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Lock My PC 4 has a master password.
EDITED TO ADD (4:26): In comments, people are reporting that the master password doesn’t work. Near as I can tell, those are all recent downloads. So either they took out the feature, or changed the password.
This idea, by Stuart Schechter at Microsoft Research, is—I think—clever:
Abstract: Implantable medical devices, such as implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers, now use wireless communication protocols vulnerable to attacks that can physically harm patients. Security measures that impede emergency access by physicians could be equally devastating. We propose that access keys be written into patients’ skin using ultraviolet-ink micropigmentation (invisible tattoos).
It certainly is a new way to look at the security threat model.
Any ideas?
At a news conference at the National Press Club, WikiLeaks said it had acquired the video from whistle-blowers in the military and viewed it after breaking the encryption code. WikiLeaks released the full 38-minute video as well as a 17-minute edited version.
And this quote from the WikiLeaks Twitter feed on Feb 20th:
Finally cracked the encryption to US military video in which journalists, among others, are shot. Thanks to all who donated $/CPUs.
Surely this isn’t NSA-level encryption. But what is it?
Note that this is intended to be a discussion about the cryptanalysis, not about the geopolitics of the event.
EDITED TO ADD (4/13): It was a dictionary attack.
Here’s a promotional security product designed by someone who knows nothing about security. The USB drive is “protected” by a combination lock. There are only two dials, so there are only 100 possible combinations. And when the drive is “locked” and the connector is retracted, the contact are still accessible.
Maybe it should be given away by companies that sell security theater.
Look at this new AES-encrypted USB memory stick. You enter the key directly into the stick via the keypad, thereby bypassing any eavesdropping software on the computer.
The problem is that in order to get full 256-bit entropy in the key, you need to enter 77 decimal digits using the keypad. I can’t imagine anyone doing that; they’ll enter an eight- or ten-digit key and call it done. (Likely, the password encrypts a random key that encrypts the actual data: not that it matters.) And even if you wanted to, is it reasonable to expect someone to enter 77 digits without making an error?
Nice idea, complete implementation failure.
EDITED TO ADD (3/4): According to the manual, the drive locks for two minutes after five unsuccessful attempts. This delay is enough to make brute-force attacks infeasible, even with only ten-digit keys.
So, not nearly as bad as I thought it was. Better would be a much longer delay after 100 or so unsuccessful attempts. Yes, there’s a denial-of-service attack against the thing, but stealing it is an even more effective denial-of-service attack.
Nice attack against the EMV—Eurocard Mastercard Visa—the “chip and PIN” credit card payment system. The attack allows a criminal to use a stolen card without knowing the PIN.
The flaw is that when you put a card into a terminal, a negotiation takes place about how the cardholder should be authenticated: using a PIN, using a signature or not at all. This particular subprotocol is not authenticated, so you can trick the card into thinking it’s doing a chip-and-signature transaction while the terminal thinks it’s chip-and-PIN. The upshot is that you can buy stuff using a stolen card and a PIN of 0000 (or anything you want). We did so, on camera, using various journalists’ cards. The transactions went through fine and the receipts say “Verified by PIN”.
[…]
So what went wrong? In essence, there is a gaping hole in the specifications which together create the “Chip and PIN” system. These specs consist of the EMV protocol framework, the card scheme individual rules (Visa, MasterCard standards), the national payment association rules (UK Payments Association aka APACS, in the UK), and documents produced by each individual issuer describing their own customisations of the scheme. Each spec defines security criteria, tweaks options and sets rules—but none take responsibility for listing what back-end checks are needed. As a result, hundreds of issuers independently get it wrong, and gain false assurance that all bases are covered from the common specifications. The EMV specification stack is broken, and needs fixing.
Read Ross Anderson’s entire blog post for both details and context. Here’s the paper, the press release, and a FAQ. And one news article.
This is big. There are about a gazillion of these in circulation.
EDITED TO ADD (2/12): BBC video of the attack in action.
I don’t know if this is real, but it seems perfectly reasonable that all of Facebook is stored in a huge database that someone with the proper permissions can access and modify. And it also makes sense that developers and others would need the ability to assume anyone’s identity.
Rumpus: You’ve previously mentioned a master password, which you no longer use.
Employee: I’m not sure when exactly it was deprecated, but we did have a master password at one point where you could type in any user’s user ID, and then the password. I’m not going to give you the exact password, but with upper and lower case, symbols, numbers, all of the above, it spelled out ‘Chuck Norris,’ more or less. It was pretty fantastic.
Rumpus: This was accessible by any Facebook employee?
Employee: Technically, yes. But it was pretty much limited to the original engineers, who were basically the only people who knew about it. It wasn’t as if random people in Human Resources were using this password to log into profiles. It was made and designed for engineering reasons. But it was there, and any employee could find it if they knew where to look.
I should also say that it was only available internally. If I were to log in from a high school or library, I couldn’t use it. You had to be in the Facebook office, using the Facebook ISP.
Rumpus: Do you think Facebook employees ever abused the privilege of having universal access?
Employee: I know it has happened in the past, because at least two people have been fired for it that I know of.
[…]
Employee: See, the thing is—and I don’t know how much you know about it—it’s all stored in a database on the backend. Literally everything. Your messages are stored in a database, whether deleted or not. So we can just query the database, and easily look at it without every logging into your account. That’s what most people don’t understand.
Rumpus: So the master password is basically irrelevant.
Employee: Yeah.
Rumpus: It’s just for style.
Employee: Right. But it’s no longer in use. Like I alluded to, we’ve cracked down on this lately, but it has been replaced by a pretty cool tool. If I visited your profile, for example, on our closed network, there’s a ‘switch login’ button. I literally just click it, explain why I’m logging in as you, click ‘OK,’ and I’m you. You can do it as long as you have an explanation, because you’d better be able to back it up. For example, if you’re investigating a compromised account, you have to actually be able to log into that account.
Rumpus: Are your managers really on your ass about it every time you log in as someone else?
Employee: No, but if it comes up, you’d better be able to justify it. Or you will be fired.
Rumpus: What did they do?
Employee: I know one of them went in and manipulated some other person’s data, changed their religious views or something like that. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but he got reported, got found out, got fired.
Kind of a dumb mistake:
The USB drives in question encrypt the stored data via the practically uncrackable AES 256-bit hardware encryption system. Therefore, the main point of attack for accessing the plain text data stored on the drive is the password entry mechanism. When analysing the relevant Windows program, the SySS security experts found a rather blatant flaw that has quite obviously slipped through testers’ nets. During a successful authorisation procedure the program will, irrespective of the password, always send the same character string to the drive after performing various crypto operations—and this is the case for all USB Flash drives of this type.
Cracking the drives is therefore quite simple. The SySS experts wrote a small tool for the active password entry program’s RAM which always made sure that the appropriate string was sent to the drive, irrespective of the password entered and as a result gained immediate access to all the data on the drive. The vulnerable devices include the Kingston DataTraveler BlackBox, the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise FIPS Edition and the Verbatim Corporate Secure FIPS Edition.
Nice piece of analysis work.
The article goes on to question the value of the FIPS certification:
The real question, however, remains unanswered how could USB Flash drives that exhibit such a serious security hole be given one of the highest certificates for crypto devices? Even more importantly, perhaps what is the value of a certification that fails to detect such holes?
The problem is that no one really understands what a FIPS 140-2 certification means. Instead, they think something like: “This crypto thingy is certified, so it must be secure.” In fact, FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certification only means that certain good algorithms are used, and that there is some level of tamper resistance and tamper evidence. Marketing departments of security take advantage of this confusion—it’s not only FIPS 140, it’s all the security standards—and encourage their customers to equate conformance to the standard with security.
So when that equivalence is demonstrated to be false, people are surprised.
Here’s some complicated advice on securing passwords that—I’ll bet—no one follows.
- DO use a password manager such as those reviewed by Scott Dunn in his Sept. 18, 2008,
Insider Tips
column. Although Scott focused on free programs, I really like CallPod’s Keeper, a $15 utility that comes in Windows, Mac, and iPhone versions and allows you to keep all your passwords in sync. Find more information about the program and a download link for the 15-day free-trial version on the vendor’s site.- DO change passwords frequently. I change mine every six months or whenever I sign in to a site I haven’t visited in long time. Don’t reuse old passwords. Password managers can assign expiration dates to your passwords and remind you when the passwords are about to expire.
- DO keep your passwords secret. Putting them into a file on your computer, e-mailing them to others, or writing them on a piece of paper in your desk is tantamount to giving them away. If you must allow someone else access to an account, create a temporary password just for them and then change it back immediately afterward.
No matter how much you may trust your friends or colleagues, you can’t trust their computers. If they need ongoing access, consider creating a separate account with limited privileges for them to use.
- DON’T use passwords comprised of dictionary words, birthdays, family and pet names, addresses, or any other personal information. Don’t use repeat characters such as 111 or sequences like abc, qwerty, or 123 in any part of your password.
- DON’T use the same password for different sites. Otherwise, someone who culls your Facebook or Twitter password in a phishing exploit could, for example, access your bank account.
- DON’T allow your computer to automatically sign in on boot-up and thus use any automatic e-mail, chat, or browser sign-ins. Avoid using the same Windows sign-in password on two different computers.
- DON’T use the “remember me” or automatic sign-in option available on many Web sites. Keep sign-ins under the control of your password manager instead.
- DON’T enter passwords on a computer you don’t control—such as a friend’s computer—because you don’t know what spyware or keyloggers might be on that machine.
- DON’T access password-protected accounts over open Wi-Fi networks—or any other network you don’t trust—unless the site is secured via https. Use a VPN if you travel a lot. (See Ian “Gizmo” Richards’ Dec. 11, 2008, Best Software column, “Connect safely over open Wi-Fi networks,” for Wi-Fi security tips.)
- DON’T enter a password or even your account name in any Web page you access via an e-mail link. These are most likely phishing scams. Instead, enter the normal URL for that site directly into your browser, and proceed to the page in question from there.
I regularly break seven of those rules. How about you? (Here’s my advice on choosing secure passwords.)
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.