Live data from Hacker News

NULL license plate not such a bright idea

knrs.iheart.com

371–380 of 484 posts

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#372
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once had a cab driver take me to MIT. Cab driver: "what is this place?" Me: "MIT" Cab driver: "what's MIT?" Me: "the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." Cab driver: "what's Massachusetts?"

I had a cab driver in New York who was unable to take me to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Possibly didn't want to take you into Brooklyn. The Manhattan side isn't really walkable.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#373

A colleague used an app's "generate secure password" feature to change their ISP's web portal login - which then also became the WAN router's password - which they didn't realise. It was about a week before the router dropped its connection and needed to re-authenticate - and that's when I was called in to investigate the loss of connectivity - which Windows 10 very unhelpfully reported as the network cable disconnec…

The Indian version of personal retirement fund NPA website does this, I learnt a lesson. Every certain weeks you Have to change password. No big deal. I will just add an incremental number. Ok, password now is PasswordPass1. Lets login, Wrong password? Why? Error Password length exceeded.

So, the password change page will accept any length password, will silently truncate it if longer & save it. Now on login page you have to guess the password length or reset.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#375

A colleague used an app's "generate secure password" feature to change their ISP's web portal login - which then also became the WAN router's password - which they didn't realise. It was about a week before the router dropped its connection and needed to re-authenticate - and that's when I was called in to investigate the loss of connectivity - which Windows 10 very unhelpfully reported as the network cable disconnec…

Oh yeah, I've run into a lot of similar problems with even very well tested applications. The password reset field would accept inputs not valid at login time. I mostly ran into this when generating random passwords 100 characters in length from LastPass.

At one point GitHub even changed reduced their max password input to a sane amount, and I couldn't log in anymore with my existing insane password length a few years ago.

In most cases they fix the case when I report it, but my bank is terrible.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#376
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All we had to do was register our cars in each others names. When I was married, my car was registered to her and vice versa. The redlight/photoradar laws in my state required that the company operating the devices had to match the pic of the driver violating the law, to the pic of the registered owner via the license plate. If they couldn't match them, no ticket was issued as you can't prove who was driving. That's…

In the UK we fixed this by making it a legal requirement for the owner of the car to identify the driver (obviously unless there's a valid reason you can't, such as it being stolen). Two MPs have actually been caught out by this law, convicted of perverting the course of justice and sent to prison: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Onasanya - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Huhne

> On 3 February 2012, Huhne resigned from the Cabinet when he was charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case. His wife at the time, Vicky Pryce, had claimed that she was driving the car, and accepted the licence penalty points on his behalf so that he could avoid being banned from driving. Huhne denied the charge until the trial began on 4 February 2013 when he changed his plea to guilty, resigned as a member of parliament, and left the Privy Council.[7][8][9] He and Pryce were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 11 March to eight months in prison for perverting the course of justice.

Going to prison for lying about speeding 10 years ago seems insane. Did they punish these MPs especially heavily just to make a point?

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once had a BevMo cashier in California ask me, “Massachusetts? Is that in Canada?” Very little faith left.

I once had a cab driver take me to MIT. Cab driver: "what is this place?" Me: "MIT" Cab driver: "what's MIT?" Me: "the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." Cab driver: "what's Massachusetts?"

Not to be confused with the world class educational institution the Manukau Institute of Technology :P

I always find it funny when I drive by that and I see the sign MIT.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a different story where the guy had to fight every ticket in court

It has happened multiple times. NULL, NV, XXX, MISSING, NO PLATE

I wonder if the system is also vulnerable to SQL injection via vanity plates.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#379

I have a family member who's license plate started with "&". The DMV accepts it, plates were ordered online fine, but police systems can't handle it apparently, to my family members ultimate discomfort. I commonly joke it probably gets the individual out of automated tickers for speeding and red lights, but when an officer pulls them over we sometimes need to explain that the "&" is dropped in the system (or so we've…

Well, in their credit, they're the ones whose system won't go down from an XSS payload on a plate.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#380
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I addressed that: >employees with access to the system are required to enter a 'valid' value.

... did you edit that second line in after the fact, or am I losing it?

I did not edit that in. Sorry.
Post reply on HN