3 ms·
Typically, yes. This post didn't really offer any new insight to this. Maybe it's a PSA? Either way, it completely depends on the site's threat model. In the ca
by tuxxy 9y ago
Typically, yes. This post didn't really offer any new insight to this. Maybe it's a PSA? Either way, it completely depends on the site's threat model. In the case of GitHub, it's quite useless because a user can just go to the targets's profile to see if it exists. Thus, it really isn't in GitHub's threat model, obviously.
Where it gets really interesting is when you perform user enumeration attacks via timing. IE: it takes the server a few milliseconds longer to send a registration email than to not, or it takes the server longer to try to validate a password hash than to lookup a nonexistent user.
- aglionby 9y agoIs this possible to detect despite external factors (variable latency etc)?
- menacingly 9y agoIt's black magic to me, but I'm paranoid about timing attacks after seeing a few examples in the past of what's possible for a clever attacker to guess if they can gather data from a number of requests.