OAuth, OpenID Password Crack Could Affect Millions

CWmike writes "Researchers Nate Lawson and Taylor Nelson say they've discovered a basic security flaw that affects dozens of open-source software libraries — including those used by software that implements the OAuth and OpenID standards — that are used to check passwords and user names when people log into websites such as Twitter and Digg. By trying to log in again and again, cycling through characters and measuring the time it takes for the computer to respond, hackers can ultimately figure out the correct passwords. This may all sound very theoretical, but timing attacks can actually succeed in the real world. Three years ago, one was used to hack Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system, and people who build smart cards have added timing attack protection for years. The researchers plan to discuss their attacks at the Black Hat conference later this month in Las Vegas."

Comments

Re:OpenID

[Reason58]

Wait, doesn't slashdot use OpenID?

hahahah

DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS

Who doesn't hash/encrypt passwords?

[MankyD]

"On some login systems, the computer will check password characters one at a time, and kick back a "login failed" message as soon as it spots a bad character in the password."

If you do almost any sort of reasonable hashing or encryption algorthm on a password, this becomes a moot point, since the place that fails to match in the string will change. Are there still sites out there that don't do this? Really?

Re:Why the fuzz?

[maxume]

The sarcastic answer is development.