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Khan

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Is it possible to safely check for certain characters in a password?

Basic cyber security says that passwords should be encrypted and hashed, so that even the company storing them doesn’t know what the password is. (When you log in, the site performs the same encrypting and hashing steps and compares the results) Otherwise if they are hacked, the attackers get access to all the passwords....

Khan ,

I have never heard of anything secure doing that. Assuming they have taken security steps, it would mean they recorded those characters in plaintext when you set your password, but that means that at least those characters aren’t secure, and a breach means some hacker has a great hint.

When the hashing occurs, it happens using the code you downloaded when you visit the site, so it’s your computer that does the hash, and then just the hash is sent onwards, so they can’t just pull the letters out of a properly secure password.

A secure company would use two-factor authentication to verify you above and beyond your password, anyway, since a compromised password somewhere else automatically compromises questions about your password.

Khan ,

A secondary pin is a bit better but characters from the actual password (that you have to enter anyway) adds nothing to security from that kind of intrusion.

Khan ,

It’ll be less secure.

If they hash a subset, then those extra characters are literally irrelevant, since the hash algorithm will exclude them. Like if they just hashed the first 5 characters, then “passw” is the same as “password” and all those permutations. Hashing is safe because it’s one-way, but simple testing on the hashing algorithm would reveal certain characters don’t matter.

Protecting a smaller subset of characters in addition to the whole password is slightly better but still awful. Cracking the smaller subset will be significantly easier using rainbow tables, and literally gives a hint for the whole password, making a rainbow table attack significantly more efficient. Protecting the whole thing (with no easy hints) is way more secure.

It also adds nothing to keylogging, since it’s not even a new code, it’s part of the password.

There was a time where that level of security was acceptable, and it still could be ok on a closed system like an ATM, as the other reply to my comment pointed out, but this kind of protection on a standard computer is outdated and adds holes.

Khan ,

At least most of that can be turned off in settings somewhere.

Bought a neat closed-loop watercooling cpu heatsink that has a whole dang programmable screen on it if I pay a monthly thing, or solid colors if I don’t. defaults to cycling through the rainbow. But it has an off mode, so I’m A-OK with none of that.

Khan ,

It’s a problem, but a pretty funny one, to me. Mine does the same thing, startup is full rainbow, then it settles.

Khan ,

Based on a Google search and the following link, no.

Google defined child porn using the term “sexually explicit conduct”, involving a minor, fair enough, gotta look deeper.

Cornell has a legal definition of sexually explicit conduct for us, which basically breaks it into 5 categories, actual sex, bestiality, masturbating, specific kinds of abuse, and displays of various body parts.

www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?def_id…

If this would be CP, it’d have to be some kind of abuse or the display, and I don’t think anything Nick aired would count as “masochistic” or “sadistic”. The body parts listed are also specific and don’t include feet.

So, in the US, it’s just really creepy, not CP. the fact we have to delve this deep to determine it’s not CP is pretty telling on its own, though.

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