4 ms·

> encrypted password I hope they mean hashed, not encrypted.

guscost 8y ago
Did a double take at this too, but they clarified that it means “hashed with a unique salt” later on. Not a good word choice for a summary though!
- ianai 8y ago
  Who’s password hash would it be? Ie could it be a linked accounts password?
- cornstalks 8y ago
  Thanks, I missed that tidbit in my initial pass through!
- jtmarmon 8y ago
  Probably written this way because this is a release for the general public. I would imagine most people expect passwords to be "encrypted" and don't know what "hashed" means, and they correctly assumed technical people will keep reading for more info
  - gsich 8y ago
    All the more incentive to inform people what hashing means.
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  They do indeed, but then for some reason, they also say "this breach may have exposed ... the password you used" [0] which is a statement I think is wholly incompatible with the notion of "hashed with a salt that varies for each user" (but please let me know if I'm incorrect). They can rightfully say "encrypted" to a lay audience because the definition of encrypted is not so strict as to require decryptability, but why would they say that the password might be exposed? [0] https://help.quora.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020212652 https://help.quora.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020212652
  - guscost 8y ago
    If the salts were stored with the passwords, it might be possible to brute-force any single (simpler) password by testing lots of salt+guess combinations. Salting only really protects against rainbow tables (pre-computed guesses for lots of passwords).
  - varenc 8y ago
    It's reasonable your password might be exposed since the attacker can now perform an offline brute force attack on the password hashes. How likely it is your password gets brute forced really depends on the hash function used. If it's md5... all but the strongest password could be broken. (though at least the passwords were salted). If they're using something like bcrypt with a work factor of 10+, it's a different story and only the weakest passwords are at serious risk. The fact that details on the hashing scheme aren't shared makes me assume it's not great...
- carbocation 8y ago
  So glad to hear they were following the best practices from the previous millennium.
- IshKebab 8y ago
  They don't mention the hash function anywhere so I'm assuming MD5.
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    If they don't mention it you could assume any one of the commonly used hash functions.
    - ynniv 8y ago
      Sure, but if youre using a good one you usually say what it is. "Salted and hashed" is usually MD5 or SHA1, both of which provide almost no deterrence to brute forcing.
    - gsich 8y ago
      So MD5?
dana321 8y ago
I hope they mean at least pbkdf2-hmac-sha256 with sufficient rounds.

Did a double take at this too, but they clarified that it means “hashed with a unique salt” later on. Not a good word choice for a summary though!

ianai 8y ago
Who’s password hash would it be? Ie could it be a linked accounts password?
cornstalks 8y ago
Thanks, I missed that tidbit in my initial pass through!
jtmarmon 8y ago
Probably written this way because this is a release for the general public. I would imagine most people expect passwords to be "encrypted" and don't know what "hashed" means, and they correctly assumed technical people will keep reading for more info
- gsich 8y ago
  All the more incentive to inform people what hashing means.
hunter2_ 8y ago
They do indeed, but then for some reason, they also say "this breach may have exposed ... the password you used" [0] which is a statement I think is wholly incompatible with the notion of "hashed with a salt that varies for each user" (but please let me know if I'm incorrect). They can rightfully say "encrypted" to a lay audience because the definition of encrypted is not so strict as to require decryptability, but why would they say that the password might be exposed? [0] https://help.quora.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020212652 https://help.quora.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020212652
- guscost 8y ago
  If the salts were stored with the passwords, it might be possible to brute-force any single (simpler) password by testing lots of salt+guess combinations. Salting only really protects against rainbow tables (pre-computed guesses for lots of passwords).
- varenc 8y ago
  It's reasonable your password might be exposed since the attacker can now perform an offline brute force attack on the password hashes. How likely it is your password gets brute forced really depends on the hash function used. If it's md5... all but the strongest password could be broken. (though at least the passwords were salted). If they're using something like bcrypt with a work factor of 10+, it's a different story and only the weakest passwords are at serious risk. The fact that details on the hashing scheme aren't shared makes me assume it's not great...
carbocation 8y ago
So glad to hear they were following the best practices from the previous millennium.
IshKebab 8y ago
They don't mention the hash function anywhere so I'm assuming MD5.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  If they don't mention it you could assume any one of the commonly used hash functions.
  - ynniv 8y ago
    Sure, but if youre using a good one you usually say what it is. "Salted and hashed" is usually MD5 or SHA1, both of which provide almost no deterrence to brute forcing.
  - gsich 8y ago
    So MD5?

dana321 8y ago

I hope they mean at least pbkdf2-hmac-sha256 with sufficient rounds.