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Making Sense of Mismatched Certificates?

Ropati writes "I bank with capitalone.com. Recently I went to log in to my credit card account, and my browser reported that the site certificate didn't match the web site I was on. [Expletive.] I'm wondering if I am getting a poisoned DNS URL. I have to log in and do my banking, so I accept the mismatched certificate. The banking site is complete, my transactions are listed but that doesn't mean there isn't a man in the middle attack here. I am still curious how much I have exposed my banking assets." Read on for more, and offer advice on how to interpret what sounds like a flaky response from the bank.

Ropati continues "On the Capital One login page, there is a Verisign link on the page to check that the website is suppose to match. So I click on the verification icon and I am rewarded with a link to Verisign. They report that this web site certificate is for onlinebanking.capitalone.com not the servicing.capitalone.com where I log in. Is this the mismatch my browser reported. I know nothing about certificates.

I call Capital One and ask them to fix the problem. If this was a browser issue on my part, then the Verisign link should match. The tech support supervisor, Joe — XRT413, said he couldn't do anything about it and he couldn't escalate the problem to someone who could.

So my questions are: Are the certificates a mismatch or is my browser bellyaching for nothing? Is the certificate mismatch a security hazard? If someone poisoned my local DNS routers would it be obvious in the URL? How would I prevent such a thing? If everything was working correctly, would the certificate alert me to DNS poisoning, or is this just cosmetic security?"

322 comments

  1. Not nothing. by mnslinky · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a misconfiguration on their end. EV certificates, the ones that turn your address bar green and coax turtles into doing happy dances, are really expensive. It's my guess that they've either reused a certificate on another system, or one of their developers made a mistake in how the site and server cluster is configured. It's certainly something to complain about.

    If you're ever in doubt about the validity of the certificate or security of a transaction, however, DON'T DO IT!. This goes for standing at an ATM in a shady neighborhood or doing business online.

    1. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude, post your login details and I'll check it out for you.

    2. Re:Not nothing. by badasscat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, but both certificates were for capitalone.com subdomains. In this case, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'd complain, but it's more of an annoyance than a security risk.

      I'd worry a lot more if one certificate was for capitalone.com and the other for capone.com or capitolone.com or capital1.com or something like that. Then you've got a problem.

    3. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I find that I often type domain.com in instead of www.domain.com. SSL certs are often registered to https://www.domain.com and I'm at https://domain.com which gives a mis-match. Going to https://www.domain.com fixes it.

    4. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't know why anyone has their money in large banks anymore. Move it to a local credit union and let those large bank fuckers die out. "Too big to fail" my ass. They haven't been paying FDIC for the last 10 years since "it wasn't necessary".

    5. Re:Not nothing. by girlintraining · · Score: 0

      It's certainly something to complain about.

      And in the interim, I'd add that as a CONVENIENCE feature only, if there's any doubt complain to them and then wait for the fix. I'm certain CapitalOne has a 1-800 number or similar to conduct the same inquiries with a human being, and the telephone system doesn't have a multitude of hackers in it; Just a bunch of government spooks. I'm not allowed to say which government though. :)

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    6. Re:Not nothing. by Chyeld · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bitch, don't excuse. The whole point of this exercise was to allow the customer use the site without putting their info in danger and in a manner that doesn't require having a degree in "teh internets" to get through.

      It should never be the customer's responsibilty to bring a maginfying glass to the certificate and manually verify that these were just subdomain mismatches and not some clever capitalone.com vs capitlone.com spelling that means to look correct to someone just scanning the screen. That is a security risk, whether or not it is currently exposing your info, it's training you to expect that sort of problem and to ignore it the same way people ignore the dialog boxes XP and VISTA pop up on errors.

    7. Re:Not nothing. by argiedot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you're ever in doubt about the validity of the certificate or security of a transaction, however, DON'T DO IT!

      Can't agree more. See this example of a MITM attack.

    8. Re:Not nothing. by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep yep. Buying a new cert for every subdomain is wildly expensive, so these sorts of errors happen reasonably often.

      In a lot of cases the subdomain may be separated from the main domain only for possible load balancing issues, so it's doubly not worth getting a specific cert for a subdomain which may never take off.

      In the end it's a problem because the consumer gets used to accepting bad certs as a matter of course, and that leads to people accepting "capitolone.com" instead of "capitalone.com". Basically the registrars need to be pimp slapped a bit: certificate registration shouldn't cost anywhere near what it does, certificates should be purchasable for whole domains, etc.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    9. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Here they are:

      IP: 127.0.0.1
      User: Trollfag
      Pass: ILikeBigDicksAndILikeEmHard

    10. Re:Not nothing. by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. When you proceed despite an SSL error, you most likely are falling victim to a screw-up on the bank's end, but you are possible falling victim to a MITM attack. There is no way for you to know conclusively.

      That's really the end of the discussion.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    11. Re:Not nothing. by nivina · · Score: 1

      I've had this happen with capital one myself, along with toyota financial services. I am a web developer and it's amusing when this stuff happens. I also ignore it and continue with my business. security is a state of mind.

    12. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, it's good to worry any time there is a mismatch. It can be easy to fake legitimate looking URL's using UNICODE characters and such.

      Consider something that looks like like:
      https://onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/.tsdk.cn?login

      The whole first part could be the host name: "onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/" and the domain is actually "tsdk.cn". This would be using the UNICODE symbol for mathematical division that looks like a forward slash. It looks like a capitalone.com domain even though you're going through some scammer site. Marlinspike talked about this exact attack at Blackhat 09.

    13. Re:Not nothing. by Erioll · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This will become a greater issue as unicode domain names come into prominence. I believe that right now while Firefox "decodes" any unicode so that the characters look like the underlying hex (or something) so that a non-english character can NOT be confused for a real one.

      For instance in certain fonts lowercase "L" (l) looks EXACTLY like an uppercase "i" (I). In others it doesn't. Now in your example that can't happen, but what about www.travelocity.com or www.traveIocity.com? (I used a capital "i" in the second) You can see how this can be an issue. It gets worse with other character sets that ARE different characters, but again look identical, thus bypassing any automatic "lowercase" that a browser probably does.

      If you see a mismatch, unless the banking needs to be done in less time than it takes you to get to an actual local branch, do NOT do it.

    14. Re:Not nothing. by alta · · Score: 2, Funny

      No no no, at godaddy they're only 29.95!!!! Only the highest quality stuff for the bank!

      --
      Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
    15. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      security is a state of mind.

      And ignorance is bliss

    16. Re:Not nothing. by Firehed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That also takes about six seconds of the company's time to fix by adding two lines to an .htaccess file. A problem that simple should never require the customer to wonder if their financial data is in harm's way.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    17. Re:Not nothing. by postbigbang · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You find it amusing. I find it reason to sack your sorry ass.

      Security is a chain of referential components designed (and hacked at constantly) in the attempt to ensure safety. Civilians don't know a bad certificate from a live hand grenade, and both can blow up in their face. Security is a state of mind-- if you have one. Lotsa people don't and rely on cogent web developers for their safety.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    18. Re:Not nothing. by s0abas · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wait, did you just call _yourself_ a Trollfag?

    19. Re:Not nothing. by Razalhague · · Score: 1

      Buying a new cert for every subdomain is wildly expensive, so these sorts of errors happen reasonably often.

      I think that should be "unreasonably often".

    20. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, so if I go to McDonalds and order a sausage biscuit and get a sausage mcgriddle, I'm supposed to deal with the 'inconvenience' of getting an improper result from my attempt to purchase a sausage biscuit?

      Sorry, I don't buy it. Just the same way that we use the word "Secure" when we mean "Secure" -- as opposed just saying "Oh someone in California says they were paid money to say this site is secur.." oh I see what I did there.

    21. Re:Not nothing. by JoshuaDFranklin · · Score: 1

      In the case of a large bank they really should have things configured properly. However, I've also see this in cases of a certs for things like www.some-small-online-business.com and I really wish Firefox would offer to redirect you to the proper domain for the cert.

    22. Re:Not nothing. by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Well, technically the discussion can continue but it must continue at the bank and usually involves torches and pitchforks

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    23. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Also, lets not forget that a while back some children hacked into Comcast's DNS registrar with nothing more than an unsophisticated Social Engineering ploy.

      If the capitalone domain registration ever became compromised, 'hijackeddomain.capitalone.com' would have the same 'root' domain as capitalone.com, but could be pointed at a hackers server in timbuktu.

      Just because the domain is 'capitalone.com' does not necessarily mean that everything set up with a vanity off of it is hosted, owned, or operated by capitalone (or more importantly; that they're not owned and operated by someone who possesses malicious intent, be it a disgruntled capitalone employee or otherwise).

      Last, the aforementioned domain registration social engineering end-around could theoretically be pulled to obtain a legitimate SSL Certificate. Maybe not specifically by targeting Verisign (at least, not as easily as other companies, I'd venture a guess), but any number of the other more generic and less valuable companies like GeoTrust are all plausible to target with this sort of ploy.

    24. Re:Not nothing. by tkw954 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude, post your login details and I'll check it out for you.

      My login details are username:tkw954 password:*********

      Hey that's weird. Slashdot must automatically replace your pw with stars.

    25. Re:Not nothing. by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      But a secure certificate isn't the service he's after. He just wants to transfer some money or check his balance or something. This would be closer to getting the sausage biscuit you wanted but in a sausage McGriddle wrapper.

    26. Re:Not nothing. by Daimanta · · Score: 5, Funny

      You can hunter2 my hunter2ing hunter2. You can't see hunter2!

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    27. Re:Not nothing. by JediTrainer · · Score: 1

      Basically the registrars need to be pimp slapped a bit: certificate registration shouldn't cost anywhere near what it does, certificates should be purchasable for whole domains, etc.

      Wildcard certificates do exist and aren't that expensive. We use them and they seem to work fine for most things (with 1 or two non-HTTP-server exceptions)

      --

      You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
    28. Re:Not nothing. by Cramer · · Score: 1

      ... fix by adding two lines to an .htaccess file.

      No. It. Isn't. If you use "domain.com" instead of "www.domain.com", the certificate will be checked against "domain.com" before any requests are sent/processed and an error will fly up. There is no way to send a redirect without completing the SSL handshake, which requires a proper certificate::url domain match.

    29. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not for a bank.

      An EV cert from Verisign is, what, $1,500?

      How many subdomains does CapitalOne have that need to be secured at the EV level? 500 at a ridiculously absolute maximum? That's less than $650,000/yr with Verisign's volume discounts. If you can't justify spending $650k on certificates per year on $13 billion in revenue when you do a significant amount of your business online then you need new management.

      Note: I don't work for CapitalOne and have no idea how many subdomains they need to secure at the EV level, but my guess is it's significantly less than 500. I'd also be willing to bet heavily that if you go to Verisign and agree to purchase in excess of 50 EV certificates they'd be willing to give you a much more significant discount than what they publish online.

    30. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wildcard certificates work fine if the bank took the effort and the $200/yr for a wildcard cert.

    31. Re:Not nothing. by jargon82 · · Score: 1

      "Wildcard customers should note that industry guidelines prohibit the issuance of wildcard EV Certificates." http://www.networksolutions.com/SSL-certificates/ev.jsp, click on FAQ.

    32. Re:Not nothing. by encoderer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's a quadrillion dollars in Derivatives. (That's not a hyperbole).

      Many large banks hold over a trillion dollars in Credit Default Swaps.

      All CDS contracts have a universal default provision.

      As much as it pains us all, these banks really are too big to fail. That needs to be fixed. We simply cannot have corporations that are so essential that we taxpayers must "insure" them. But that's tomorrow's fight. Today we just need to survive.

    33. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      /hug /bighug my local credit union as well

    34. Re:Not nothing. by GoRK · · Score: 4, Informative

      No CA is (currently) issuing wildcard EV certs. I personally understand the convenience of the wildcard cert, but I do also accept and support the practice of disallowing wildcards in high security applications.

      EV certificates are available with multiple Subject Alternative Names, though so the whole "dropped www." or a couple of virtual shouldn't be a big deal if things are done correctly. Unfortunately they aren't and some sites (paypal) that are using EV SSL certs don't even bother with this simple feature.

      The correct failsafe implementation which will always result in a no-prompt situation is to ensure that you only deploy EV certificates on an IP addresses that have only one DNS name. You then deploy a frontend redirection server on a second IP using a wildcard SSL cert that occupies the alternative dns names for the namespace of the original app. This server will pass cert checks more easily and then redirect to the EV server with its specific dns name which will then show the green bar. Any existing deep links to the application on an incorrect DNS name will be handled correctly and any direct references will work in the future. There are of course implications for securing said redirection proxy, but they aren't really that hard to overcome.

    35. Re:Not nothing. by ravenspear · · Score: 1

      500 per year? We get our wildcard certs from rapidssl for 200 a year.

    36. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correct. If that happens, you call your bank and ask them about it. Do not proceed until you get an explanation. (If they call you, it doesn't count. You call.)

    37. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Consider something that looks like like:
      https://onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/.tsdk.cn?login

      The whole first part could be the host name: "onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/" and the domain is actually "tsdk.cn". This would be using the UNICODE symbol for mathematical division that looks like a forward slash

      Which is why everyone should only use english with 7-bit ascii on the internets. Security is much better for everyone!

    38. Re:Not nothing. by Ambiguous+Puzuma · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Perhaps it would help--for some of us, at least--if browsers indicated how many sections of the domain matched (with the comparison performed from right to left)? After all, the browser won't be fooled by such trickery.

      In the submitter's case:
      Cert: onlinebanking.capitalone.com
      Site: servicing.capitalone.com
      2 sections match, this is probably safe (but proceed cautiously)

      In the parent's case:
      Cert: onlinebanking.capitalone.com
      Site: onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/.tsdk.cn
      Danger! 0 sections match. This is probably not safe!

      (Pretend that the bolded portions are also highlighted in bright red, or something.)

    39. Re:Not nothing. by mrcaseyj · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is why I train new users to look for the domain name at the bottom right of the status bar next to the lock in Firefox, because it's too hard to explain to a beginner how to parse an https URL and the browser takes care of all the tricks in extracting the domain name that you're connecting to.

      Well, it's good to worry any time there is a mismatch. It can be easy to fake legitimate looking URL's using UNICODE characters and such.

      Consider something that looks like like:
      https://onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/.tsdk.cn?login

      The whole first part could be the host name: "onlinebanking.capitalone.com/login/" and the domain is actually "tsdk.cn". This would be using the UNICODE symbol for mathematical division that looks like a forward slash. It looks like a capitalone.com domain even though you're going through some scammer site. Marlinspike talked about this exact attack at Blackhat 09.

    40. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Problem is they won't see that until after they have already accepted an invalid cert and gone to the invalid site (which might contain other exploits or who knows what).

    41. Re:Not nothing. by XorNand · · Score: 1

      While I've used local credit unions for years for personal accounts, my business bank account is at a nation bank. Most credit unions are severely lacking in the online services department. They tend to outsource their online banking systems to a third-party who apparently was the lowest bidder on the project. Even in 2009, you're lucky to get a website that works in anything other than IE and lets you do anything more than check your balance.

      Local credit union can also be somewhat of a mickey mouse operation. A couple years ago my credit union migrated their organization to a new banking ERP system (or whatever that industry calls it). Their solution was to shutdown the entire credit union, including online banking, for an entire week. No deposits, no withdraws--nothing. I can't believe that the board of directors approved that move. I would have have laughed the CIO out of the room for even suggesting that plan.

      --
      Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
    42. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      capone.com is a nice domain for a man-in-the-middle attack... or gotti.com, or corleone.com...

    43. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just have one site broker the authentication and pass tokens back to the non EV sites... they can still be SSL certed.

    44. Re:Not nothing. by Ortega-Starfire · · Score: 1

      Do what Joe Biden does and the website number. I gained a whole new level of respect for the VP when I found out he only connects to the series of tubes by IP addresses instead of domain names.

      --
      ---- Liquid was a patriot ----
    45. Re:Not nothing. by Snotman · · Score: 1

      This post is interesting? The author would worry more about something as obvious as misspellings for the domain. I would be worried more about sub domains masking as coming from the real domain as the author questions. For some reason, I thought the slashdot crowd was a bit above average, but based on the mod points, I have to say that people must not be reading slashdot as this has been covered.

      Do not let yourself believe that DNS means security is baked in. DNS's function is to resolve domain names to IPs, not convey authenticity of a domain. For sure, the IP is authentic as it will route to a real server, thus DNS did its job successfully, but the actual service you connect to may not be authentic. So, the trick is to have trusted DNS servers and companies using the correct certs. I would scream at the bank since it should be their priority to generate trust for their customers. Trust is generated through security when it comes to your money.

    46. Re:Not nothing. by Eric+in+SF · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Everyone is saying this and it really does make sense. Except. I don't trust the American system to fix this once the "sky is falling" danger is passed. I really don't.

    47. Re:Not nothing. by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Wow I am so happy that a tiny company like CAPITOL ONE is saving money by not buying their certs.

      The answer to this is to drop capitol one and tell them it's because their website is insecure so you cant trust them.

      They have money flowing out of their butts, they can afford to buy those certs to be used as toilet paper for the executive bethroom.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    48. Re:Not nothing. by noidentity · · Score: 3, Funny

      You can ********* my *********ing *********. You can't see *********!

      That's odd, it shows a different number of stars than your password really is. Guess that's to avoid giving even its length away. Clever!

    49. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As much as it pains us all, these banks really are too big to fail

      These banks really are too big for the system of capital to let them fail, which would underline the innate faults of that system. That we should insure them with no tangible benefit to us is a farce - Let them fail.

    50. Re:Not nothing. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      I agree with what you say except the "too big to fail" part. They are too large and soon they MUST be allowed to fail... or somehow broken up or divided. Any other solution merely preserves the unstable status quo.

      In the meantime, yes, put your money in local credit unions.

    51. Re:Not nothing. by maxume · · Score: 1

      I don't see any reason for DNS providers to honor domain names containing that character. I suppose it isn't enough to hope that they do not.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    52. Re:Not nothing. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Well then shop around. The local credit union I use has excellent, secure online service and I can check my transactions going back more than a year. I can even get scans of any cancelled checks I have written.

    53. Re:Not nothing. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Not just that, but they are also obviously not squandering their customers' money on top-quality IT personnel.

    54. Re:Not nothing. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      That's not a reason to fire your web developer. That is a reason to fire your IT team. Big difference.

    55. Re:Not nothing. by FiniteElementalist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, one alternative is to take an axe to these derivative contracts, and make it so they are redeemable for their original purchase price (or with a bit of a premium for time cost and whatnot). I thought about this possibility a while back, but it seems to be picking up some steam in more mainstream financial circles (I read an article about it recently in Barron's), and supposedly similar contract alteration was done in response to the Dutch Tulip bubble in the 1600s.

      It might not be a better choice than propping up the banks and waiting it out, but eventually they are going to need to put an end to these things. The deregulated shadow market for them was and is complete madness. It's not all that much dumber than making Ponzi schemes, naked short selling, or insurance fraud legal.

      In any case, if there is a situation where anything approaching the quadrillion or a slightly lesser number of trillions of dollars of the derivatives need to be exercised they will be completely worthless. Worthless either because the system will completely collapse and no one will honor them, or worthless because they will be devalued by hyperinflation. There's not enough money currently in existence to cover those positions, so those are pretty much the options.

    56. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      login:*******************
      password:*******************

      Interesting that the captcha was "dodged"

    57. Re:Not nothing. by serbanp · · Score: 1

      except that I'm hovering the mouse pointer over this bad link and Firefox 3.07 happily shows a pop-up reading "capitalone.com"...

    58. Re:Not nothing. by Daimanta · · Score: 0

      Yeah, that's a great function.

      Uhmm wait, how do you know the length of my password?

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    59. Re:Not nothing. by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      Wildly expensive my ass. A wildcard cert is ~US$300 dollars from godaddy. I'm sure a bank can stretch that.

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    60. Re:Not nothing. by DamnStupidElf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As much as it pains us all, these banks really are too big to fail.

      There's a quadrillion *pretend* dollars in derivatives; that's the entire point. No one owns the money they think they do on paper. It doesn't exist anywhere in any tangible good. It was an IOU written to investors that could never be paid. The economy is actually poorer than most people think. The money you invested is *gone*. It was spent by rich people and people who got overvalued loans on their home and spent the difference, or who sold their shares in stocks before the crash. That's the reality that people need to understand.

      The way to fix it, basically, is massive socialism to carry people through the hard times of losing most of their retirement, their houses, and their jobs. We can move back to a more capitalist system in the future if it ever looks like a good idea.

    61. Re:Not nothing. by bugi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The way to fix it, basically, is massive socialism to carry people through the hard times of losing most of their retirement, their houses, and their jobs. We can move back to a more capitalist system in the future if it ever looks like a good idea.

      Or simply prosecute for fraud.

      They were providing securities with money they didn't have -- how else but fraud can one interpret that that they never intended to pay out regardless of circumstance?

    62. Re:Not nothing. by _avs_007 · · Score: 1

      That's why instead of buying a new cert for every possible subdomain, you buy a signing cert for a signing authority, so you can have your own signing authority to sign the certs you'll actually use.

    63. Re:Not nothing. by Ortega-Starfire · · Score: 1

      Crap. I accidentally a word in my last post. I should have previewed.

      --
      ---- Liquid was a patriot ----
    64. Re:Not nothing. by FyreWyr · · Score: 1
      There's a link at the bottom-right of the CapitalOne page: Verisign Secured, which presents a new popup allowing us to Report Seal Misuse in the lower right corner. If we follow that, we are told by Verisign's servers:

      "We are particularly interested in the following types of misuse:
      • The information on the seal's verification page does not match the information of the site."

      So, if you see any truth to this topic's arguments (e.g., encouraging end-users to ignore errors, or expecting them to discern what's ok), maybe Verisign can encourage them to look at the situation differently. What's the point of a certificate if we can just buy ONE then expect users to ignore our misuse when we spread it across our other subdomains? I think this behavior should be discouraged in companies that have the resources to be a better example.

    65. Re:Not nothing. by quanticle · · Score: 2, Informative

      Insuring them may present no tangible benefits to you, but letting them fail is certainly going to present tangible harm. Example: When Lehman Brothers failed unexpectedly, many money market funds were adversely affected. These funds then sold their other assets into the corporate bond market, flooding it and essentially shutting it down. Because the market was shut down, many large corporations were faced with the probability of not being able to make payroll, as they were unable to get cash from their primary source of short term loans. Such an event would have undoubtably affected thousands (perhaps millions) if the Federal Reserve had not stepped in and purchased mass quantities of commercial bonds to restore order.

      I agree that it would be best if the present situation had not arisen, and if regulators had put in more stringent controls ahead of time. However, as the grandparent poster points out, letting the current system of banks and financial institutions fail rapidly and messily would cause more harm than good. We need to insure these banks on a temporary basis while we wind down their obligations and ensure that other parties will not be unduly harmed by their failures. Then we let them fail, when their failure can cause no harm to the rest of us.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    66. Re:Not nothing. by gnarfel · · Score: 1

      Agreed. As an employee of a credit union, I can tell you the benefits are generally pretty substantial. Over banks anyway.

      --
      Local music(to upstate NY). http://gnarfel.com/ radio.
    67. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The current conditions faced by a large number of firms are along the lines you have suggested. The banks have received massive bailouts, but this has done little to stimulate the ability of smaller business to get loans from the banks - Most of it is simply being sat on, interest rate changes not being passed on, etc. Funding the failing businesses that caused this in the first place is doing little to help the situation - Better to let them fail and direct the money to actually helping the fallout further down the chain. Again, I say let them fail - They have proved they are not capable of sustaining themselves, yet these are the recipients of massive, better than commercial term loans that are paid from my taxes, and seem hell bent on continuing the same dodgy practices that caused the damn problem in the first place.

    68. Re:Not nothing. by TheNarrator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The funny thing is is that people think the guys getting screwed are the homeowners who got to live in a home they never would have been able to afford in normal times.

      The people who got screwed are all the foreigners that bought these assets thinking their money was safe AAA rated stuff. Now they are being told that they bought a bunch of worthless garbage.

      The real problem now is that they have caused an incalculable amount of damage to the reputation of our financial system as being a safe place to invest money. The government has to bail all these people out to show that they will stand behind all these too big to fail crooks and make good on their lies in order to maintain confidence.

    69. Re:Not nothing. by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      What are these magic two lines? Is it...

      quantum_engine on
      quantum_redirect_browser_before_http_request_is_made 1

      Because that's the only way to fix it (short of getting a Subject Alt Name added to the certificate, assuming EV, or getting a wilecard if it's not)

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    70. Re:Not nothing. by encoderer · · Score: 1

      That is the only long-term solution to this problem.

      And you're right in your last paragraph. IIRC, the entire value of all world stock markets is ~100tn. Real estate is 80tn. The idea we have 1qn in CDS contracts is absurd on its face.

      Of course, the real problem with all derivatives (including CDS contracts) is that we don't really know what they're worth.

      It's not the known-unknowns that kill us when trying to unwind these contracts. It's the unknown-unknowns.

      The real tragedy I think is that the idea behind CDS--distributing risk across the globe--makes sense.

      If I'm insuring houses in Florida it makes sense to do a CDS with an Insurance company in Japan. If I get hit by a hurricane, they're probably not going to be affected, so let's spread the risk. Likewise a natural disaster of their own.

      The problem came down to unregulation and, natch, greed.

      I've now heard this being called "The Great Unwind" by a few different publications. Looking back, I think that name might stick. It really is the best 3-word description I've heard of this crisis to date.

    71. Re:Not nothing. by aynoknman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Too big to fail" my ass.

      There is still hope. They are rapidly becoming small enough to fail.

      --
      We need a "+1 -- nice sig" moderation.
    72. Re:Not nothing. by lucifuge31337 · · Score: 1

      certificate registration shouldn't cost anywhere near what it does,

      I agree.

      certificates should be purchasable for whole domains, etc.

      http://lmgtfy.com/?q=wildcard+certificate

      --
      Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
    73. Re:Not nothing. by twiddlingbits · · Score: 1

      Credit Unions have exposure too. They make mortages, sell securities, etc. Look at the case of Texins Credit Union in Dallas. They took a flyer on mortages and high risk business loans thinking it was always going to go UP. They went from a nice profit to a large loss in less than a year. It's not the scale the big banks are facing but proportionaly it's large. The safest banks are probably the little town or community banks owned by the same folks for many years who are risk averse and careful. They don't make the big profits in the boom but they don't go bust either.

    74. Re:Not nothing. by NateTech · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually forebearance and big penalties later -- is another option. That or Nationalization for a temporary period to get investigators in, clean them up, and hand them back to different leadership and shareholders.

      Maybe if the current shareholders take a hit, they'll learn to do proper oversight of the Board of Directors "next time"...

      There's LOTS more options than "failure". The issue right now is in the government being CONSISTENT about how they're going about it. One bank allowed to fail, another propped up with TARP, another propped up with "stimulus"...

      No wonder the market doesn't trust it. No one knows how they're picking the winners and losers, or if it's being done for political gain or they're just really bad at it.

      Bernanke may have figured it out finally. Geitner is completely clueless. We'll see...

      --
      +++OK ATH
    75. Re:Not nothing. by dangitman · · Score: 1

      Well, but both certificates were for capitalone.com subdomains

      His bank is called Cap it Alone? Sounds more like a site for lonely thugs or solitary hunters.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
    76. Re:Not nothing. by supernova_hq · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oooh, so close! the parent said "domain.com" not "https://domain.com. Thus you would be entering an http site (by default). Your .htaccess would then redirect to "https://www.domain.com".

      If he typed in "http://domain.com", then yes, you would be correct.

    77. Re:Not nothing. by UnderCoverPenguin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know why anyone has their money in large banks anymore. Move it to a local credit union and let those large bank fuckers die out.

      If you check your routing numbers, you might just find that those local credit unions, and other local banks, are clients of the "big banks". My credit union is/was a client of Wamu.

      --
      Don't try to out wierd me, three-eyes. I get stranger things than you, free with my breakfast cereal. --Zaphod Beeblebr
    78. Re:Not nothing. by TheJasper · · Score: 1

      It should never be the customer's responsibilty to bring a maginfying glass to the certificate and manually verify that these were just subdomain mismatches and not some clever capitalone.com vs capitlone.com spelling that means to look correct to someone just scanning the screen.

      Actually, it is the customers responsibility. I'm not saying banks or any other organization has no responsibilty, I'm saying you can't put everything on them and the whine when the system breaks down. This is your money we're talking about, a little caution is indicated. Sure, if they mess up you might be able to get reimbursed but isn't it better not to have to.

      Lack of caution led us to where we are. This is true for the little people as well as the rich.

    79. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this is unfortunately inaccurate.

      > I believe that right now while Firefox "decodes" any unicode so that the characters look like the underlying hex (or something) so that a non-english character can NOT be confused for a real one.

      Firefox decides whether to decode unicode based on whether the TLD is supposed to be Unicode Safe. .us/.com are not Unicode Safe, so unicode junk is presented as garbage which should be a red flag.

      However if you manage to have foo.com/.x.cn and CN is Unicode Safe and the / there isn't a real slash, then Firefox will consider leaving the / as a / instead of showing junk.

      The remaining protection in Firefox is a list of characters which are blacklisted. Unfortunately compiling a complete list is hard, and BlackHat showed some characters were missing from the version of Firefox he tested.

      Newer versions of Firefox will blacklist the characters he exploited and some others.

      The bottom line for this part is to check the Country Listed in the EV indicator, if it says CN and you were expecting US, then STOP!

      But that's a different problem from the original query.

      ---
      If your bank can't get security right, switch.

    80. Re:Not nothing. by Permutation+Citizen · · Score: 1

      My password actually is stars. Nobody would guess such an idiot idea, no ?

    81. Re:Not nothing. by an0nym0u$_c0w4rd · · Score: 1

      Login: an0nym0u$_c0w4rd
      Passwd: VTtoG45m

      Interesting. It doesn't show up as stars to me.

    82. Re:Not nothing. by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

      I agree, however, I don't like to hear "we can not let the banks fail".
      Why should they be infallible? Why should we always save their asses, when they give themselves big bonuses. I say let them fail...we have other means of saving our money, my mattress has plenty of room, I can send money by credit union, and can pay my bills by money orders.

      We feel too comfortable with our system and don't want to lose it, but in the end this is what is killing us, our involuntary nature to let the sh*t happen and let the chips fall, and WoW are people going to be pissed if they see their banks fail, I would go and remove all moneys from the banks.

      If they go bankrupt, does that mean you still have to pay your loan back?
      So make sure to send the message loud and clear to the banks, we wont stand for it any longer....
      You fail, thats it, game over. Same with the car industry....let's keep bailing them out, like the retards we are, because we NEED them to give us jobs....that's like saying I will pay to work for you...now THAT sounds crazy!

    83. Re:Not nothing. by LanMan04 · · Score: 1

      Amen. Credit Unions are definitely the place to be. Exactly the same services as a bank, except all the money that gets made on your deposits gets rolled back into the system instead of going into the pockets of already-rich people. My credit union gave back $6 million in cash last year to depositors.

      --
      With the first link, the chain is forged.
    84. Re:Not nothing. by JordanL · · Score: 1

      The way to fix it, basically, is massive socialism to carry people through the hard times of losing most of their retirement, their houses, and their jobs. We can move back to a more capitalist system in the future if it ever looks like a good idea.

      Let's ask the Germans how well that worked for them in 1932...

    85. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why don't you trust it?

      I hadn't realized /. had become the whiny bitch nerd's online Op.Ed. Next time try qualifying your whiny bitch with, at the very least, an anecdote. On that note I will leave with you one that will hopefully put you in your place:

      My grandmother was born in 1910 and lived through the Great Depression, WW1, Prohibition, WW2, Korea War, De-segregation, Vietnam War, and Affirmative Action. When she passed away in 1994 my father and I had to divide up her estate. We had to sort through literally hundreds of boxes of "junk" that she had been collecting over 84 years. Things like a boxes full of misc. buttons, misc. lengths of string/yarn, magazines, news papers... Just about the only thing she threw out was food scraps and recyclables.

      During Prohibition she was a Flapper and danced in speakeasies with notorious characters like Al Capone. During WW2 she sewed uniforms for the US Army. In all of her time she saw unarguably some of the *roughest* times in the history of the USA. The only thing tougher that I can think of was our Civil War. I have not doubt that she would have survived that too.

      I can't say if it was nature or nurture that made her a survivor, but that's what she was. She shopped at thrift stores, got all her breads from a bakers outlet, darned socks she probably bought in the 40's and 50's instead of buying new ones. She made me feel like a spoiled brat when I received $5 for doing what she considered daily chores. She, more than anyone in my entire life, taught me the value of *hard work* and made me understand that it's worth more than any $. She taught me that money is actually a luxury, not a necessity.

      To relate that anecdote to your asinine comment, she gave me trust in America. I trust that no matter how fucking shitty you whiny cunts make life out to be; I can still survive; I can still enjoy life and build a family AND an estate. I trust that no matter how filthy stinking rich these SOB CEOs and European investors get at our expense; I *will* be ok.

      One last point I would like to make is that YOU are part of the American system. How foolish does it make you look to say that you don't trust *yourself*?

      PS) +4 Insightful is a fucking joke. Without qualifying his pansy bitching this should at minimum -1 Flamebait.

    86. Re:Not nothing. by pbhj · · Score: 1

      The landlord is charging too much rent. Do you sell everything and pay the rent or do you move somewhere cheaper and force the price down?

      At the moment it looks like everyone is selling everything to pay the rent (keep the banks going) thing is the landlord is running off with the money and not maintaining the building ..

      Perhaps I should have gone with a car analogy.

    87. Re:Not nothing. by InvisiBill · · Score: 1

      Self-plug: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=110239

      VerifyURL is a simple Firefox addon that puts a "location.hostname" bookmarklet into the browser UI. I started it when the exploit came up where the whole Fx UI was spoofed and I couldn't get to my bookmarklet (since the bookmarks menu was a spoofed fake). After I made VerifyURL, SpoofStick's interface got a lot better, and I actually installed that for my parents instead (just set to show the hostname in one of the UI bars). It's similar to the latest versions showing the domain name for secure sites, but this was always there. The act of showing it doesn't inherently make anything more secure, but it provides a visible clarification of the URL for non-geeks. Locationbar, linked by Henry Pate, seems to be the same sort of thing, done right in the address bar.

      I'd like to see a "real" hostname spoofing a valid URL with unicode "slashes", to see how well VerifyURL handles it. It does work on the IDN spoofs.

    88. Re:Not nothing. by sp3cialk79 · · Score: 1

      weird thats the same password I use!

    89. Re:Not nothing. by kilian.cavalotti · · Score: 1

      That's what I thought until I read Moxie Marlinspike's paper, especially how one can create a valid certificate for say www.paypal.com as a leaf of an otherwise valid trust chain for another domain.
      Unicode tricks are pretty scary too...

    90. Re:Not nothing. by afabbro · · Score: 1

      I don't know why anyone has their money in large banks anymore. Move it to a local credit union and let those large bank fuckers die out. "Too big to fail" my ass. They haven't been paying FDIC for the last 10 years since "it wasn't necessary".

      I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about. All banks pay FDIC premiums. No one has lost any money (under the limit of $200K or whatever it is) in an FDIC-insured bank. Ever.

      FYI, credit unions pay NCUA premiums, which is a similar program. There are pros and cons of a credit union and for some it's a good choice, but being scared that your bank is going to fail and you're going to lose your FDIC-insured deposits is not one of them.

      --
      Advice: on VPS providers
    91. Re:Not nothing. by Cramer · · Score: 1

      I find that I often type domain.com in instead of www.domain.com. SSL certs are often registered to https://www.domain.com and I'm at https://domain.com which gives a mis-match.

      You fail.

    92. Re:Not nothing. by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Americans? You speak as if the rest of the world isn't just as guilty.

      Granted, there are countries that are more culpable for the current financial mess (and some that are less culpable), but America isn't the only source of the problem here.

    93. Re:Not nothing. by Pervaricator+General · · Score: 1

      Exactly. This is what has not been explained to the public: We are dismantling the people responsible for this mess. If they are allowed to go bankrupt, they were small potatoes. If they were bailed out, they made the wrong bets and now get publically dismantled. If they are stilla round, they will be a shell of their former selves, with all new personnel and a bad name anyway, so it is the same thing.

    94. Re:Not nothing. by Pervaricator+General · · Score: 1

      I agree with fellow poster: the idiot bankers ruined our reputation. The fact that ratings agencies AND insurers didn't stop this before it started means we deserve the situation we are in.

    95. Re:Not nothing. by Eric+in+SF · · Score: 1

      All you proved with your anecdote is that you believe in America. I have no problem with that.

      I *don't* believe in America.

      I think America is run not by the people but by oligarchs. Nothing short of civil war from the people will change that.

      Furthermore I have no idea how I would react/act/behave if such a thing came to pass, so yes, I am fully aware of the implications of including myself in my statements about "Americans."

    96. Re:Not nothing. by DamnStupidElf · · Score: 1

      The real problem now is that they have caused an incalculable amount of damage to the reputation of our financial system as being a safe place to invest money. The government has to bail all these people out to show that they will stand behind all these too big to fail crooks and make good on their lies in order to maintain confidence.

      That is because it was not a safe place to invest money. "Here, put your money in this magic black box, and you simply can't lose! Even if the black box eats your money, we have an even bigger black box that will ensure your (and everyone else's) original investment!" That smacks of inattention to the basic laws of physics, not to mention economics. TANSTAAFL.

    97. Re:Not nothing. by ingenuus · · Score: 1

      His example link doesn't actually use the unicode symbol for division. It uses a forward slash. Maybe slashdot has issues with unicode.

    98. Re:Not nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Split them up and give them to small time investors. Thus you end up with lots of small banks, the government gives a check to each of the small banks to keep it going and we end up with lots of smallish locally owned banks.

    99. Re:Not nothing. by supernova_hq · · Score: 1

      But you shouldn't end up there by typing "www.domain.com". If you got to the encrypted one, then either you typed in "https://", or the web-developer that wrote the redirect was a fucking idiot.

    100. Re:Not nothing. by sjames · · Score: 1

      Exactly. That doesn't mean we can't take as much as possible out of the crook's hides.

      For a start, I'd like them to have their foreheads branded so we know who to spit on when we pass them on the sidewalk.

    101. Re:Not nothing. by sjames · · Score: 1

      The problem is that certs throw the web of trust out the window.

      CapitalOne SHOULD be able to get a cert that says they're really CapitalOne.com and then they can make their own certs that tell us this really is piggy.bank.capitalone.com. It's their server, they would know.

    102. Re:Not nothing. by sjames · · Score: 1

      If the capitalone domain registration ever became compromised, 'hijackeddomain.capitalone.com' would have the same 'root' domain as capitalone.com, but could be pointed at a hackers server in timbuktu.

      'hijackeddomain.capitalone.com' won't have Capitalone's cert unless they also rooted their real server (in which case, it's already game over).

      Where the real fun starts is that they MIGHT have a different cert for capitalone.com from a negligent or crooked CA, but that's game over too and there's nothing the more legit CAs can do about it.

    103. Re:Not nothing. by GoRK · · Score: 1

      The CA certificate system isn't supposed to be a 'web of trust' though. It COULD be but honestly users wouldn't make the effort. Most PGP users don't bother with the 'web of trust' either anymore which is why it's all but dead. Allowing companies to become authoritative CAs for their own domains is a good solution in theory, but the end user still needs someone to step in and help them do the identity proofing because, again, they won't make the effort; plus how do you secure it? DNS? Whois? Have them buy CA certs? All of these have flaws. Does the current system suck? A little bit - maybe about as much as the current system for domain registration, but

      A company can already become a CA if it wants to and have users choose to trust them or install their CA certs on end users machines or use them within their own applications. Many enterprises run internal CAs anyway. In your example there is really nothing preventing capitalone from distributing a small installer that makes them a trusted CA same as Verisign or any of the others whose CA certs are bundled with the browsers. But if you think that these companies who are too already too disorganized to correctly author and secure their current web apps are going to go through the rigamarole of running their own CA and talking their users through trusting them? You are just talking crazy.

      FWIW there is apparently malware that already does this -- a CA cert, a hostfile entry and suddenly paypal.com is showing green bars on nigerian servers no problem.

    104. Re:Not nothing. by sjames · · Score: 1

      But if you think that these companies who are too already too disorganized to correctly author and secure their current web apps are going to go through the rigamarole of running their own CA and talking their users through trusting them? You are just talking crazy.

      That's why I suggested a sort of mini-automated version of the web of trust where the company gets a cert from a CA as usual, and then uses that cert to sign site certs. The trust is limited such that I trust x.abc.com's cert if it is signed by abc.com and that cert is signed by a CA I trust (or, realistically, a CA that came pre-trusted in the browser). No user effort involved at all. If they DON'T trust abxc.com to sign a cert for x.abc.com, then they shouldn't actually trust anything.abc.com enough to do anything with security implications (such as banking) no matter who signs the cert.

      .

      I suppose that might be more aptly called chains of trust.

      I am familiar with the malware. That plus the entire thing being no more trustworthy than the least trustworthy CA in "the list" is a serious limitation on the whole system. When it comes down to it, many of those CA's are indistinguishable (in terms of trust) from a self-signed cert since I've never even heard of them.

  2. Looks fine to me by Taimat · · Score: 1

    The cert is for servicing.capitalone.com and not for onlinebanking.capitalone.com. The only thing that seems wrong is the verisign link.

    --
    The above comments are not guaranteed to make sense to anyone other than the author...
    1. Re:Looks fine to me by canuck08 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Seconded. The certificate is correct.
      I don't know what that verisign link is all about but it is useless.
      You certainly cannot trust information within a web page to verify the identity of the server.

      Click on the the little 'lock' icon on the bottom right corner of your browser to inspect the certificate.

    2. Re:Looks fine to me by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Interesting

          Exactly. They were stupid. They gave a server an alias, and didn't realize that it will throw an error to the clients. It probably worked fine in their dev environment though, where they probably accepted the wrong cert and saved the exception because they got tired of clicking the link. :)

          Being that he ignored the error, didn't view the cert to see what it was really assigned for (and continued on to give his login information), it proves that most users don't really care, and will provide their security credentials regardless if they've been warned that there is a problem or not. The cert could have been for bad_haxor_inc.ru, but since he didn't look, he doesn't know.

          We have to assume that it's a mixup with the servicing.capitalone.com and onlinebanking.capitalone.com hosts, but we don't know.

          Why didn't they just buy a wildcard cert? They're so much easier to work with. :)

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    3. Re:Looks fine to me by kalirion · · Score: 3, Informative

      Similar thing happens whenever I try to log into my virginmobile account. https://virginmobileusa.com/ has a certificate for www.virginmobileusa.com

    4. Re:Looks fine to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why didn't they just buy a wildcard cert? They're so much easier to work with. :)

      True, wildcard certs are much easier to work with.
      But, there isn't a standard way how browsers will deal with them.
      IE handles wildcard certs differently then Firefox or Safari or Opera or Chrome or Iceweasel or Konqueror or ...

    5. Re:Looks fine to me by kelnos · · Score: 2, Informative

      You can't get wildcard EV certs.

      --
      Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
    6. Re:Looks fine to me by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

          I've been using them for a while. They seem to work fine, as long as you don't try to go too nuts with the names.

          If you have: *.example.com, these will work:

          example.com
          foo.example.com
          bar.example.com
          batz.example.com

          But these won't.
          foo.bar.example.com
          www.whoo.foo.bar.example.com

          So, it's all in how deep you really need to nest your names. I've never had such a naming problem that it couldn't be fit in *.example.com. Really, if you only use 8 characters, that gives you 2.8e+12. Most places only really need a handful of names for the public, and even the private stuff can be logically named. nyb4c956.example.com could be New York City - Building 4 - Cube 952.

          If you really want to expand it beyond that, well, buy more certs. I think Capital One can afford 'em. :)

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    7. Re:Looks fine to me by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

          Did they have an EV cert? My address line didn't go all wonky with extra colors. :)

          If users don't even care that the cert isn't for the right place, I don't think the EV certs are worth anything, other than to make the signing authorities more cash.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    8. Re:Looks fine to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They aren't called "VeriStupid" for nothing.

    9. Re:Looks fine to me by tweek · · Score: 1

      Yeah I remember the first time I worked with wildcard certs. We had a client that wanted a fairly "dynamic" and on-demand url system for new customers (the following is not the actual info obviously):

      www.myonlineschool.com

      Customer Georgia signs up:

      georgia.myonlineschool.com

      Redneck Elementary signs up from GA:
      redneckelementary.georgia.myonlineschool.com

      We had a wildcard DNS record. If you went to myonlineschool.com, you were presented with three login boxes - user,pass,organization. If you went to georgia.myonlineschool.com, you only had two form elements. It inferred the organization from the requested hostname and worked it's way back until if found a match. It's a pretty common technique and really smooth. Except it breaks with SSL.

      The wildcard certs work up until the last example. They actually wanted the flexibility to nest even farther. It took some explaining but they realized they didn't want to pay for that many wildcard certs and we would have had to move each level of nesting to a different VIP on the Netscalers to actually make use of the SSL accelerator. Each VIP can only present one certificate chain.

      --
      "Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
    10. Re:Looks fine to me by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

          That's one that's thrown a lot of people. "I'm sorry, we need an IP per SSL site". They don't quite get, it's encrypted traffic, we can't see the host header.

          I love the wildcard certs. I've moved them around too. My company (we'll use example.com) has all kinds of stuff. Internally, we have intranet.example.com. It's on a private network IP (like a 192.168.0.0/16 IP), so it would be unreasonable to ask them to buy a cert, but I can use the wildcard cert there. :) There's no real good reason for it. I don't have a concern that someone internally will hack it. There isn't anything to hack, it's information for the staff. I've caught the wildcard cert expiring because of it though. We forgot once, and the intranet site threw the error. It was less than 5 minutes after it expired. We had the new cert fairly quickly, and then started deploying it to everywhere it needed to be. They want to test everything first. Fine. I tested on intranet.example.com first. It's not customer facing. The worst that'll happen is some internal information won't be available for a few minutes.

         

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    11. Re:Looks fine to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most sites don't have the right certificates if you type in the https: url with the www. If you just use http: though, it'll redirect you to the right https: url.

    12. Re:Looks fine to me by Tokerat · · Score: 1

      Why didn't they just buy a wildcard cert? They're so much easier to work with. :)

      Do they even make those? I was under the impression it was hostname or nothing (I could certainly be wrong, IHNPASC - I have never purchased a security certificate)

      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    13. Re:Looks fine to me by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

          Yup. There are a few different ones you can buy. It depends on what your needs are.

          For a regular site that needs a cert, a $20/yr cert is fine. I have one on my news site. It's only there to protect login information, and for the overly cautious (read: paranoid). It's the same cert that Verisign charges $400 for. Go figure.

          There's a wildcard cert, which you can wildcard part of a name. Like *.example.com . It doesn't do multiple levels for some browsers though, so you can't do foo.bar.example.com and expect it to work properly for everyone. For that, you'd either need a cert for that domain, or the wildcard cert for *.bar.example.com. Wildcard certs start at about $150. So, it's not cost effective to get a wildcard unless you are protecting more than 7 hostnames.

          There's also an "EV" cert (extended validation), which does the same as a regular cert, but adds the pretty green bar at the top. Those start at about $900.

          Does that help? :)

         

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  3. Simple solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't bank online anymore.
    Problem solved, that will be $10,000, Just send it in the mail :D

    1. Re:Simple solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually just head over to capitylone.com and send me the money through there.

  4. No by Romancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's all a scam and we're all laughing at you. While spending your money. Thanks for the good times.

    --


    ) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
    ) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
  5. Doh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I am still curious how much I have exposed my banking assets

    Seeing you logged in correctly, everything.

  6. Multiple domains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most institutions use Multiple domains. The URL's ofter refer or get deferred to them.

  7. Answers by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and back on again?
    Ah... another tech support call. Sure, what's the problem?

    Are the certificates a mismatch or is my browser bellyaching for nothing?

    Yes. And maybe yes too.

    Is the certificate mismatch a security hazard?

    Common sense would suggest it wouldn't be in a big popup dialog labeled "WARNING" if it wasn't.

    If someone poisoned my local DNS routers would it be obvious in the URL?

    No.

    How would I prevent such a thing?

    Stop clicking "Okay" or "Yes" to every security warning you don't understand.

    If everything was working correctly, would the certificate alert me to DNS poisoning, or is this just cosmetic security?

    If the certificate isn't properly signed, a warning like the one you were presented with should throw a dialog box in the web browser.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Answers by gr8_phk · · Score: 1
      Good answers except this one:

      If the certificate isn't properly signed, a warning like the one you were presented with should throw a dialog box in the web browser.

      IMO the browser should just block access to the site. Then they have to fix it. Why implement security features that throw up warnings the user is expected to ignore? That's a rhetorical question, please don't try to justify this behaviour.

    2. Re:Answers by owlstead · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If the certificate isn't properly signed, a warning like the one you were presented with should throw a dialog box in the web browser."

      *Nothing* from a web site should throw a dialog in a web browser. Dialogs are annoying things that block your entire application. They make it all to easy to create denial of service attacks (just keep throwing dialog boxes). They are also easy to click away by mistake (just hitting enter in an entirely different application seems to do it).

      I love the way FF3 shows you that something is wrong with the certificate. The page is very clear and the user only gets a dialog box after clicking on a button himself. The same with remembering passwords, the bar on the top is much better than a dialog.

      It would be great if FF3 became entirely dialog free. I don't think it is already the case, but they are definitely working on it. The one for extensions is still there, but at least you cannot just click it away since it waits 3 seconds for the Install button to become available.

      IMHO, dialog boxes (especially "modal" ones, the ones you /have/ to click away) are a useful tool, but they are used in way too many occasions.

    3. Re:Answers by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Common sense would suggest it wouldn't be in a big popup dialog labeled "WARNING" if it wasn't.

      But we've been trained out of this thought process. "WARNING! Could not connect to server", "WARNING! deleting files will delete files", "WARNING, incomprehensible error that goes away when you click 'Ignore'".

      Warning dialogs are so overused that they've become an irritation, and rarely seem to be a problem. Really, certificate failures should probably make the warning a lot more scary.

    4. Re:Answers by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      IMO the browser should just block access to the site.

      The problem is that things that are self-signed get dumped into the same buckets as bad ones. So any gear I have that I want to get to with a self-signed certificate, I have to click through all sorts of warnings to get to an HTTPS session, and in your scheme, they'd just lock me out of my networking gear. And you think that makes sense?

    5. Re:Answers by andymadigan · · Score: 1

      Some sites have HTTPS for no good reason. A number of mailing list hosts seem to do this, I run into them while googling for stuff. Too often the certs are out of date, since I don't care about security for the page (I'm viewing it, not submitting info) I add the exception.

      Your argument is another "the user is stupid" assumption, those are getting out of hand. If I tell the browser to do something, it should f**king do it.

      --
      The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
    6. Re:Answers by geekoid · · Score: 1

      COmmon sense? have you never used a computer? meaning less error box get thrown all the time, as do big warning boxes that aren't really anything at all.
      You trust the computer too much.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    7. Re:Answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IMO the browser should just block access to the site. Then they have to fix it. Why implement security features that throw up warnings the user is expected to ignore? That's a rhetorical question, please don't try to justify this behaviour.

      If the site is blocked, how do you let the site know the site is blocked unless its unblocked to tell the site its blocked?

    8. Re:Answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop clicking "Okay" or "Yes" to every security warning you don't understand.

      And that's a huge problem because it's the core method most people have used to 'learn' computers: Click unfamiliar things to find out what they do. Respect those people or not, they've come a very long way using that method. It's ingrained, reinforced learned behavior.

      Now web banking comes along. The task is "do banking." Per usual, all unfamiliar things are choice-clicked for whichever choice will allow them to proceed with the task.

      And the choice seems to work -- they don't instantly find out they've got themselves into a MITM attack. For them, it's Mission Accomplished.

      For a warning to work for most people, the warning must make user-situation specific sense, and offer a way forward instead of 'No'.

      Like "Whoa! Something is very wrong with the security of this webpage. You should not proceed with this transaction. Select 'No' to stop the transaction, and call your bank immediately."

      Yes, that's non-trivial to set up, but it's what's needed to work. A security dialog about 'certificates' with a 'No' option just leaves people lost. What's a certificate? Should I start over? Reboot? Too many mysteries. It's a dead-end, so they'll try the 'positive' option to see if that sorts things.

      That's got to be made clear: people will do that. The warning dialogs we use now have a guaranteed high failure rate. The interface is flat wrong for the average user.

    9. Re:Answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some sites have HTTPS for no good reason.

      Maybe to stop advertisers/government sniffing your data?

    10. Re:Answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IMO the browser should just block access to the site. Then they have to fix it.

      And IMO, it should be up to me to decide if I want to go there.

      That's a rhetorical question, please don't try to justify this behaviour.

      There is a video game I play online, for free. The only info they have about me is a spam-catching email address. The login is secured and the site has a cert which often doesn't "match".

      Why should I give a shit? If I get redirected I'll kind of notice right away. What are they gonna get, the transcript of me flaming someone like you? Whooopie. So they can get my login? Who cares, I don't reuse passwords, and if they login as me & spam the board I really don't care, I'll just make a new login.

      The LAST thing I need is a nanny-browser that decides if I deserve to go somewhere or not.

      warnings the user is expected to ignore?

      No, they're expected to notice something is wrong, and make a decision to continue or get ahold of the site admin & chew his/her ass.

    11. Re:Answers by Windrip · · Score: 1

      Who the fuck modded this "informative"

      Stupid jackass answers like the above do nothing to assuage the concerns expressed by the poster.

      Get out the fucking basement

    12. Re:Answers by maxume · · Score: 1

      So import those certificates into your browser. Not convenient if you are on some other machine, but you are talking about a pretty esoteric use.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    13. Re:Answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Common sense would suggest it wouldn't be in a big popup dialog labeled "WARNING" if it wasn't.

      The trouble is that that isn't true. A modern user sees big popup dialogs labeled "WARNING" every few minutes, and only a fraction of those are real security hazards - so they're trained to just click "Okay".

    14. Re:Answers by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Yes, I think it makes sense. If you can self sign a certificate, then you can just as easily generate a certificate for your personal CA and install that into the browser.

    15. Re:Answers by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      If it should be blocking me from using a site, how effective is that block if I can click "import certificate" and get to that site anyway? I took the "block those sites" as actually block, not add one step to allow everyone to access them even if they are MITM attacks.

    16. Re:Answers by maxume · · Score: 1

      There has to be some way to add certificates. The only special thing about the default set of certificates is that the browser makers decided to include them; paranoia would suggest that they should be reviewed by each user, but convenience seems to win.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    17. Re:Answers by girlintraining · · Score: 0

      Who the fuck modded this "informative"

      Hopefully people who don't need to use "fuck" to justify their argument.

      Get out the fucking basement

      This sentence no verb.

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    18. Re:Answers by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``Q: Is the certificate mismatch a security hazard?''

      A: Common sense would suggest it wouldn't be in a big popup dialog labeled "WARNING" if it wasn't.
      ''

      However, experience shows that many programs show you big scary warnings for things that aren't actually big and scary. And often for things that you actually want to do.

      For an on-topic example: invalid SSL certificates. SSL provides encryption. Depending on how you use it, it also provides authentication. For authentication, you need a valid SSL certificate. Such a certificate basically states "Trusted party X says that this certificate was issued for yourbank.example.com". For this to work, you need two things: you need to trust the third party, and the party it was issued to needs to be the party you want to do business with. If any of these isn't the case, you are back to where you were without a certificate - except for one thing, you still have encryption.

      Now, the funny thing is that when you use plain HTTP, you get no SSL at all, meaning no encryption and no authentication. When you use SSL with an invalid certificate, you get encryption, but no authentication. This is more secure. Yet, it will give you a big, scary warning, whereas using plain HTTP will not.

      So, yes, the big scary warning is there for a reason. It means the party you are communicating with may not be who they claim to be. On the other hand, you don't usually get that assurance anyway. And, really, you don't get that assurance when using a valid SSL certificate, either. That only says the trusted party says so...but the trusted party could be wrong.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    19. Re:Answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      O man he's been pwnd... by a girl

  8. Eh ? by THEbwana · · Score: 1

    My browser has no problem with their cert. And Im using a particularly picky browser (firefox 3.07).
    A non-story?

    1. Re:Eh ? by owlstead · · Score: 1

      It seems to have been fixed already.

      I would not worry about the problem when 1) onlinebanking.capitalone.com is working as it should be and 2) when the certificates of onlinebanking.capitalone.com and the misconfigured servicing.capitalone.com match.

      Also, the top level domain is the same, you it seems far fetched that the DNS is configured incorrectly. That is, IF you are using internet from a relatively safe location, otherwise your routing and DNS may be attacked quite easily.

      It's fixed, but that does not make it a non-story. And although this seems to have been fixed quite quickly, the response of the person at the bank makes me wonder if everything is all right down there.

      Anyway, US banks are trying to do things way too cheaply: they should use 2 factor authentication (for transactions as well), as lot of EU banks do. Much, much safer than having only username + password. That kind of authentication would probably be considered criminal neglect over here in the Netherlands.

    2. Re:Eh ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyway, US banks are trying to do things way too cheaply: they should use 2 factor authentication (for transactions as well), as lot of EU banks do. Much, much safer than having only username + password. That kind of authentication would probably be considered criminal neglect over here in the Netherlands.

      Yeah, but you're money's actually worth something. :D

    3. Re:Eh ? by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Capital One IT staff: "Oh shit, we're on /."

      2nd C1 IT staff: "Oh fuck. I'll bet it's the certificate."

      *phone rings*

      "Oh shit, it's the CTO's number."

      CTO: "Why the fuck are we on slashdot's front page?"

      And presto, Capital One's certificates have been fixed.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    4. Re:Eh ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You are exactly correct, except it was the CEO's son who happened to be browsing /. and gave his dad a call and explained what it meant. On the plus side, the policy team (who made this particuar call) is getting their backsides roasted just now...ah, schadenfraude.

    5. Re:Eh ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The CTO's phone rings.

      It's the CEO: "Your fired".

  9. It's not like they're the only bank, you know by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, there's a bank on every corner. Unless you have some compelling reason to stay with Capital One, open an account elsewhere. You don't even have to close your Capital One account -- save it as a backup.

    That's what I did when Bank of Texas (aka Bank of Oklahoma) added so-called "security questions". The first time I failed at answering "What was your first pet's favorite food?" (or something similarly stupid), I changed my direct deposit to put $1 a paycheck there, and move the rest to an account at a financial institution with a better understanding of Internet security.

    Speaking of financial institutions, why are you still banking at a for-profit (ha!) institution, anyway? I've got one credit union that doesn't charge an overlimit fee on my credit card, and another that's paying over 4% interest on my checking account. Why can they do that? Because they didn't take stupid risks 10 years ago. I should know -- they wouldn't give me a home loan. The bank that did was first in line for a taxpayer bailout.

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    1. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by mnslinky · · Score: 1

      Why can they do that? Because they didn't take stupid risks 10 years ago. I should know -- they wouldn't give me a home loan. The bank that did was first in line for a taxpayer bailout.

      It's nice seeing blatant honesty! Very funny. I see you've not had a problem paying your internet and slashdot subscription fees. ;)

    2. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by Hatta · · Score: 1

      That's what I did when Bank of Texas (aka Bank of Oklahoma) added so-called "security questions". The first time I failed at answering "What was your first pet's favorite food?" (or something similarly stupid), I changed my direct deposit to put $1 a paycheck there, and move the rest to an account at a financial institution with a better understanding of Internet security.

      My Credit Union does this too. I just treat it like a second password. I actually sat down with the manager and talked to him about it. Told him that a security question is just like a password, but not as good since you have a pretty good chance of guessing an answer from the question. Of course, he was totally clueless and claimed they had to do it this way because of regulations. I asked him to send me a copy of the relevant regulations, of course he never did since they don't exist.

      But these security questions don't harm security. They are just ineffective and slightly annoying. I answer all of mine with the same passphrase, so I never have to worry about how I answered which question. The financial services I get from this credit union are pretty good, so it's really not worth changing IMO.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    3. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by RobertB-DC · · Score: 1

      It's nice seeing blatant honesty! Very funny. I see you've not had a problem paying your internet and slashdot subscription fees. ;)

      Like I tell the kids... the big rocks go in the bucket first.

      --
      Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    4. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by Malc · · Score: 1

      Why did you talk to an account manager about online security and passwords? Unless they're a really small organisation, that would seem to be really daft.

    5. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by maxume · · Score: 1

      I was pretty happy when my credit union switched away from a "you have to answer the security question" online servicer. Apparently, that interpretation of the rules is pretty common.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    6. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by Hatta · · Score: 1

      It's a university credit union, so yes it's fairly small.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    7. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and another that's paying over 4% interest on my checking account

      Might you be willing to share which CU is offering 4% on checking? You are the second slashdotter to indicate this number. That's about a factor of 10 higher than what CUs in my area (indeed any bank or credit union I could find anywhere) are offering on regular savings, never mind checking.

    8. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, there's a bank on every corner.

      Not for long. You haven't watched the news, lately, have you?

    9. Re:It's not like they're the only bank, you know by SpammersAreScum · · Score: 1

      Sometimes your bank changes on you. I've been a happy customer of Chevy Chase Bank for many years. Just got the wonderful news that they're becoming part of Capital One. We'll see how long it takes for them to do something that warrants bailing.

  10. Misconfiguration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My telco/ISP allows you to log in and check your bills online and I run into a similar problem. They've configured their website to work whether or not you type in www, but the certificate is actually only valid for the www site.

  11. Probably not a problem, but... by Carnildo · · Score: 1

    A mismatch at the third level of the domain name is probably a configuration screw-up on Capital One's part. It shouldn't be possible for a third party to get a certificate for a capitalone.com subdomain.

    If, however, somebody did get a certificate for onlinebanking.capitalone.com, then Capital One's only defense is to change the subdomain they use and hope that people who've been hit by a DNS poisoning or other man-in-the-middle attack pay attention to the certificate mismatch.

    --
    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  12. A few things about SSL by einhverfr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The first thing to note is that SSL covers the host-to-host connection and is ignorant of higher-level protocols. There are a couple of things which can cause SSL mismatches:

    1) SSL cert is set up to one hostname that the machine services, but site is on another. The SSL negotiation happens prior to the host headers being processed. This could be solved by browser controls (i.e. do a rDNS lookup on the cert's host and make sure it matches the IP you are connecting to), but this ends up causing other, more serious issues, because different sites on the same server could be controlled by different parties. Hence if you have a shopping cart, I could re-use your cert on my shared site on the same box, spoof your page, and steel credit card numbers. So the browser behavior is correct.

    2) The SSL cert could have been accidently re-used (unlikely).

    My general rule is that if the hostname's TLD matches with the cert (capitalone.com), but the most host-specific portion does not (servicing vs online banking), this is reasonably (though not completely) safe to ignore. Revoked certs should ALWAYS be treated with suspicion because you don't know why it was revoked. Expired certs.... Well, it depends. There are other things that can cause certs to be improperly shown as expired so that demands more careful consideration.

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
    1. Re:A few things about SSL by BigBuckHunter · · Score: 2, Informative

      SSL cert is set up to one hostname

      The parent is for all intensive purposes is correct. Class 3 SSL certificates are assigned to a common name (foo.com). Unless the certificate contains a wild-card, it ill not work for bar.foo.com. It will however work for foo.com/bar.

      It sounds like the bank in question has a Class 3 for CN=bank.com and their webapp is located at online.bank.com. The browser caught the mismatch and throws a warning.

      Please alert the webmaster of the institution with a full description of the error.It's easy to resolve on their end (they have to gen a new csr and order a new certificate).

      BBH

    2. Re:A few things about SSL by Skapare · · Score: 1

      The cert I got was good. Maybe they repurposed some servers around in the pool of servers behind load balancers, and one or more didn't get their certs updated for the new purpose (e.g. changed from "onlinebanking" to "servicing"). Or maybe the OP really did have a MitM attack.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    3. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      The parent is for all intensive purposes is correct.

      The phrase is intents and purposes. What the hell would an "intensive purpose" be?

    4. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intents and purposes.

    5. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you mean intensive porpoises.

    6. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Purposes that are resource intensive.

    7. Re:A few things about SSL by einhverfr · · Score: 1

      Just to be clear. the numbered items were cuases of mismatches. A wildcard certificate gets rid of that problem but the misconfiguration I mentioned is still a source of such an error. Also generally if someone IS doing an MITM with a cert from the same TLD it is an inside job anyway. In general, that is the least of my worries (you know that the cert was issued to the same company at any rate).

      --

      LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
    8. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The parent is for all intensive purposes is correct.

      For all intents and purposes the parent is correct.

    9. Re:A few things about SSL by Monkier · · Score: 1

      yes.. I've seen a handful of sites that have www.website.com & website.com pointed to the same IP address - but are serving SSL with a cert cn=www.website.com. oh - oops, we've always been testing it with "www.website.com".

    10. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's now a meme. Get over it.

      Seriously, if you see 'intensive purposes' the writer is moer than likely using it for shits and giggles.

    11. Re:A few things about SSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is an intensive purpose?

    12. Re:A few things about SSL by einhverfr · · Score: 1

      If it was an MITM attack it would have been an inside job. I think it is more likely to be human error in this case than malice.

      --

      LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
  13. Pure genius! Say the quiet part loud! by synthesizerpatel · · Score: 5, Funny

    This reminds me of an story. A friend and I were moving a heavy couch and at an inopportune time he got flustered and said 'Hold on, we need to put this down and take a break'. We did, finished moving it later and that was that.

    About 6 months later out of the blue he explained to me that he had to put the couch down because the apparently strained a bit too hard and pooped his pants.

    I have no idea why he told me, much less told me 6 months later. He was kind of a weird guy.

    The moral of this story is:

    If you do something embarassing or stupid and privately get away with it, don't tell anyone.

    1. Re:Pure genius! Say the quiet part loud! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And just what does this have to do with the price of frog hair in china?

  14. my company's secure login for employees by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

    has a mismatched certificate. something like www.ourdomain.com not matching subdomain.ourdomain.com

    i don't know enough about SSL and certs to tell you that subdomain, as opposed to domain, mismatches are exploitable. but i know in my particular instance, its just laziness on my company's part, and it smells like someone just dropped the ball on a configuration at capitalone

    i know in my company's case i complain about it, but nothing ever gets done about it (until we get exploited i bet)

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  15. Capital One fucked up by headqtrs · · Score: 0

    That's the most probable reason. The other reason is a man-in-the-middle attack. There is no way to discern the difference from your side.

    Anyway, it's time to change your bank. This is a grave error and it's probably not the only one. Clearly, Capital One is a disaster waiting to happen. Don't be a victim in that case!

    1. Re:Capital One fucked up by dave420 · · Score: 0

      There is a way, surely - examine the certificate that was sent. See who signed it. Read every last inch of it. If it's a MITM attack, it'll be signed by some bogus entity. If Capital One screwed up it'll most likely be a legitimate certificate, but for a different domain/subdomain.

  16. significant spaces by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 3, Funny

    What is "Cap It Alone"?

    Doesn't sound like a website I'd entrust my financial information to...

  17. Banks never go public about security breaches by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 0

    Would you take your business to bank that announced that they had recently caught an embezzler? That's why banks rarely press charges against embezzlers.

    Same deal with Internet security. If someone catches them with their pants down, they are not likely to wave and scream, "Hey, everyone! Look over here at me!"

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    1. Re:Banks never go public about security breaches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there are actually laws in many states that require them to if customer info is disclosed.

  18. Just a thought......... by unimatrixzer0 · · Score: 1

    but I have worked on several computers where the users PC date/time somehow was changed to the year 2006 (and yet another that the year was changed to 2013). Because the date of the computer was out of the range of the dates on the certificate etc. it would come up with an error and prevent logon capabilities. Very rare instance that this would happen as the certificate was valid but due to dates being wrong it wouldn't display the page nor allow the user to log into the banking website. But there is the possibility that Capital One in all their infinite knowledge and awesomesauce screwed something up. Just my 2 cents.

    --
    unimatrixzer0
  19. But it happens a lot by RoverDaddy · · Score: 1

    A corporation will get the certificate issued for their shiny professional 'main' URL, like www.ReallyGreatBank.com, and then their online account management system ends up being a redirect to wherever the hell they felt like putting it. For example, while I don't know if they have certificate issues, Citibank's many 'main' sites for themselves and their acquisitions, take you to www.accountonline.com/yada-yada.

    I guess if we all complained until we were blue in the face, businesses -might- make more of an effort to keep the certificates in line with the actual sites. However, the answer received in this case: 'Sorry I can't escalate that' shows that the corporations know we'll suck it up and deal.

    Personally I consider a DNS poisoning sufficiently unlikely compared to simpler scams (like redirecting to a similarly named domain) that I don't sweat it too much.

    --
    RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
    1. Re:But it happens a lot by Mr.+Firewall · · Score: 1

      I guess if we all complained until we were blue in the face, businesses -might- make more of an effort to keep the certificates in line with the actual sites. However, the answer received in this case: 'Sorry I can't escalate that' shows that the corporations know we'll suck it up and deal.

      Amen.

      Which is why I refuse to do online banking: too many of them just don't "get it". I use the phone, even though Capital One charges me ten bucks for certain transactions done over the phone.

      Bastards.

      --
      In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
    2. Re:But it happens a lot by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 1

      And by handing them $10 every time you do that transaction over the phone that you could have done on the internet, you realize you're rewarding the broken behavior, right? I'm sure they're crying to sleep over your dissatisfaction with online banking that drives you to the telephone ...

  20. Incompital One.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's in your wal...er...browser?

  21. Now you know... by jskline · · Score: 1

    Now you know why I no longer bank with Capital One. They not only are really not concerned at all with their security, but they really could care less about you; their customer. I had nothing but issues with them and just closed everything up and moved on.

    --
    All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
  22. Doesn't surprise me... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Informative

    An ID Thief opened a Capital One account in my name. They had my name, address, SSN, and DOB, but got my mother's maiden name wrong. Capital One approved the card anyway. Then, when the thief immediately changed the address (from mine to another address), before even activating the card, it didn't raise any red flags in their systems. Then, when the thief tried to get a $5,000 cash advance on the card (still not activated), it didn't raise any red flags in their systems (though they denied the advance). Then, when I called them, they refused to give me any information on the theory that I could "go and shoot the guy and they would be liable." Instead, I had to have a police officer call a special "cops number." The police officer called that number and got a recording which apparently no one ever returned phone calls from. At every step of the way, Capital One seemed to be going out of its way to protect itself *from* me and my ID Theft investigation instead of caring about the fact that it was an accessory to ID theft. Needless to say, I won't ever do business with Capital One again.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    1. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by icydog · · Score: 1

      They had my name, address, SSN, and DOB, but got my mother's maiden name wrong. Capital One approved the card anyway.

      What did you expect Capital One to do? Reject the seemingly valid app because they got your mother's maiden name wrong? That question is there for verifications purposes after the account's already open and you call customer service. How would Capital One know your mother's maiden name to verify that for account opening purposes?

      I do agree that trying to change the address before card activation and getting a cash advance so early should raise red flags, however.

    2. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      Needless to say, I won't ever do business with Capital One again.

      Maybe, but someone with your name, address, SSN, and DOB will likely be banking with them again in the near future.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    3. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      At every step of the way, Capital One seemed to be going out of its way to protect itself *from* me and my ID Theft investigation instead of caring about the fact that it was an accessory to ID theft.

      That's really no surprise - the entire reason the term "identity theft" was created was to redirect responsibility from the banks for being accessories to fraud. Nobody steals an identity, they steal money from the bank by exploiting weaknesses in the bank's system. But call it identity theft and the fact that it was the bank's failure to protect itself adequately against fraud is not so immediately obvious and that since your identity was involved it is at least partially your fault.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    4. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Informative

      I was going to reply with my own tales of Capital One woe, the $500 credit line with the $50 overlimit fees, the annual fee they charged after I cancelled, the continuing flood of "offers" (with worse and worse fine print). But I can't, because I'm laughing too hard at the banner ad at the top of the page.

      Capital One® Credit Cards
      Competitive Rates. More Rewards. Apply Now for No Hassle Cards.
      www.CapitalOne.com

      I've run-not-walked from Capital One ever since my one and only experience with them, and if this situation (and their bannermania) is any indication, everyone else should too.

      --
      Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    5. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An ID Thief opened a Capital One account in my name.

      Needless to say, I won't ever do business with Capital One again.

      Ah, so you admit you stole the identity!

    6. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      The same thing could happen at any bank.
      It's bad, but Capitalone is no different.

      "Then, when the thief tried to get a $5,000 cash advance on the card (still not activated), "

      This happens all the time from legitimate customers.

      Curious why you think they should give you all that information based on a phone call.
      That would mean someone could claim to be you and get your banking information.
      That handled that part in a way that minimizes chances at social engineering through that vector. That was a good thing.

      "go and shoot the guy and they would be liable."

      really? the really said that? are you sure you're not infering some mean there? It is a very unusually response from a banking institution. Way too specific. Usually it something like "Our security policy doesn't allow that, you must call..."

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    7. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by cmburns69 · · Score: 1

      It doesn't seem to matter whether or not you WANT to do business with them again. As long as some ID thief wants to do business with Capital One in your name, you'll HAVE to do business with them just to clean up the mess.

      --
      Online Starcraft RPG? At
      Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
    8. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Fn0rd · · Score: 1

      Who's in *your* wallet?

    9. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by fermion · · Score: 1
      Just so we are not picking on capital one, let me say that other banks has the same kind of security issues. Not necessarily critical, but issues that indicate they may be cutting corners or trying to monetized customer at the expense of security. For instance, I set a new machine the other day and when I tried to log in the bank said that I had cookies turned off. I checked and the banks cookies were being accepted. The only think I could figure is that some third party cookies were going to be set. I don't know why this would be an issue, does the bank need a 2o7 cookies, and why would I want such a cookie leading back to my bank account.

      In any case, bank security is continuing to fall for the need for profits. For instance, another bank send my a survey. Linked through some random survey generator. No personal information, but why even begin to establish a pattern?

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    10. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Needless to say, I won't ever do business with Capital One again.

      Maybe, but someone with your name, address, SSN, and DOB will likely be banking with them again in the near future.

      Exactly. That's why you should reset all that information to a pure random string, at least 12 characters in length with a mix of upper & lower case letters, and numbers.

      oh wait, sorry...

      Why do we use unchangeable information for security verification again?

    11. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Me.

    12. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      They really said that. The representative from the fraud department actually told me that they couldn't give me the address that the ID thief changed the card to because I could go shoot the guy and they would be liable for having provided the address.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    13. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Which is why I froze my credit file. Now no one (even me) can open any new lines of credit. If I want a new credit line (buying a new car, for example), I need to first place a temporary thaw on it. Credit agencies/credit card companies hate this because you don't get those "you've been pre-approved" letters and you can't sign up for a store credit card spur of the moment to save 10% off your purchase. Your credit file becomes worthless to them compared to the non-frozen files, access to which they can sell left and right.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    14. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Since I froze my credit file, knowing my name, address, SSN and DOB won't help an ID thief. He'll also need to unfreeze each of my credit files and that's not something he'll find trivial to do. Could a determined ID thief work his way around it? Perhaps. But more likely, he'll find himself locked out of my identity and will move on to some other victim who didn't freeze their credit.

      For the record, you can freeze your credit file online now at all 3 credit bureaus. There might be a fee depending on what state you live in. Here's a list of state laws and how to freeze your credit at each credit agency: http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    15. Re:Doesn't surprise me... by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      Apparently no one got the "funny" part of my post.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
  23. Complaining is kind of pointless. by klubar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're end up in some call center and the agent will have no clue what you're talking about -- they will recommend clearing cookies, restarting the browser (and maybe switch to IE). The message will never get up the food chain. The only real way to get the message is to close your account and switch to a bank that takes sucurity seriously.

    1. Re:Complaining is kind of pointless. by irotsoma · · Score: 5, Interesting

      WARNING: RANT...

      I hate to say it, but I agree that you'll never get anything fixed by a call center. I've worked in call centers and the people who work there generally have no way to speak to anyone who can fix a problem, even in a "tech support" call center. Also, since they either get paid per call, or at least get docked pay if they aren't actively answering incoming calls, then they have no incentive to fix anything. In fact, they have a big disincentive against fixing anything since it will take away from their pay check and they likely hate the company too much to do it on their own time.

      Also, I've been on the other side doing development and it's a similar problem there. It's very easy to make a simple typo or other mistake and never know the difference. No one in the call center ever tells you that the customer is having a problem, so you don't know that something needs to be fixed. So even though it might be a 1 minute fix for you, you'll never know that it needs to be done. There was a bug in this one software that had been there for 3 years, and the workarounds were even in the documentation to train new call center employees. Once a developer finally got it, it took seconds to fix. The customers suffered for 3 years for a few seconds of someone's time. Now I realize you can't fix every bug, all the time, but if the right people don't know about it, then it will never get fixed.

      The real problem, IMHO, is that large companies treat their support/customer service departments like they are a drain on the company rather than a way to increase your reputation, thus outsourcing, low pay, strict rules, etc.

      Because of this I prefer to do business with smaller companies or, even better, in person. If you're a "real person" standing in line at a bank, the teller is more likely to fix a problem than if you're just a number on a screen and a squeaky voice on a phone. But in-person is so inconvenient in this world of constant multitasking.

    2. Re:Complaining is kind of pointless. by Dan667 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As a developer I understand that people typically don't report bugs upstream so I generally put metrics and logs into most code so I can look for broken stuff myself. I would say bugs from logs vs people is about 20 to 1 conservatively. Many people will just stop using the tool altogether even if it is painful rather than report the bug. I have also noticed that as the tool matures if you keep working the features/bugs there is some threshold where it works well and then people will start reporting bugs. Personal observation, not based on data.

    3. Re:Complaining is kind of pointless. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, I worked for one software company in which tech support was given significantly greater salary and benefits than the developers themselves... equally off-balance.

    4. Re:Complaining is kind of pointless. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I hate to say it, but I agree that you'll never get anything fixed by a call center.

      If you are persistent you can sometimes get through a call center to someone who can help you. After hours and hours (and hours and hours) of wasted phone time with HP they replaced my lemon of a laptop with an upgraded model... I now have direct phone numbers, h0 h0 h0

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Complaining is kind of pointless. by John_Sauter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ...I've been on the other side doing development and it's a similar problem there. It's very easy to make a simple typo or other mistake and never know the difference. No one in the call center ever tells you that the customer is having a problem, so you don't know that something needs to be fixed....

      I ran into this problem when I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation, and came up with a solution. I was the one from our software development group who went to Colorado Springs to train the telephone support troops. I developed a rapport with them, and they allowed me read-only access to their call logs for the product. I would pass bug reports to the rest of the development group. In addition, I was able to provide feedback to the support people about incorrect or incomplete responses to customers.

    6. Re:Complaining is kind of pointless. by HakSoft8387 · · Score: 1

      You're end up in some call center and the agent will have no clue what you're talking about -- they will recommend clearing cookies, restarting the browser (and maybe switch to IE). The message will never get up the food chain. The only real way to get the message is to close your account and switch to a bank that takes sucurity seriously.

      I can see were you would feeling the call center and customer service is worthless. Its sad to say call centers can only help with what they are trained with. I work at one of the largest banks in the world as a Tier III tech rep, and i know a lot more than they have can teach. The prob is for legal reasons there is only so much we can help a customer with. They can train any monkey to tell someone to delete cookies or add a fav site, but to really teach someone why something does not work right would cost these banks way to much money. Grant they have the money they just don't want to spend it. If some ones asks me why a cert says its wrong, 9 times out of 10 i tell them to check there date and time. but that one out of ten that this is not the prob, well that's a different story. If i was to say "well some one may have hacked the site" i would not only be fired but prob see my employer in court. Some are trained monkeys, some like myself have to pretend to know less than we do. Could i get a better job, not were i live i am sad to say. 30k a year to tell ppl how to use quiken and how to log in aint bad with no college. Oh and i always say use Firefox..lol Any reason, no, but if IE dont work, even if i know the prob, i cant fix it. Because the company does not see the risk worth it. If i mess up something on a customers pc, then we have to buy them a new one. And that stuff does happen.

  24. All your dollars are belong to us! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All your dollars are belong to us! Sincerely, Capita10ne

  25. No SSL mismatch... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Works fine on IE6, IE7, and firefox.

    Maybe if you reported more thoroughly what the mismatch was...

  26. Browser issue by gr8_phk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Web browsers should not allow access to sites with messed up security. If all browsers errored out, sites like this would be unusable and would get fixed. Putting up a warning that the user learns to ignore is just crying wolf. People learn to ignore such things - so why implement them at all?

    1. Re:Browser issue by jargon82 · · Score: 1

      I think making it that broad would be a mistake. There are a number of network devices that use ssl and have a self-signed cert that would fail under these conditions.

    2. Re:Browser issue by lucifuge31337 · · Score: 1

      Messed up security? Meaning that they didn't spend money with a company that the browser developers decided (and/or were paid to) put in a list of "accepted" certificate providers?

      --
      Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
    3. Re:Browser issue by Tokerat · · Score: 1

      Web browsers should not allow access to sites with messed up security. If all browsers errored out, sites like this would be unusable and would get fixed. Putting up a warning that the user learns to ignore is just crying wolf. People learn to ignore such things - so why implement them at all?

      Development. It has to be possible to generate your own cert for testing purposes because of how wildly expensive the verified versions cost. See if your company will finance owning a cert while a new platform is developed over the course of a few months, or years.

      That being said, it would be nice if the DEFAULTS of web browsers where a little stronger. The problem there is that the more an unknowing user is bothered by the defaults, the more likely they will switch to another browser (in this case, one that is less secure out of the box).

      It's one of those unfortunate Catch-22s when the competition is so fierce.

      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    4. Re:Browser issue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just don't understand why in such desperate times, banks are spending some of the bailout on an increase in security. More people are hacking while companies are cutting security budgets. Personally, I think they should transition to a two-factor authentication system.

      The one thing I hate about the "What is your favorite animal?" or other those other kinds of questions are that it has to be precise so god forbid I add an "s" to the end of dog. And then, if you can't remember your password, the email it to you- which makes it vulnerable to anyone who can access it.

      Some companies have some really innovative two-factor systems- like http://www.globalcrypto.com/. They allow the user to upload a photo of their choice then embed it with cryptographic information that's not only unique, but is authenticated off-line.

  27. What's in your wallet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They look like bullet fragments.

  28. It worked for me by Skapare · · Score: 1

    It worked for me. The server certificate I got was valid (issued 2008-10-02, expires 2009-10-15, for "servicing.capitalone.com"). There could be many problems causing this.

    http://skapare.ipal.org/servicing.capitalone.com.cert.general.png

    One is that the actual server (of many servers they are running through load balancing port redirectors) you connected to doesn't have the right certificate (e.g. they didn't install the new one on all servers ... maybe new servers coming online and the update of renewed certificate crossed paths).

    Another is that you really are subjected to a man-in-the-middle attack that passed everything through, actually updating your real account. In the mean time your username, password, and financial information, are all recorded (if you have a big enough balance now, you might not have it next week).

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    1. Re:It worked for me by icydog · · Score: 2, Informative

      It also works for me. I bank with Capital One, and in fact the link in the summary is the exact link I have stored in my bookmarks. I have never had certificate trouble with that link. I'd watch that account closely if I were you, and perhaps change your passwords if you use the same password elsewhere.

    2. Re:It worked for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Click the "Verisign Secured" link at the bottom of https://servicing.capitalone.com/c1/login.aspx

      You'll see there is a mismatch THERE, not via the browser.

    3. Re:It worked for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      post to remove incorrect moderation - nothing to see here - move along now....

  29. Banks? Seriously? by NineNine · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't really understand why any individual with regular "banking" needs would use a bank today. Credit unions are non-profit, and generally, because of their structure, are run much better than banks are. My credit union has been impacted 0% by this banking mess stuff. I'm earning 4% on my PERSONAL CHECKING account, and not paying any fees. I also have all of my business accounts, and my mortgage with my local credit union.

    Credit Unions: Like banks, but cheaper, non-profit, less corrupt, no over-paid executives, and not out to screw you over.

  30. Subdomain certs by ravenspear · · Score: 2, Insightful

    certificates should be purchasable for whole domains

    They are. You don't have to buy a new cert for every subdomain. If you have a lot of subdomains to secure the best solution is to get a wildcard certificate.

    1. Re:Subdomain certs by kyouteki · · Score: 4, Informative

      Due to security concerns (just like the OP is expressing,) you can't get a Wildcard EV certificate.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    2. Re:Subdomain certs by canuck08 · · Score: 1

      But they are wildly expensive for no discernable reason.

    3. Re:Subdomain certs by ravenspear · · Score: 1

      Ah, ok. wasn't aware of that.

    4. Re:Subdomain certs by mhall119 · · Score: 1

      Better to get a signing certificate, so you can create and sign your own subdomain certificates. Those are expensive, but Capital One should be able to afford one.

      Better yet, screw VeriSign, they should self-sign and give the user a print out of the certificate fingerprint when they open an account, and have the website walk them through downloading, verifying, and installing their certificate when they register for online banking.

      --
      http://www.mhall119.com
    5. Re:Subdomain certs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but you can get a wildcard non EV certificate. Seeing the turtle do the happy dance is annoying any how (although arguably valid and I am not defaming EV, it has a purpose).

    6. Re:Subdomain certs by XorNand · · Score: 2, Informative

      Maintaining the PKE infrastructure, the technical support staffing costs, plus the likely attrition of customers who "just can't get their online banking to work right" would dwarf any savings that they'd see from not just buying a certificate.

      --
      Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
    7. Re:Subdomain certs by Ironica · · Score: 1

      Yes, they should be a lot cheaper, so that any ol' whoever can get one for the server in their basement.

      --
      Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
    8. Re:Subdomain certs by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      It isn't just about the savings, it's about the price gouging. It's the principle.

    9. Re:Subdomain certs by sgbett · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its obscurity 2.0 - Security through poverty.

      --
      Invaders must die
    10. Re:Subdomain certs by Deadplant · · Score: 1

      but any ol' whoever can already get a cert for a specific domain name for ten bucks.
      What difference does it make if it is for a domain including subdomains?

    11. Re:Subdomain certs by omb · · Score: 1

      Absolutely RIGHT, HEAR HEAR.

    12. Re:Subdomain certs by corychristison · · Score: 1

      DigiCert sells a wildcard cert for $499.
      You can find GeoTrust True Business ID Wildcard certs through some resellers for reasonable prices (vs the $995 direct from GeoTrust).
      I know, being a reseller, you can get them for $495/yr if you resell through OpenSRS.

      Unlimited subdomains for $500/year is not bad. Considering even a 'cheap' cert from GeoTrust is $249/yr (from GeoTrust)

    13. Re:Subdomain certs by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      Companies don't have principles. Banks have your principle, buts that's different.

    14. Re:Subdomain certs by Tuoqui · · Score: 1

      They should be able to self-sign subdomains with their verisign approved one. Thus the chain of trust would follow to capitalone.com and to verisign.com. After all if they have authority over capitalone.com they would have authority over idiots.capitalone.com too.

      --
      09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
      +2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
  31. Ropati writes "I bank with capitalone.com... by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

    well, there's your problem right there

    was it the retro arcade game commercial that suckered you in?

    admittedly, they nailed the music on that one perfectly

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  32. The obvious solution... by pak9rabid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    DO NOT continue banking online, and call them to let them know of the problem. Continue banking over the phone or in person (I know..it's a pain in the ass compared to doing it online, but it's nothing compared to having to deal with identity theft).

  33. Right conclusion, wrong procedure by Slipped_Disk · · Score: 2, Informative

    OK, your bank screwed the pooch and you should complain - LOUDLY - until it's fixed. You should also look for a bank that understands basic internet/web concepts like "SSL cert's CN must match DNS hostname" -- I fear for the rest of their infrastructure.

    That said, you were logging into your bank, which presumably holds a large percentage of your cash assets, you received a SSL error and you continued the transaction?
    You deserve to have your account cleaned out for reckless disregard for the security of your financial information. Go to a brick-and-mortar bank, or call them on the telephone (*gasp*) if your banking is so urgent.

    --
    /~mikeg
    1. Re:Right conclusion, wrong procedure by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "You deserve to have your account cleaned out for reckless disregard for the security of your financial information. "

      no no NO. No one deserves that, stop pandering the insurance companies line.

      If you car is not locked, you don't deserve to have it robber, if you leave a window to your house, you do not deserve to be robbed. if you windows are easily breakable, you do not deserve to be robbed. If you were a short skirt, you do not deserve to be raped.
      You deserve to live in a world where you don't have to lock everything.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:Right conclusion, wrong procedure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you car is not locked, you don't deserve to have it robber

      I think you misspelled 'robererized'.

      If you were a short skirt, you do not deserve to be raped.

      I'm glad I'm a pair of dungarees.

      Parent does talk sense however. It's a cruel world but that doesn't mean we should just accept a free-for-all against those who forgot to do something like lock their door one day.

      GP is an idiot.

  34. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  35. Verisign ? by smoker2 · · Score: 1

    Didn't we have a story recently where it was possible to sign new certs in an existing domain without authorisation ? That would make the "don't worry too much, it's a sub-domain" answers a bit weak.

  36. Out of interest, is this all that insecure? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

    Certainly, if this was a multi-billion dollar organisation, it would be worth setting up all sorts of hacks, but this can only be used against people with standard credit card limits. How would you exploit a flaw such as this? You'd presumably need some sort of automation because you'd be stealing small amounts from thousands of people but my knowledge of certificates and the nature of the security they provide is sparse.

  37. Easy way to make call centre droid take notice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had the same scenario with eTrade Australia once - they had a bad SSL cert (mismatched domain) on some doubleclick adverts embedded in the login page, causing the browser warning to popup. This went on for days.

    As I'm in IT security, I quickly found the cause, but I was worried about it training other users to 'just click OK' on the security warning, so I called the helpdesk.

    I got fobbed off with 'someone is working on it', and (expected, but still alarmingly) 'just click OK and log in'. They didn't want my explanation of the cause or want to escalate it.

    As the call was being recorded (they all are), I then asked if that meant they were going on the official record as accepting liability for any fraudulent trades made on my account, in the event that the website I was connected to was a fake and my details got stolen, either now or any time I saw the popup in future.

    The guy was suddenly rather less sure I should 'click OK', and called the supervisor, who called their supervisor, who called the technical department.

    I explained the domain mismatch on the doubleclick ads, warned them not to tell users to just 'click OK' any more, and the issue was fixed about an hour later....

  38. The real problem is with the customer service by zermous · · Score: 1

    The real problem here, I think, is the customer service. A company is too big for its britches when it is no longer possible to get ahold of someone there to take action on a technical issue. I realize that they have to ignore people without hotlines to their technical department or else spend enormous time filtering out feedback from morons.. but when they do this, they lose the asset of feedback from experts like us.

    I wish there was a way to get certified as a Smart Guy so that you got a secret login to a hotline website where subscriber companies could get in contact with you in order to receive your feedback about their systems.

  39. Knowing personal data != identification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Exactly. That is what's wrong here. The bank opened the credit card without verifying the customer's identity. All those "personal" pieces of information are available in various public records, so knowing them does not mean anything.

  40. MOre proof by geekoid · · Score: 1

    that real massive online and electronic banking will fail.

    There are more and more way to compromise systems technically and socially due to the nature of computers.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  41. Apparently by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

    Apparently there is a tech at Capital One that reads slashdot.

    --
    They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  42. There's something very wrong here. by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    Something strange is going on here. Capital One's main site returns a certificate for the correct domain, but the certificate is invalid. This isn't a wrong-domain issue; the cert is bad. CN="www.capitalone.com", the dates are valid, the issuer is Verisign, but it won't validate in Firefox. Our own system, SiteTruth, which uses OpenSSL, also indicates it's no good. But neither Firefox nor OpenSSL is producing a useful error message. It looks like this certificate is either corrupted or bogus.

    The location ("L") in the cert is Glen Allen, VA. Capital One has a facility in Glen Allen, according to Google, and it looks like a huge warehouse. So that's probably their data center, at 4871 Cox Rd, Glen Allen, VA - (804) 270-4104.

    A traceroute ends at "capitalone-gw.customer.alter.net", which doesn't mean much one way or the other.

    Their stock has dropped from 55 to 12 since September 2008. If you have any money in there above the FDIC insurance limits, get it out now..

    1. Re:There's something very wrong here. by Dieppe · · Score: 1

      Their stock has dropped from 55 to 12 since September 2008. If you have any money in there above the FDIC insurance limits, get it out now..

      If anyone reading /. has money in any bank above the FDIC insurance limits---what the hell are they doing wasting time reading /. when they could be off visiting the Bahamas or something?

    2. Re:There's something very wrong here. by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      Their stock has dropped from 55 to 12 since September 2008. If you have any money in there above the FDIC insurance limits, get it out now..

      Bart: [behind a bank customer] What do you mean, "The bank's out of money"?
      Bart: [behind another] "Insolvent"?!
      Bart: [and another] You only have enough cash for the next three customers?
      [customers go wild]
      Bank Teller: [a la Jimmy Stewart] I...I don't have your money. It's...it's in Bill's house and in Fred's house.
      Moe: Hey, what are you doing with my money in your house, Fred?

      Cosmo: Posit: People think a bank might be financially shaky.
      Martin Bishop: Consequence: People start to withdraw their money.
      Cosmo: Result: Pretty soon it is financially shaky.
      Martin Bishop: Conclusion: You can make banks fail.
      Cosmo: Bzzt. I've already done that. Maybe you've heard about a few? Think bigger.
      Martin Bishop: Stock market?
      Cosmo: Yes.
      Martin Bishop: Currency market?
      Cosmo: Yes.
      Martin Bishop: Commodities market?
      Cosmo: Yes.
      Martin Bishop: Small countries?

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    3. Re:There's something very wrong here. by rsilverman · · Score: 1

      The problem is that CapitalOne's web server does not supply the certificate for the intermediate CA which issued the server's cert, so Firefox can't make a chain back to the root (which it does have). The reason it works in some other browsers, is that the web server cert itself contains a pointer to the needed certificate embedded in it; the browsers in which it works fetch the intermediate cert from there; Firefox simply doesn't do that. It actually works in the latest release of Firefox, as well.

    4. Re:There's something very wrong here. by sp3cialk79 · · Score: 1

      So you saying don't pay my capital one balance...hmmm

  43. capitalonevacuum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    capitalone sucks.

    i have been paying down a credit card- from 13,000 to 8,000 last year. now they want to raise my rate to 30%. what hav i done? paid on time, NOT CHARGED ANYTHING IN TWO YEARS, and they call and threaten thaat if i dont accept the 30% rate i wont be able ot charge on tht card. ARE THEY EVEN LOOKING AT MY RECORDS?

    stupid, stupid company. i will pay them off completely soon (next month) and NEVER do any business with them again.

    1. Re:capitalonevacuum by edcheevy · · Score: 1

      We have a backup card with them that doesn't carry a balance. I recall recently getting a letter notifying us the rate (if we are late on two payments) is being bumped up to 30%. They couldn't care less about your records, it's a blanket increase.

  44. Everyone Got it Wrong by wingspan · · Score: 1

    Everyone needs to take a breath, and take a look at the CapOne web site. The certificate contains the correct URL for that page. The problem is NOT the SSL cert; it's the stupid Verisign seal thingy.

    That Verisign seal thingy is coded to show the wrong sub-domain. Apparently CapitalOne created a seal for one sub-domain and inappropriately used it on a page in a different domain. They could do that because nothing the seal prevents it's use in the wrong domain. It won't even alert the user to an erroneous use.

    That's the problem with the Verisign assurance seal. It assures absolutely nothing.

    For yucks, create a Versign seal -- but pay attention to their rules!

  45. Re:Banks? Seriously? by Chirs · · Score: 1

    Around here the credit unions all charge fees for ATM usage, fees for cheques, fees for electronic transfers, etc. Because of this, I went with a primarily-online bank that has more reasonable policies.

  46. IE 8 does! by wbean · · Score: 2, Informative

    It looks to me as though IE 8 does just this. The matched part of the url is in a bolder face than the rest of the address. Cool!

    1. Re:IE 8 does! by rnelsonee · · Score: 1

      IE 8 doesn't look at certs though - every website has its main URL separated from the index page and subdomain.

    2. Re:IE 8 does! by Henry+Pate · · Score: 1

      It looks to me as though IE 8 does just this. The matched part of the url is in a bolder face than the rest of the address. Cool!

      I've been using Locationbar for Firefox 3 to get that functionality, plus it makes it easy to navigate to other directories in the URL (moving up a level, etc). I didn't write it but I'd definitely recommend it.

      --
      Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes
    3. Re:IE 8 does! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Bolder face is not part of URL that matches the cert, it's just what IE8 thinks is the "domain" for the URL. It's also a form of anti-phishing defense, but it's orthogonal to certs - it does that for non-SSL connections as well.

  47. capitalone.com by 6Yankee · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's "capping it", and why would I want to do it alone?

  48. Shows fine in latest chrome beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No errors, warnings, nothing.

  49. Great example of the benefits of SRP and PAKE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Protocols exist (such as SRP, PAKE, EKE, etc) where entering a password not only verifies the user but the server as well, all while never transmitting the password to the server.

    If browsers, banks, web servers, etc, were to adopt these then the importance of SSL certificates would diminish as the server would be proving prior knowledge of the user's password as much as the user would be proving knowledge of their password.

    In the case of suspecting a banking website of being a forgery, assuming a proper implementation in the browser the user wouldn't need to worry about their password falling into the wrong hands since it would be useless to them unless they already had it.

    SRP homepage: http://srp.stanford.edu/
    SRP/TLS RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5054.txt
    PAKE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password-authenticated_key_agreement

  50. Interesting by jayjayjay · · Score: 1

    Just a side note....when my iGoogle widget for Slashdot posts lead-ins for the Slashdot posts, it also inserts ads under the posts. The ad for this post was from CapitalOne!

  51. Re:Banks? Seriously? by Eric+in+SF · · Score: 1

    Interesting. Most of the credit unions I've checked out here in the Bay Area are members of a consortioum of CUs and none of them charge to use out of network ATMs or each other's ATMs (hence the consortium) and many of them rebate ATM fees charged by the owner of the ATM. My partner and I are about to make the switch to a CU for all the same reasons on the table.

  52. Too big to NOT fail. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    As much as it pains us all, these banks really are too big to fail.

    Unfortunately, nothing is too big to fail. And the bigger they are the harder they fall.

    So when they're falling, what's the right approach? Try to prop them up with stacks of additional money (which also gets lost when they fall over anyhow?) Or refuse to throw the additional money into the pit and just get it over with?

    I claim the latter is the right approach. Makes the disaster smaller, more limited to the institutions whose people made the wrong decisions (rather than robbing the people who made better decisions to pay for it), and serves as an object lesson for future decision-makers.

    That needs to be fixed. We simply cannot have corporations that are so essential that we taxpayers must "insure" them.

    With you there.

    But that's tomorrow's fight. Today we just need to survive.

    NOT with you THERE.

    The more we prop up the failing giants, the more of us go down with them.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:Too big to NOT fail. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      It feels good to say that but it is the difference between 20 years of painful slow growth with 10% unemployment or 10 years of 25%+ unemployment, rioting in the streets, breakdown of social order and likely extremely ugly world war.

      Hard choice.

      A lot of the money paid to these bozo's should be clawed back and a lot of them should go to jail for fraud and face the irs most grueling audits to see other ways they scammed everyone.

      I'd prefer to avoid another world war- it will be uncommonly ugly given how fragile and jit our entire system is.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  53. unicode vulnerabilities by reiisi · · Score: 1

    And this is one of the reasons the current implementation of Unicode needs a lot of fixing.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  54. your account was compromised... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... and they have also taken over your slashdot account. Seriously, a user with a low six-digit uid who doesn't know how ssl works? Turn in your geek credentials, sir.

  55. Chuck Norris by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When Chuck Norris surfs the Internet, the websites connect to him.

  56. What if browsers were stricter? by atmurray · · Score: 1

    What if browsers completely refused to connect to web sites where there is a domain name mismatch in the certificate? Sure, it would make things pretty hard for a while, but at least there wouldn't be the quick and dirty (and dangerous) fix of support people telling customer's to "just ignore it". Businesses would, shock horror, have to actually fix the underlying problem! I can't help but think if browsers had always been this strict, the world would be a safer place and this really wouldn't be an issue. Even if you use self signed certificates, there's no excuse for certificate domain miss-match.

  57. Perspectives by ay2b · · Score: 1

    There's a FireFox plugin called "Perspectives" which is designed to deal with this sort of thing. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~perspectives/ Basically what Perspectives does is fill in when FF decides that a cert doesn't match. Perspectives then contacts a bunch of other hosts to check the certificate. If the cert is the same as everyone else sees, and hasn't changed in a "long time", then the assumption is that the cert is valid, even if it's self-signed, or doesn't match. Read the perspectives site for more details. (I am not affiliated with this plugin, but I do use it and like it.)

    --
    "Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    1. Re:Perspectives by zonky · · Score: 1

      Likewise. Perspectives is invaluable.

  58. complain to the browser creator by Uzik2 · · Score: 1

    They're the idiots that decided that encryption keys out to be called "certificates" and are the same things as valid undeniably perfect identification.

    --
    -- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
  59. Clicked the link, and ... by reiisi · · Score: 1

    Why enroll in Online Banking?
    Increased security.
    We took our already secure site
    and made it even stronger.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  60. Derivatives contracts by ShatteredArm · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Tell me now, why do we need to protect the counterparties in the derivatives contracts? Shouldn't they have been aware of the risk involved? Just look at it this way: Company A offers credit default swaps against securities to protect lenders in case of default. Company B says, "Hey, that sounds great! Small premium for such a policy!" But Company B should considering, "Hey, they only way we'll need this insurance is if there is a catastrophic collapse. But if that happens, Companies C, D, E, ..., Z are all going to be asking to be reimbursed along with us! And why should we think Company A has anywhere near enough capital to insure all of those companies in case of default?" Company B should be asking Company A, "Hey, do you even able to insure this?" And the answer would be a resounding "No" (or a bald-faced lie that would be easy to uncover).

    The simple fact is, these companies didn't even think about what would happen if AIG couldn't cover all the swaps. Because nobody could cover all those swaps. Let AIG fail. As far as the banks who are counterparties, let them go into receivership, wipe out the shareholders, and sell off their assets to pay off as many debt holders as possible. That's what the FDIC is for; maybe we should use it for something other than a moral hazard provider.

    1. Re:Derivatives contracts by quanticle · · Score: 1

      "Hey, they only way we'll need this insurance is if there is a catastrophic collapse. But if that happens, Companies C, D, E, ..., Z are all going to be asking to be reimbursed along with us! And why should we think Company A has anywhere near enough capital to insure all of those companies in case of default?" Company B should be asking Company A, "Hey, do you even able to insure this?"

      When you buy insurance on your house, do you ask the insurance company what would happen if every house on your block was burned down? Of course not. Its not your job to calculate those probabilites and manage that risk, its the insurance company's. In the same way, it was not the buyers' responsibility to calculate the odds of catastrophic collapse. That function was (supposed to be) served by AIG. After all, why was AIG even offering these contracts if they didn't have enough capital to cover them?

      And the answer would be a resounding "No" (or a bald-faced lie that would be easy to uncover).

      Not necessarily. Do you know which insurance company is responsible for your neighbor's house? How about the apartment building down the street? Even if the company knew who else was insured by AIG, how could it know that its internal risk model was more accurate? After all, AIG was supposed to the expert when it came to these sorts of things. If it had been otherwise, no one would have bought insurance from them.

      Its really easy to argue from hindsight and say, "These companies should have known better." But, at the time, buying credit default swap insurance from AIG probably seemed like a prudent hedging measure - just like buying insurance on your car or your house.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    2. Re:Derivatives contracts by ShatteredArm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your comparison between your fire hazard insurance and credit default swaps is weak, at best. For several reasons:

      a) You are a private individual who doesn't have time to do a detailed analysis on your insurance company's balance sheet. A very large bank, on the other hand, should know how to look at AIG's balance sheet and determine how liquid they are. They have people who know and understand finance.
      b) The type of disasters that could cause people to make claims on their fire hazard insurance cannot possibly affect the percentage of the policy holders as the type of disasters that could befall the CDS counterparties. With CDS, it's almost all or nothing, as far as people making claims, since house prices more or less move together.
      c) AIG doesn't care if they have enough capital to cover these defaults. They know they're betting the bank that prices would keep going up; nobody should assume they have enough capital. Again, they need only look at AIG's balance sheet to make that determination.

      The key here is that these banks should've known that there was no way AIG could cover all these CDS. They should've known that if housing prices decline, there would be lots of defaults. CDS became widespread out of stupidity and greed on the part of AIG and their counterparties.

    3. Re:Derivatives contracts by darkmeridian · · Score: 1

      You rent a house. You live there for a decade. You love it there. But the landlord never bothered with fire insurance. The house is out of code because he willfully ignored all the inspections. There is a fire. The firemen come. Do you tell them to let the house burn down to teach the landlord a lesson?

      Cutting your nose off to spite your face makes for great populist claptrap, but it is not good governance. The right thing to do would be to put the fire out and make sure the same thing does not happen again.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
    4. Re:Derivatives contracts by rachit · · Score: 1

      Your comparison between your fire hazard insurance and credit default swaps is weak, at best. For several reasons: ...

      Actually its a hell lot simpler than that. Regular insurance, like fire insurance, is regulated. Credit default swaps are not.

      Which should be clear to the buyer that they should only "proceed at thier own risk"

    5. Re:Derivatives contracts by quanticle · · Score: 1

      The type of disasters that could cause people to make claims on their fire hazard insurance cannot possibly affect the percentage of the policy holders as the type of disasters that could befall the CDS counterparties. With CDS, it's almost all or nothing, as far as people making claims, since house prices more or less move together.

      That's the key assumption that CDS issuers were missing. Their mathematical models (based on historical data), showed that the chance of house prices declining simultaneously in all major markets in the country was infinitesimal. Of course, with hindsight, we know that those very models ignored the potential risks caused by the "financial innovation" that spread large numbers of loans to subprime borrowers, creating such a risk where none existed.

      The key here is that these banks should've known that there was no way AIG could cover all these CDS. They should've known that if housing prices decline, there would be lots of defaults.

      Of course the banks knew that there was no way that AIG could cover all its CDS contracts simultaneously. One of the basic principles of insurance is that the company doesn't hold enough reserves to cover all the outstanding policies - it holds enough in reserve to cover the likely number of payouts, with a generous safety margin. Obviously, the safety margin here wasn't generous enough.

      As for there being lots of defaults if house prices declined, that was again an oversight that was shared by both the banks and AIG. Both sides used the same housing data that showed that the chances of simultaneous price declines in all major markets of the country was very small. So, of course the conclusion was that AIG had enough funds to cover its contracts.

      As I said above, everything is clear in hindsight, but I'd be hard pressed to find anyone who thought that things could get this bad ahead of time.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    6. Re:Derivatives contracts by Richy_T · · Score: 1

      How about if the firemen want to take your car as payment for putting the house out?

    7. Re:Derivatives contracts by ShatteredArm · · Score: 1

      As I said above, everything is clear in hindsight, but I'd be hard pressed to find anyone who thought that things could get this bad ahead of time.

      How about the entire Austrian School of Economics?

    8. Re:Derivatives contracts by Pervaricator+General · · Score: 1

      Mod Parent Flamebait, Discredited Troll, Hasbeen.

  61. Re:Banks? Seriously? by cdwiegand · · Score: 1

    Perhaps because Credit Unions (at least in my area) SUCK. They have almost no branches, their hours are abysmal, and there is no reason for them to have nice customer service policies. I used to be with one local credit union - they told me there was a fee just to get a VISA Debit card! At least with my bank, I have access all over the western half of the US to a real employee, not just a "credit union servicing center" where the connection to the credit union is down half the time. And no fees - I get direct deposit like most people and I don't pay any fee - I get free VISA Debit cards, checking registers, online access, even bill pay (although I refuse to use it). I have found that the credit unions I've interacted with, either myself directly or in one case through a close family member, have had lower quality of service than my local bank.

    --
    . Define sqrt(x) as something really evil like (x / rand()), and bury it deep. Watch your coworkers go nuts.
  62. joe by ncohafmuta · · Score: 0

    sounds like Joe XRT413's title should be Jack Shit supervisor.

    He's a supervisor and he can't fix the problem or escalate it? Are you kidding me??

    "What would you say you DO here?" "Look, i deal with the gawd damn customers so the engineers don't have to!"

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

      Depends on the number that the OP called. If he called the number on the back of his card then he got a customer service rep, not someone with any background or training in certificate authorities or, really, any computer knowledge whatsoever beyond how to log in to their own computer.

      I'm not defending Cap One as a whole, but to assume that a CS rep or supervisor knows squat about IT only demonstrates that you've never done tech support for a call center environment.

  63. mod parent up!!! by reiisi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Self-signing is the only sensible way to use certificates.

    CAs should only be used in the same way that USians use notary publics. The certificate should be treated like a notary's seal. (And priced the same.)

    But the CAs can't even behave like notaries until they get proper time stamping implemented.

    The standard itself was never debugged, and every purveyor of snake oil fudges whatever part of the standard that gets in the way of their patent formula.

    Sorry to be negative, but it gets kind of fatiguing, watching the other guy making all the money doing everything wrong. Yeah, that's part of believing in freedom, but it would help if the other believed in it enough to at least try to do it right.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  64. non-aliased subset by reiisi · · Score: 1

    There is no proper secure (in other words, without aliased glyphs) subset of Unicode.

    Well, there was a time that the domain name portion of urls was supposed to be limited to latin lower case plus numeric and dash, but that simply didn't sell, and the Chinese want to be able to filter (erk), I mean, they want to be able to use their ideographs in urls with pride.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  65. numeric by reiisi · · Score: 1

    is great, as long as the ip doesn't change.

    But you really shouldn't have to depend on even the ip.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  66. Here's an idea by bensafrickingenius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you suspect you're visiting a phishing site, try first entering the WRONG password. Since the fishing site shouldn't know your true password, it will just accept the incorrect one and store it away for the purpuse of dastardly use later on. If the site rejects the incorrect password, then accepts the true one, you know you're OK. Right?

    --
    I am not left-handed, either!
    1. Re:Here's an idea by narcc · · Score: 2, Informative

      Great for phishing sites, totally useless for man-in-the-middle attacks.

    2. Re:Here's an idea by firmamentalfalcon · · Score: 1

      I heard that some phishing sites tell you that you entered the wrong password and redirect you to the correct site so you wouldn't know something wrong happened. You'd just end up thinking you entered the password wrong the first time.

      Your method would skip the phishing step so you'll get to the correct site anyways.

      Your explanation for why your method works actually doesn't make sense. If the site accepts the true one, then you're okay, but if the site doesn't accept the true one, then you're in just as much trouble as if you entered the true one the first time. Maybe it's supposed to be a joke but the Insightful modding confused me.

    3. Re:Here's an idea by bensafrickingenius · · Score: 2, Informative

      The first person who replied to me nailed it. My idea works for simple phishing sites, but not for man-in-the-middle sites, which are almost certainly more common these days. I guess my idea might have been worthy of the insightful mod about 5 years ago...

      --
      I am not left-handed, either!
    4. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      while that is worth doing incase its a badly made phishing page, if theyre any good then all they are doing is acting as a proxy to the real site.

      you connect to it, it connects to https://capitalone.com and sends you the html it got (after replacing any links to go through it).

    5. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Bad advice. The phishing site could just test login to the bank with the username and password you give it to see whether it works. So if a bad password fails that doesn't mean you're ok.

    6. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wrong wrong wrong.

      There is nothing to stop the phishing server from holding a connection open to your actual bank and validating the login information you give it.

      If you suspect you're visiting a phishing site, LEAVE.

    7. Re:Here's an idea by Taser · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you suspect you're visiting a phishing site, try first entering the WRONG password. Since the fishing site shouldn't know your true password, it will just accept the incorrect one and store it away for the purpuse of dastardly use later on. If the site rejects the incorrect password, then accepts the true one, you know you're OK. Right?

      Though the above may work in a phishing website, it's absolutely worthless in a true MITM scheme. Recall that the MITM is forwarding *your* input to the *true* website, and will give you the same results as if you had entered them yourself.

    8. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. You have to be aware of a man in the middle attack. Basically, the phony site can just replay your actions to the real site and send their response to you (screen scrape). So the actions of attempting to log in would mimic the action of actually logging in, leading to a failed login with the wrong password and a successful login with the correct password.

    9. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think this is how man-in-the-middle works. The phishing site passes on your login information to the bank and returns their response to you transparently.

      Think about it. If you entered the wrong password, how would they show you your account information?

    10. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the site rejects the incorrect password, then accepts the true one, you know you're OK. Right?

      Wrong.

      A Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack will record your credentials, then pass them on to the real site, and relay the response back to you. So if you give bogus credentials, you get back the error generated by the real site.

    11. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, no, no! That's not always how Man-in-the-middle works. The MITM can easily "proxy" your credentials to the real site and even process transactions for you.

  67. What's in your wallet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's in your wallet?

    Capital One wants to know.

    Always seemed suspicious to me, though. So I never bit.

  68. Electronic Banking is Regulated: COMPLAIN by jefftp · · Score: 2, Informative

    Electronic banking is heavily regulated. If you feel your concerns are being taken seriously by the bank you need to head on over to the federal reserves website and file a complaint. The Federal Reserve will forward the complaint to the correct regulating facility and banks will respond or be fined.

    http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/

    1. Re:Electronic Banking is Regulated: COMPLAIN by SplatMan_DK · · Score: 1

      And please remember to give them your logon information so they can document the problem prior to processing your complaint...

      --
      My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
  69. Really expensive = $1,800 for two years by oheso · · Score: 1

    ... from Verisign. If you're using one for each of your 900 subdomains, I guess it adds up. If you're a bank and do a lot of on-line transactions, you'd think pretty much one subdomain could handle it (or maybe one for commercial clients, one for retail, etc.). And yes, the cluster needs to be configured correctly.

  70. Re:Banks? Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what's your credit union? 4% sounds incredibly good, given the current interest rate environment...

  71. certs aren"t perfect by fred133 · · Score: 1

    Guys,it's Windows, when in doubt,Reboot!
    If still in doubt,See rule #1,Reboot!
    Rule #2,"Let your fingers do the walking",Dial the number!
    Rule #3,If Rule #2 fails,get in the car,Start,Drive to the Bank!!!

  72. Whois Databases And One-time Passwords by Velska1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Whenever I run into a cert mismatch, I check the site IP (fairly straightforward in FF). Then I do a search on the IP against whois databases (ARIN, RIPE). If I see, that the IP is registered to the organization that is supposed to be serving me (and not just an IP reseller), I grant a temp exception and send an email to the staff of the service provider (the whois databases usually have that info) and tell them they've screwed up.

    For online banking, I have one-time passwords, issued by the bank (it's a two-phase process). But I've never run into a cert mismatch on a banking service yet.

    --
    Every problem has a solution that is simple, easy and wrong. Selling our Liberty for a little Security is a much too de
  73. MOD PARENT UP! by sgtrock · · Score: 1

    That's the most insightful comment that I've read to date on this whole mess.

  74. Serisouly by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

    I agree, however, I don't like to hear "we can not let the banks fail".
    Why should they be infallible? Why should we always save their asses, when they give themselves big bonuses. I say let them fail...we have other means of saving our money, my mattress has plenty of room, I can send money by credit union, and can pay my bills by money orders.

    We feel too comfortable with our system and don't want to lose it, but in the end this is what is killing us, our involuntary nature to let the sh*t happen and let the chips fall, and WoW are people going to be pissed if they see their banks fail, I would go and remove all moneys from the banks.

    If they go bankrupt, does that mean you still have to pay your loan back?
    So make sure to send the message loud and clear to the banks, we wont stand for it any longer....
    You fail, that's it, game over. Same with the car industry....let's keep bailing them out, like the retards we are, because we NEED them to give us jobs....that's like saying I will pay to work for you...now THAT sounds crazy!

  75. Simple Fix by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 1

    As much as it pains us all, these banks really are too big to fail. That needs to be fixed.

    Well the simplest fix would be to change "too big to fail" arrangement into a "too big to exist" arrangement. We've had a hard lesson on how absolutely absolute power will corrupt. Why let it happen again?

    --

    I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

  76. View from the inside... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I work for Capital One IT. While I have no special knowledge regarding the web certificate issue, I think it's worth noting that Capital One outsourced most of it's IT functions a few years ago to Unisys. Oh, and Unisys recently announced to its employees that there will be no pay increases at all in 2009 regardless of performance. They're solid, hard-working, talented people, and I wouldn't suspect for a moment that anyone is being deliberately negligent. However, from my day to day experience morale is terrible, and unhappy people are prone to make legitimate mistakes.

  77. Capital One? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think your first mistake was banking with Capital One.