Dark Reading is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Database Security
Authentication
Mobile
Privacy
Compliance
Careers and People
Identity & Access Management
Security Monitoring
Advanced Threats
Insider Threats
Vulnerability Management
Comments
User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
Oldest First  |  Newest First  |  Threaded View
InfoSec_Candy
InfoSec_Candy,
 User Rank: Strategist
10/17/2013 | 6:01:23 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
I'd just like to ask; WHY are we still struggling with old solutions and safeguards that a) always were a problem b)continue to be a problem c)will always be a problem.

Just seems to me that we need to find a better way of doing this. Are we not able to meet this challenge? I know lots of really smart people that probably can meet the challenge from a technical stand point - but we all know that security has to be easy if we want people to use it/apply it. Somewhere out there - there is the perfect combination of increase security (removing username/passwords) and simple to use.

I think there may be a couple of companies to keep an eye out for in this area.... WWPass to name one.
OtherJimDonahue
OtherJimDonahue,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/17/2013 | 7:37:41 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
>>"Just seems to me that we need to find a better way of doing this."

Yes, please. Obviously, passwords are dead. (Or should be.)
dkerber028
dkerber028,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/18/2013 | 1:30:27 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
Can someone please explain why supercomputer password cracking is relevant to the real world? It's doesn't seem relevant how fast random passwords can be cracked by supercomputers, because it doesn't help the cracker know when he has the correct one so he can actually use the password for something. There's no way he can test a million tries per second against the site he's trying to break into, and any site that allows unlimited login attempts on a user ID deserves whatever bad things happen to it as a result.
David F. Carr
David F. Carr,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/18/2013 | 2:17:41 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
Is it not effective to limit the number of login attempts any client can try before being locked out? Trying a bizillion combinations only works if the automated password cracker is allowed to keep trying new combinations. Maybe there is some simple subterfuge attackers use to prevent that kind of defense from being effective, but I don't understand what it is.
OzzyM119
OzzyM119,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/18/2013 | 4:49:06 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
This is mostly for "offline attacks" where you have the hashed value of a password and are looking to get the value of the actual password. If a site was using SHA-1 as their hashing algorithm and you entered in the password "[email protected]_M0nk3y", the hash would be "f84d76b7b7b0b62e007689720e19feff1c0ee580". If someone only has the hash, there is no way to figure out what the password is unless they try all possible passwords until they find the password that generates that hash. There are also things called "rainbow tables" that are basically a table of pre-computed hashes so you can look up the password quickly, but that's a different topic.

Edit: I forgot to add that most people use the same password on multiple sites, so if you've figured out what password someone used at a site where the password database was stolen, there's a pretty good chance that that same password will work on another site they use. I may not care if I get your password to log into your favorite car talk forum that just got hacked, but if you use that same password for your banking site, then I've got something I want.
OzzyM119
OzzyM119,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/18/2013 | 4:51:02 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
Please see my response to David. It applies to your question as well.
MarciaNWC
MarciaNWC,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/18/2013 | 5:07:50 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
Important point about attackers using social engineering to gain access to accounts; that seems like the bigger threat.
TerryB
TerryB,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/18/2013 | 5:36:25 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
I think we are dealing with a fundamental law: anything which can be used with legitmate access can be used without legitimate access.
One of my favorite Dilbert's has Mordac installing a new security system which tells user to complete logon procedure by staring directly into the sun.
Peter Fretty
Peter Fretty,
 User Rank: Moderator
11/5/2013 | 9:18:28 PM
re: User-Selected Passwords Still Getting Cracked
The need to improve passwords is one of the core components of security-based best practices. This Sophos blog post does a great job of digging deeper into exactly how big of a mess this password blunder is for Adobe user base.

Peter Fretty


Edge-DRsplash-10-edge-articles
I Smell a RAT! New Cybersecurity Threats for the Crypto Industry
David Trepp, Partner, IT Assurance with accounting and advisory firm BPM LLP,  7/9/2021
News
Attacks on Kaseya Servers Led to Ransomware in Less Than 2 Hours
Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer,  7/7/2021
Commentary
It's in the Game (but It Shouldn't Be)
Tal Memran, Cybersecurity Expert, CYE,  7/9/2021
Register for Dark Reading Newsletters
White Papers
Video
Cartoon
Current Issue
Practical Network Security Approaches for a Multicloud, Hybrid IT World
The report covers areas enterprises should focus on for their multicloud/hybrid cloud security strategy: -increase visibility over the environment -learning cloud-specific skills -relying on established security frameworks -re-architecting the network
Flash Poll
Twitter Feed
Dark Reading - Bug Report
Bug Report
Enterprise Vulnerabilities
From DHS/US-CERT's National Vulnerability Database
CVE-2022-30333
PUBLISHED: 2022-05-09
RARLAB UnRAR before 6.12 on Linux and UNIX allows directory traversal to write to files during an extract (aka unpack) operation, as demonstrated by creating a ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. NOTE: WinRAR and Android RAR are unaffected.
CVE-2022-23066
PUBLISHED: 2022-05-09
In Solana rBPF versions 0.2.26 and 0.2.27 are affected by Incorrect Calculation which is caused by improper implementation of sdiv instruction. This can lead to the wrong execution path, resulting in huge loss in specific cases. For example, the result of a sdiv instruction may decide whether to tra...
CVE-2022-28463
PUBLISHED: 2022-05-08
ImageMagick 7.1.0-27 is vulnerable to Buffer Overflow.
CVE-2022-28470
PUBLISHED: 2022-05-08
marcador package in PyPI 0.1 through 0.13 included a code-execution backdoor.
CVE-2022-1620
PUBLISHED: 2022-05-08
NULL Pointer Dereference in function vim_regexec_string at regexp.c:2729 in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 8.2.4901. NULL Pointer Dereference in function vim_regexec_string at regexp.c:2729 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted input.