passwords – Page 3 – SSL and internet security news

Vulnerability in the Kaspersky Password Manager

July 6, 2021 infossl

Password Safe, passwords, random numbers, Security technology, Uncategorized, vulnerabilities

A vulnerability (just patched) in the random number generator used in the Kaspersky Password Manager resulted in easily guessable passwords: The password generator included in Kaspersky Password Manager had several problems. The most critical one is that it used a PRNG not suited for cryptographic purposes. Its single source of entropy was the current time. … Read More “Vulnerability in the Kaspersky Password Manager” »

DiceKeys

August 24, 2020 infossl

cryptography, keys, passwords, Security technology

DiceKeys is a physical mechanism for creating and storing a 192-bit key. The idea is that you roll a special set of twenty-five dice, put them into a plastic jig, and then use an app to convert those dice into a key. You can then use that key for a variety of purposes, and regenerate … Read More “DiceKeys” »

Half a Million IoT Passwords Leaked

July 8, 2020 infossl

dataloss, internetofthings, leaks, passwords, Security technology

It is amazing that this sort of thing can still happen: …the list was compiled by scanning the entire internet for devices that were exposing their Telnet port. The hacker then tried using (1) factory-set default usernames and passwords, or (2) custom, but easy-to-guess password combinations. Telnet? Default passwords? In 2020? We have a long … Read More “Half a Million IoT Passwords Leaked” »

Password Changing After a Breach

June 1, 2020 infossl

academicpapers, breaches, passwords, Security technology

This study shows that most people don’t change their passwords after a breach, and if they do they change it to a weaker password. Abstract: To protect against misuse of passwords compromised in a breach, consumers should promptly change affected passwords and any similar passwords on other accounts. Ideally, affected companies should strongly encourage this … Read More “Password Changing After a Breach” »

CIA Dirty Laundry Aired

March 10, 2020 infossl

cia, cybersecurity, hacking, leaks, passwords, Security technology

Joshua Schulte, the CIA employee standing trial for leaking the Wikileaks Vault 7 CIA hacking tools, maintains his innocence. And during the trial, a lot of shoddy security and sysadmin practices are coming out: All this raises a question, though: just how bad is the CIA’s security that it wasn’t able to keep Schulte out, … Read More “CIA Dirty Laundry Aired” »

Half a Million IoT Device Passwords Published

January 22, 2020 infossl

botnets, internetofthings, leaks, passwords, Security technology

It’s a list of easy-to-guess passwords for IoT devices on the Internet as recently as last October and November. Useful for anyone putting together a bot network: A hacker has published this week a massive list of Telnet credentials for more than 515,000 servers, home routers, and IoT (Internet of Things) “smart” devices. The list, … Read More “Half a Million IoT Device Passwords Published” »

Chrome Extension Stealing Cryptocurrency Keys and Passwords

January 3, 2020 infossl

blockchain, chrome, cryptocurrency, fraud, keys, passwords, Security technology, theft

A malicious Chrome extension surreptitiously steals Ethereum keys and passwords: According to Denley, the extension is dangerous to users in two ways. First, any funds (ETH coins and ERC0-based tokens) managed directly inside the extension are at risk. Denley says that the extension sends the private keys of all wallets created or managed through its … Read More “Chrome Extension Stealing Cryptocurrency Keys and Passwords” »

Iranian Attacks on Industrial Control Systems

December 17, 2019 infossl

hacking, ics, infrastructure, iran, passwords, scada, Security technology, threatalerts

New details: At the CyberwarCon conference in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday, Microsoft security researcher Ned Moran plans to present new findings from the company’s threat intelligence group that show a shift in the activity of the Iranian hacker group APT33, also known by the names Holmium, Refined Kitten, or Elfin. Microsoft has watched the group … Read More “Iranian Attacks on Industrial Control Systems” »

Cracking the Passwords of Early Internet Pioneers

October 15, 2019 infossl

historyofcomputing, historyofsecurity, passwords, Security technology

Lots of them weren’t very good: BSD co-inventor Dennis Ritchie, for instance, used “dmac” (his middle name was MacAlistair); Stephen R. Bourne, creator of the Bourne shell command line interpreter, chose “bourne”; Eric Schmidt, an early developer of Unix software and now the executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, relied on “wendy!!!” (the name … Read More “Cracking the Passwords of Early Internet Pioneers” »

Cracking Forgotten Passwords

September 18, 2019 infossl

cryptocurrency, passwords, Security technology

Expandpass is a string expansion program. It’s “useful for cracking passwords you kinda-remember.” You tell the program what you remember about the password and it tries related passwords. I learned about it in this article about Phil Dougherty, who helps people recover lost cryptocurrency passwords (mostly Ethereum) for a cut of the recovered value. Powered … Read More “Cracking Forgotten Passwords” »