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Passwords in plain text

plaintextoffenders.com

11–20 of 116 posts

Re: Passwords in plain text

#11

Scrape all the URLs from that website. Then write a browser extension that looks up the current tab's URL and turns red if it matches one of those domains. Use PRs to manage addition/subtraction of offenders to the list. Now even grandma knows when a website doesn't save your password safely and shaming them will have more impact.

There's already a Chrome Extension for it if I'm not mistaken.

Re: Passwords in plain text

#12
Hey guys, I'm @omervk, one of the co-founders and the maintainer of PTO. Always a pleasure to be featured on the front page of HN.

You're welcome to ask me questions, though we've covered most on our about page (http://plaintextoffenders.com/about). The one we haven't is usually "Is there an API/better search/new site coming?" to which the answer is that we're both doing this in our spare time and though we really want to create something better to host this very important content, we can't spare the time. If you've got time and want to volunteer to create this new site, please let me know. :)

Re: Passwords in plain text

#13
post #12

Hey guys, I'm @omervk, one of the co-founders and the maintainer of PTO. Always a pleasure to be featured on the front page of HN. You're welcome to ask me questions, though we've covered most on our about page ( http://plaintextoffenders.com/about ). The one we haven't is usually "Is there an API/better search/new site coming?" to which the answer is that we're both doing this in our spare time and though we really…

Hi, I'm @hmemcpy, @omervk's partner in crim^H^H^Hplaintextoffending :)

One of Such Volunteers (wow!) made a Chrome Extension that scrapes addresses from PTO and shows you a red banner if you're on a site that's featured PTO!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/plain-text-offende...

Re: Passwords in plain text

#14

The case where you get your new password by mail when you just changed it does not necessarily mean it is stored in plain text. They could keep it around in memory just long enough to send it by mail. Doesn't mean it is a good idea though.

Even if it's not stored at their end in plaintext it's a security issue that it's emailed in plaintext.

Re: Passwords in plain text

#15
post #13
post #12

Hey guys, I'm @omervk, one of the co-founders and the maintainer of PTO. Always a pleasure to be featured on the front page of HN. You're welcome to ask me questions, though we've covered most on our about page ( http://plaintextoffenders.com/about ). The one we haven't is usually "Is there an API/better search/new site coming?" to which the answer is that we're both doing this in our spare time and though we really…

Hi, I'm @hmemcpy, @omervk's partner in crim^H^H^Hplaintextoffending :) One of Such Volunteers (wow!) made a Chrome Extension that scrapes addresses from PTO and shows you a red banner if you're on a site that's featured PTO! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/plain-text-offende...

I suppose the only downside is the list of reformed sites using improved password security appears to rely on user verification and submission, so the list may not always be up to date - but it's certainly better than not knowing at all. Kudos to the extension maker.

Re: Passwords in plain text

#16
post #8

The case where you get your new password by mail when you just changed it does not necessarily mean it is stored in plain text. They could keep it around in memory just long enough to send it by mail. Doesn't mean it is a good idea though.

There are some ways to do that sort of thing safely, for some value of 'safe', but they're non-trivial. Sticking the plaintext passwords in a database row is trivial. Which do you think is more common? :-(

But that has nothing to do with the fact that just because the site emails you a password doesn't mean that they store the password in plaintext. The catch here is that if they email the password upon the user having entered it (made an account or changed their password, or had password generated for them, ...). If user requests a lost password and it's returned in plaintext, then one can be sure that the password isn't being stored in proper way.

HN does this too, by the way. If you request a new password for an account, it's being sent in plaintext. No problem here, what comes to storing it.

Re: Passwords in plain text

#17
post #7

Just use a unique password every time and rest easy.

That makes things better, but it's still not great to have your account compromised on one website because that website stored its passwords in plain text.

Re: Passwords in plain text

#18
post #13
post #12

Hey guys, I'm @omervk, one of the co-founders and the maintainer of PTO. Always a pleasure to be featured on the front page of HN. You're welcome to ask me questions, though we've covered most on our about page ( http://plaintextoffenders.com/about ). The one we haven't is usually "Is there an API/better search/new site coming?" to which the answer is that we're both doing this in our spare time and though we really…

Hi, I'm @hmemcpy, @omervk's partner in crim^H^H^Hplaintextoffending :) One of Such Volunteers (wow!) made a Chrome Extension that scrapes addresses from PTO and shows you a red banner if you're on a site that's featured PTO! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/plain-text-offende...

Apparently the list of offending sites is hardcoded in the extension ( https://github.com/klinskyc/PTOAlert/blob/master/sites.json ) and the extension is not updated to reflect changes on the sites.

Re: Passwords in plain text

#19

Its a little scary how big that list is. My concern is that this is a great source of websites with poor security for potential hackers to exploit.

That's why we should use different passwords on each website
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