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Instagram sends passwords in plain text

news.ycombinator.com

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Instagram sends passwords in plain text

#1

Post by Juliuso »

http://getsatisfaction.com/instagram/topics/password_is_not_encrypted

Makes you wonder how secure mobile apps are in general as the user can't determine the connection state, unlike a browser window by looking at the URL or seeing the padlock in the corner.

Re: Instagram sends passwords in plain text

#3

Post by edd »

I don't want to alarm anyone but so does this site. If your not using unique passwords for every site you use then you really should consider doing it. Tools such as 1Password make it ridiculously easy, there really is no excuse.

Re: Instagram sends passwords in plain text

#4

Post by dangrossman »

Millions of passwords are moving around in plain text at any given moment in time. Most websites do not have an SSL certificate. Heck, those websites are primarily built by people sending the files containing plain text database passwords to FTP servers with plain text login credentials. Why is this so surprising all of a sudden that these notices keep popping up on HN?

Re: Instagram sends passwords in plain text

#5

Post by mike-cardwell »

edd wrote: post #3

I don't want to alarm anyone but so does this site. If your not using unique passwords for every site you use then you really should consider doing it. Tools such as 1Password make it ridiculously easy, there really is no excuse.

Yeah. There's a Firesheep handler for news.yc too:

https://github.com/codebutler/firesheep/wiki/Handlers

This website should really be migrated to https.

Re: Instagram sends passwords in plain text

#8

Post by spicyj »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #5
edd wrote: post #3

I don't want to alarm anyone but so does this site. If your not using unique passwords for every site you use then you really should consider doing it. Tools such as 1Password make it ridiculously easy, there really is no excuse.

Yeah. There's a Firesheep handler for news.yc too: https://github.com/codebutler/firesheep/wiki/Handlers This website should really be migrated to https.

Heaven forbid someone in a coffee shop posts something on your HN account…

Re: Instagram sends passwords in plain text

#9

Post by glhaynes »

spicyj wrote: post #8
mike-cardwell wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. There's a Firesheep handler for news.yc too: https://github.com/codebutler/firesheep/wiki/Handlers This website should really be migrated to https.

Heaven forbid someone in a coffee shop posts something on your HN account…

:) Yeah, not the end of the world... but many, many people use the same password (or one with slight variation) on many sites. Sure, they "shouldn't", but, still...
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