager, I can copy and paste my username and password with my password manager. Unless... you make those fields so I can't paste into them. Then, I have to open two windows side by side and manually type in my 16 digit password with caps, numbers, and symbols. Tedious.

It's easier to just hack the HTML IME. If pasting is blocked in JS, and the site has a (probably ancient) version of jQuery installed, just throw this in the console: $('*').unbind('paste');

There are also Chrome extensions that will attempt to remove any such restrictions automatically, like https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dont-fuck-with-pas...

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#276
post #246

Most of his issues with magic links don't exist everywhere. Maybe "Notion's" magic links are bad, but not everyone does that. They're not tedious if you persist the login beyond 1 session. There's also no need for any type of codes. You just receive the email, open it, click the link and then you could be potentially logged in for months or longer (it's up to the site who issues the link). It's one of the easiest and…

Magic link emails are terribly slooooow. Waiting for that email takes too long most of the time. I could've already logged in with a password by now, not even using a password manager.

> Magic link emails are terribly slooooow. Waiting for that email takes too long most of the time. I could've already logged in with a password by now, not even using a password manager.

That depends on how it's implemented.

It's up to the site owner to dictate the behavior.

You can have them login the first time without an email link click and let them know they need to confirm their email after closing this session in order to access the site. This way you can use the site immediately. That is no less secure than most password based sign ups that have no email confirmation.

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#277
> I think this may have started with Slack, but I’m seeing other digital products [...] send users a temporary password to their email in order to login

Pretty sure that’s about as old as time itself, I don’t think it was invented by Slack

Re: Don’t Get Clever with Login Forms

#278
post #233

Magic links are a valid method of login that is "right" for many users who end up resetting their accounts anyways. It's better than using true SSO in the sense that "email is decentralized." Yes, that means if their email is compromised the account is compromised, but how many accounts are there are aren't already compromised when using a random password if the email account is insecure? Every story I've heard of an…

I like the magic links, but more as a secondary option or at least an equal option to a password. I have yet to see a site completely depend on the magic links and I hope that doesn't become a thing. I also really like the "go to this website on your computer and enter this code" for logging in to Apple TV, Chromecast, etc so you aren't typing a 30 character password on a TV remote.

I have used one site which combined magic links with normal login, and it worked excellently... unfortunately I can't remember what the website was.

If you remembered your password, you could login normally. If not, they would email you the 'forgot password' link, but there was no requirement to set a new password! I only logged in once every few months and could never remember the password, so for me just using it as a magic link system worked well, but frequent users would not be inconvenienced by it since they could use the normal login process.

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