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Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

troyhunt.com

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Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My password should be able to contain emojis. It's probably better if it shouldn't. It's generally better to prevent passwords from containing characters that can't be entered on a decent proportion of devices you may encounter. Emojis are particularly problematic because new ones keep being added which require OS upgrades, and you might find yourself needing to log in from another device that just doesn't support…

If a system cannot handle ñ in a password then it is completely broken. We are not talking about the latest emoji here but about a character which is part of one of the most common languages in the world, included in 8859-1 / Latin-1, etc. It is no longer realistic to pretend that only ASCII exists and try to get away with that.

That's not what crazygringo means. ñ can be represented both as a single unicode U+00F1 https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+00F1, or as an n with a combining tilde https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+0303, which looks like this: ñ.

    Python 3.10.12 (main, Nov 20 2023, 15:14:05) [GCC 11.4.0] on linux
    >>> "ñ".encode("utf-8")
    b'\xc3\xb1'
    >>> "ñ".encode("utf-8")
    b'n\xcc\x83'
A naive hashing algorithm will hash them to different things.

For way too much information on this, see: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr15/

Even a lot of Unicode-aware code written by a developer aware of at least some Unicode issues often fails to normalize properly, most likely because they're not even aware it's an issue. Passwords are a case where you need to run a Unicode normalization pass on the password before hashing it, but, unfortunately, if you're already stored the wrong password hash fixing it is rather difficult. (You have to wait for the correctly-incorrect password to be input, then you can normalize and fix the password entry. This requires the users to input the correctly-incorrect password; if they only input an incorrectly-incorrect password you can't do anything.) I'd suspect storing a lot of unnormalized passwords before learning the hard way this is an issue is the majority case for homegrown password systems. You hear "don't roll your own crypto" and think reaching for a bcrypt or scrypt library solves it, but don't realize that there's some stuff that needs to be done before the call to those things still.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#322

This reinforces the need for "mutual trust security" that I've been calling for now for years. All of the significant authentication schemes are built to validate the customer, and none validate the vendor. When your bank or mobile provider gives you a call : how do you know it's them? They start asking you for personal data right away, but you have no idea who you are sharing information with. We need "mutual authen…

EV certs were intended for that. They should always contain info of the company who they were issued to. They were mostly a trainwreck, and now almost completely abandoned.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of use of a non-corp domain, the typos and the use of shortened links does sound like a form of incompetence, probably at the management layer. However, the password rotation requirement was until relatively recently something that many IT auditors would actually recommend , even though it leads directly to bad user password choices. In fact I wouldn't be at surprised to learn that was still the case in a lo…

It is. I work as an IT tech at a military defense contractor and they require regular recycling passwords, with a decent number of passwords remembered. They at least have complexity requirements applied so not 100% bad, but still archaic

The same NIST document (800-63) that recommends against password expiration also recommends against complexity requirements, instead organizations are supposed to develop a list of bad passwords that would likely be used in an external dictionary attack.

People understandably get really fired up by the idea of not having to change their password every 90 days, but forget that the guidelines are a package that contains a lot of "shall"s (no password expiration is a mere "should") that would be more painful for organizations stuck with a lot of legacy software, like the requirement to use two authentication factors and the use of secure authentication protocols.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#324
post #219

FedEx may have the worst and least secure digital platform for a major company. Some examples I’ve noticed: 1. I moved into a 10-unit apartment building and wanted to set up FedEx Delivery Manager. I just put in my new address, no verification whatsoever, and I was immediately given access to the previous tenant’s delivery instructions which included the buildings private garage code. Any thief could have done the sa…

I ordered a computer from Southern California, they shipped it to Texas, Florida, Maine, and then back to Northern California. My last two orders were just stolen from someone at FedEx. They got the shipment, but it never left the facility after that. Customer service is an offshore apology machine that can't help with anything. I used to prefer fedex, but the standard of service is so subpar I go out of my way to av…

[deleted]

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#325
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a system cannot handle ñ in a password then it is completely broken. We are not talking about the latest emoji here but about a character which is part of one of the most common languages in the world, included in 8859-1 / Latin-1, etc. It is no longer realistic to pretend that only ASCII exists and try to get away with that.

That's not what crazygringo means. ñ can be represented both as a single unicode U+00F1 https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+00F1 , or as an n with a combining tilde https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+0303 , which looks like this: ñ. Python 3.10.12 (main, Nov 20 2023, 15:14:05) [GCC 11.4.0] on linux >>> "ñ".encode("utf-8") b'\xc3\xb1' >>> "ñ".encode("utf-8") b'n\xcc\x83' A naive hashing algorithm will hash them t…

Right. I misunderstood the comment. Thanks for clarifying!

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think windows has moved away from executing autorun exes from discs by default a few versions ago. But back in the day it would prompt you what to do when you insert a USB storage drive, and just run whatever's set as the autorun if it's on a disc. The common way to get USB malware to install automatically those days was to modify the USB drive to appear as a virtual disc drive, which worked.

I am currently sitting at my gaming PC, which does have a Blu Ray drive. I use it about one or two times a year. Just today I threw in a CD with the driver of my newly installed tp-link AXE5400 (WiFi PCIe adapter), because it wasn't detected on my PC and I didn't have internet without Wi-Fi. I immediately got a prompt if I want to run the "autorun.exe" on the disc. So that is still there (Windows 22635.3209, Windows-…

But back in the day, popping the disk in the drive would have just executed the autorun without even prompting you. Put the disk in the drive, suddenly new application running on your box as you (and generally, back in the day, as local admin). Not even a chance to say no.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#327
post #296
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it impressive though? They have about a 50% success rate delivering things to me across multiple addresses and I know other people who have had similar long term issues.

Yeah, in my experience FedEx drivers absolutely LOVE saying they “attempted delivery of my package, but nobody was home,” so I have to go get it from the depot. But I 100% was home, working from home all day, and they 100% never came.

I had video of them pulling into the driveway and leaving without getting out of the vehicle and saying "no one was home."

I'm also in the video.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SD cards are really neat. Theoretically they could have been made with a fixed notch so they would always present as read-only.

AFAIK notch is just declaration of intent, like with floppies and magnetic tapes - it's politely asking the reading device to not write to the medium, and it's up to the device to respect it (or up to user to not bridge the notch with a piece of tape). Still, actual write-once (or read/write until hardware fuse is triggered, read-only afterwards) SD cards should be possible to make.

It depends on the card. Sometimes it is just a suggestion to the firmware, sometimes it physically prevents writes.

I've definitely encountered read-only SD cards which I couldn't figure out a way to set it back to RW mode.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#329
post #245

A while ago my wife applied for a home equity loan. At some point I got a call from someone claiming to be from the bank she had applied through (I forget which one), calling to make sure I approved the loan since the home is in both our names. He asked for my name, which I gave him, and then the last four digits of my social security number, which I also gave him. He then proceeded to ask for my full social security…

I'd have read him the riot act on the phone. My bank has big warning banners on virtually every page of the site warning me to be careful of scammers. Someone calling me on the phone and asking for my TIN? Yeah, I don't think so.

Re: Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

#330
post #245

A while ago my wife applied for a home equity loan. At some point I got a call from someone claiming to be from the bank she had applied through (I forget which one), calling to make sure I approved the loan since the home is in both our names. He asked for my name, which I gave him, and then the last four digits of my social security number, which I also gave him. He then proceeded to ask for my full social security…

Any bank where this is the standard operating procedure for interacting with loan applications is not a bank that I'd want to do business with. Perhaps this was just one loan officer's way of doing things, and not the way of the business, but that's just not okay to me.

Any time anyone asks me for any part of my social over the phone, I ask for some other method of verification. Most folks have other ways of doing stuff. It's ridiculous that what should purely be an ID number is so powerful, but I can't change that fact, just how I interact with folks with regards to it.

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