4 ms·
This implementation is just skipping the charade that passwords are where the security happens. With almost all current systems the place security really needs
by PuffinBlue 10y ago
This implementation is just skipping the charade that passwords are where the security happens.
With almost all current systems the place security really needs to happen is at the email provider. If you can hijack/intercept a users email or hack their account then it's game over with a password anyway, thanks to password resets being (almost) universally done over that channel.
There's an argument that this is no bad thing as security focused email providers could potentially provide very secure access as part of their core business (unlike a startup just trying to get going).
But there's still something bugging me about this implementation I can't put my finger on.
- danijelb 10y agoThe only thing that's bothering me is that it is done through e-mail. I would prefer the token to arrive as a text message to my phone number. I feel like it is safer and faster. However, I understand that it is more expensive option, especially for services where you need to log in multiple times, compared to mobile apps where you log in only once.
- consp 10y agoSMS (in it's classical form) is highly spoofable as has been proven with TAN codes time-and-time again. It will work most of the time (sms has no guarantee of delivery as far as I know) and is somewhat secure but by no means good in any way. This relies on email, which is highly secure, smtp is not spoof-able, server and mail origins are traceable and verifiable and there is no way to intercept the message on a malicious router/switch whatever. Ow wait ...
- megous 10y agoE-mail is good enough for me as a channel. But the service should allow me to upload a PGP pub key and use it for all further communication, no exceptions (including password resets, etc.). That would secure the channel and the website would be able to trust that whoever is clicking the reset link is the owner of the key. It would also be a nice second factor. You have to have access to the email account and to the private PGP key. And it is a second factor I can fully control, unlike SMS. And it's simple and cheap for the service.
- Already__Taken 10y agoThinking on this it would be nice if my email provider could segment the kingdom that is my account. My normal login only needs to see about 10 days of email, I could re-auth or use a bigger PW to get into the whole archive. Isn't this implementation kind of a really basic idea of what mozialla persona was getting at? https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Persona_Shutdown_Guidelines_for_Reliers https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Persona_Shutdown_Guideline...
- blahfuk 10y agoHow do you encrypt any user data without a password/key? Intelligentsia's iPhone app does this, and I deleted my account because I couldn't figure out how they were protecting my payment info.
- blahfuk 10y agoHow do you encrypt any user data without a password/key? Intelligentsia's iPhone app does this, and I deleted my account because I couldn't figure out how they were protecting my payment info.
- blahfuk 10y agoHow do you encrypt any user data without a password/key? Intelligentsia's iPhone app does this, and I deleted my account because I couldn't figure out how they were protecting my payment info.