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Let them paste passwords (2017)

ncsc.gov.uk

91–100 of 129 posts

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#91
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You underestimate the ingenuity of some sites. Take this one: https://systemschimb.telekombanking.ro/login - enter a random user id, and behold the password input field: - all characters are separated (not one password field, but 10-15 ones) - some characters are randomly grayed-out (you're not supposed to enter all the characters of your password)

It is missfeatures like this which make me seriously doubt the competence of the site provider. They then loose me as a customer, and everybody else who I can influence.

Looks like a bank.

It was (is?) common practice to have a visual keyboard to enter the password in extremely sensitive applications like banking. This prevents the password from being captured by keyloggers and from being saved by the browser, because malware automatically extract and collect these, which was a very real issue with banking.

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#92
post #51
post #31

On this point: > write passwords down in places that are easy to find (like post-it notes next to the screen) Writing passwords on post-it notes is often used as a ridicule of non-tech-savvy folks behavior. I'd like to pose this question: If you're doing this not at an office, but at home, is this really so bad? Say you run a web site on AWS and write your really long AWS password on a piece of paper at home. It woul…

I know a person with many sheets of paper filled by site makes and their passwords. Basically a password manager on paper. It's an excellent protection against password stealing malware but it's very bad if a burglar enters the house and also steal the passwords. It's also a pain to look for a site (the passwords are not on an old fashioned phone numbers agenda) and to type the passwords every time.

To be fair even in the event of burglary they might not steal a piece of paper

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#93
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related to this, every security team I’ve ever interacted with barely knows how to work a computer and mostly operates off of commercially purchased scanning tools and security agents. My theory is that security is the least desirable part of the entire software engineering stack - it’s boring, has a lot of blame and liability potential, and it’s a cost center. Heck at least infrastructure folks get to brag about thi…

I recently started a CISSP course and discovered this. I was so excited to finally be getting into security and the next thing I know I'm 3 hours into recordings about pointless jargon and control taxonomies. I know there is a place for the latter at least, but it isn't something I want to do everyday.

Pivot to OSCP instead.

CISSP will have you learn the required strength of a light bulb to light the alley behind the office. OSCP will introduce you to overflowing a buffer and pwning a remote service...

I know which one I find preferable to learn :)

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#94
post #23

What password manager do you use? Have been using Avast PW Manager but appears to no longer be maintained.

KeePassXC, LastPass, Bitwarden and 1Password are the major ones.

KeePassXC is my current favourite. Some of the keyboard shortcuts don't seem the same as KeePass though. Nice piece of software though.

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#95
post #40

Making password entry difficult is like attempting weight loss by eating bland food. It's not the flavour that makes you fat. Nonetheless, there's this perception that something delicious can't be good for a diet. People have this notion that to lose weight, there must be penance . An element of punishing oneself for past transgressions seems essential . Security people have the same mindset. Security must be a hassl…

apt-get install xclip xdotool, then put this in ~/bin/paste #!/bin/bash sleep 2.0 xdotool type "$(xclip -o -selection clipboard)" If a website prevents you from pasting stuff just type "paste" and then click the field and wait 2 seconds.

paste(1) is part of GNU coreutils, so maybe use a different name for your script (to avoid potential collisions).

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big problem is that if you have a break in you don't know if the theif was tech savvy or not, and you should assume your passwords are compromised.

Break ins are rare (I mean, most people will never have one in their lives); and if your threat model assumes have a tech-savvy thief then all your accounts should be considered compromised anyway since it's likely that some of the stolen devices will include some access tokens/cookies that could grant access to some accounts which then can be escalated to e.g. reset passwords to other accounts.

Also, with a break-in you're likely to know - with a computer file you're less likely to know it's compromised.

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#99

Making password entry difficult is like attempting weight loss by eating bland food. It's not the flavour that makes you fat. Nonetheless, there's this perception that something delicious can't be good for a diet. People have this notion that to lose weight, there must be penance . An element of punishing oneself for past transgressions seems essential . Security people have the same mindset. Security must be a hassl…

There's actually a lot of scientific evidence that hyperpalatable food contributes significantly to obesity and that bland food does lead to an instantaneous drop in appetite.

It's not about any penance, you got it all wrong, this is about our brain going haywire for food high in calories.

Re: Let them paste passwords (2017)

#100
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How on earth could I remember random complex passwords I use once a year? I can memorise af58f916cc0cb22193c18f02d3c1cc3e easily, but once you work out (perhaps a keylogger) why that's my paypal password, my google password of 68b31385067f73977c6007cefcddbe74 falls quickly

I think that's a bit of a stretch. You can use rememberable long phrases. Back in 2012, my facebook password was idontunderstandthepointofonlinefriends2011 . I don't think it's easy to forget something like that.

Most sites don't allow rememberable long phrases, some services have a password length as small as 12 characters.
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