Live data from Hacker News

Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

tailscale.com

251–260 of 539 posts

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#251
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's even worse if you are accessing Apple services on a non-Apple device. No matter how many times I click "trust device" when logging in to icloud.com it will still make me do the password + one-time code song and dance the next day. Another pointless annoyance - if Face ID fails when making a payment or installing an app (like it frequently does for reasons like sleeping in bed or wearing sunglasses) it won't…

> if Face ID fails when making a payment or installing an app (like it frequently does for reasons like sleeping in bed or wearing sunglasses) it won't fall back to PIN but ask you to enter your Apple account password. What? FaceID will prompt for a re-try. Always. It will never fail once and then refuse to do FaceID. If you can't figure out to lift the sunglasses off your face or sit up in bed for a second, that's n…

You’re right except in the very specific case of the App Store purchase or download process. You only get one chance at FaceID and then it demands a password. But, if you cancel and do it again, you get another chance at FaceID. It’s mystifying why they’d make that UX choice.

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#253
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I brought this to our cyber folks, they pointed out that PCI standards require password rotation. So it depends upon which auditors you care about more.

This requirement is in section 8.3.9 of the PCI DSS[0], and only applies to single-factor authentication implementations, two-factor auth removes this requirement. [0] https://docs-prv.pcisecuritystandards.org/PCI%20DSS/Standard...

Your broker/bank still needs to do it, unfortunately... someone please fix this :(

[0] https://www.finra.org/filing-reporting/entitlement/password-...

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#254
Microsoft has ruined their PC games with this. I hesitate to fire up Minecraft or Master Chief Collection these days because I just _know_ it is going to make me reauth for no apparent reason. I took 2FA off my Microsoft account because of this, so congrats.

These are a video games, not a bank account! Please just let me have fun!

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#255
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1234abcd@ it is then for all my accounts.

Password rotation does nothing more than get you to use 1234abcd@ 1234abcd@1 1234abcd@2 1234abcd@3 I'm becoming pretty convinced that at least in the corporate space, we'd be way better off with a required 30 character minimum password, with the only rules being against gross repetition or sequences. (no a * 30 or abcd...yz1234567890 ). Teach people to use passphrases and work on absolutely minimizing the number of t…

Don't tell them. I don't want to have to enter 30 characters. And it does not help for the people you'd need it for anyway.

    1234567890a1234567890@1234567890
Better?

No, just longer to type. You can't fix stupid people by making the life of non-stupid people worse.

All you do is for non-stupid people to stop caring and do the easiest thing possible too.

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#256
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Password rotation does nothing more than get you to use 1234abcd@ 1234abcd@1 1234abcd@2 1234abcd@3 I'm becoming pretty convinced that at least in the corporate space, we'd be way better off with a required 30 character minimum password, with the only rules being against gross repetition or sequences. (no a * 30 or abcd...yz1234567890 ). Teach people to use passphrases and work on absolutely minimizing the number of t…

"Your password is too similar to your previous password" Hmm, how would you know that.

By making it less secure. Like those auth schemes back in the day that sounded great in theory until you figured out that in order to implement them the provider had to store them un-hashed. No thanks.

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#257

Forced password rotation and expiry seems the bigger problem; given that it causes people to get locked out so often, (e.g. if pw expires when on holiday), — often then requiring travelling to IT, or at least a few hours trying to get IT on the phone to reset, or chasing up colleagues who aren't locked out to get in touch with IT. Many (most?) companies still do it, despite it now not being recommended by NIST: > Ver…

Jesus, it was so annoying so I kept appending a letter after each password reset -> a through z

thankfully my current company let me keep my password for the last 3 years

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#258
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's even worse if you are accessing Apple services on a non-Apple device. No matter how many times I click "trust device" when logging in to icloud.com it will still make me do the password + one-time code song and dance the next day. Another pointless annoyance - if Face ID fails when making a payment or installing an app (like it frequently does for reasons like sleeping in bed or wearing sunglasses) it won't…

Why in the world does it need you to type a code id you have already accepted it at the other device? This whole flow is stupid, I guess they want to cover their asses.

To prevent an attack where someone steals your username and password, triggers the 2-factor notification, and waits for you to accept it. This can be automated and repeated until you eventually click the wrong button for one reason or another.

By requesting a short-lived code, attackers now need to communicate with you at the same time of the attack and somehow convince you to give them that code. Much harder.

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#259

Microsoft has ruined their PC games with this. I hesitate to fire up Minecraft or Master Chief Collection these days because I just _know_ it is going to make me reauth for no apparent reason. I took 2FA off my Microsoft account because of this, so congrats. These are a video games, not a bank account! Please just let me have fun!

Yea, it's nuts having to reauthenticate constantly on an Xbox, especially with a randomized password. They changed it recently where you can scan a QR code I guess, but whoever implemented that system is completely disconnected from reality.

Re: Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2025, I don’t think that accessing apple accounts on a non-apple device is a happy path for apple anymore.

"Trust this device" is the modern day elevator door close button.

Haha
Post reply on HN