3 ms·

Mozilla accidentally posts usernames and password hashes

10 points by zoowar 16y ago

Xk 16y ago
newly created passwords remain invulnerable to a similar disclosure, as they employ SHA-512 with per-user salts to store hashes. I don't know how long it will take for people to figure this out. SHA-512 with a salt is not the right way to store passwords. Yes, it's better by leaps and bounds than storing the plaintext. Yes, it's better than crypt(3) as gawker used. But come on, just use bcrypt already. And the fact that they calls SHA-512 with salts "invulnerable" ... I don't even know what to say to that.
- csytan 16y ago
  I don't think a developer working at Mozilla would be so careless that they would use "invulnerable" to describe their security. Seems like it was an interpretation by the tgdaily author. Here's a link to the original blog post: http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2010/12/27/addons-mozilla-org-disclosure/ http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2010/12/27/addons-mozilla-o...
  - Xk 16y ago
    Yeah, my "they" was really unclear. I'm sure that no developer in his or her right mind would ever call anything "invulnerable." That's just asking for it. I guess it makes sense that the media would call something like that invulnerable though, they don't know anything about it anyways.
tptacek 16y ago
Does the problem with posting these hashes have anything to do with "cryptographic weaknesses in MD5", or does Sophos' security expert simply have no idea what he's commenting to the trade press about?
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  It has a lot to do with the weakness of MD5. You can compute the md5 has of every 6 character lowercase string in seconds on a modern laptop. There are also vast rainbow tables available. However mozilla have disabled all the accounts that used MD5 anyway. Unfortunately this does not prevent the real risk, which is to people who reuse their password elsewhere. Still, other hash functions such as the SHA512 they are currently using are also wildly inappropriate, as explained in the following excellent post: http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/ http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/
  - tptacek 16y ago
    Speed isn't a hash function weakness. Collision susceptibility is, but that doesn't really help you crack passwords.

10 points by zoowar 16y ago

Xk 16y ago

newly created passwords remain invulnerable to a similar disclosure, as they employ SHA-512 with per-user salts to store hashes. I don't know how long it will take for people to figure this out. SHA-512 with a salt is not the right way to store passwords. Yes, it's better by leaps and bounds than storing the plaintext. Yes, it's better than crypt(3) as gawker used. But come on, just use bcrypt already. And the fact that they calls SHA-512 with salts "invulnerable" ... I don't even know what to say to that.

csytan 16y ago
I don't think a developer working at Mozilla would be so careless that they would use "invulnerable" to describe their security. Seems like it was an interpretation by the tgdaily author. Here's a link to the original blog post: http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2010/12/27/addons-mozilla-org-disclosure/ http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2010/12/27/addons-mozilla-o...
- Xk 16y ago
  Yeah, my "they" was really unclear. I'm sure that no developer in his or her right mind would ever call anything "invulnerable." That's just asking for it. I guess it makes sense that the media would call something like that invulnerable though, they don't know anything about it anyways.

tptacek 16y ago

Does the problem with posting these hashes have anything to do with "cryptographic weaknesses in MD5", or does Sophos' security expert simply have no idea what he's commenting to the trade press about?

JonnieCache 16y ago
It has a lot to do with the weakness of MD5. You can compute the md5 has of every 6 character lowercase string in seconds on a modern laptop. There are also vast rainbow tables available. However mozilla have disabled all the accounts that used MD5 anyway. Unfortunately this does not prevent the real risk, which is to people who reuse their password elsewhere. Still, other hash functions such as the SHA512 they are currently using are also wildly inappropriate, as explained in the following excellent post: http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/ http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/
- tptacek 16y ago
  Speed isn't a hash function weakness. Collision susceptibility is, but that doesn't really help you crack passwords.