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I did read his post, but there isn't a single actual demonstration of his claims that javascript math is flawed: http://rdist.root.org/2010/11/29/final-post-on
by zedshaw 16y ago
I did read his post, but there isn't a single actual demonstration of his claims that javascript math is flawed:
http://rdist.root.org/2010/11/29/final-post-on-javascript-crypto/ http://rdist.root.org/2010/11/29/final-post-on-javascript-cr...
All of his exploits talk about attacks that are just browser attacks, but nothing that says what you're saying about an actual exploit in the math of javascript. His attacks also assume an infinitely capable attacker who can always alter content, which is pointless because all browser based security, even your own proposed bcrypt, is vulnerable to all of his attacks.
Also, my invocation of SJCL is not straw man, it's the actual library I'm using, so if you're going to do an exploit that takes advantage of a flaw in javascript math, then that's what you'd use. It's a concrete thing to focus on as an attack vector. That's sort of the inverse of "straw man".
Finally, if you are saying that this is the first time you're hearing about the Twilio 2-factor auth then you didn't even read the blog post.
- tptacek 16y agoNo, Zed, I'm saying the post we're commenting on is the first time I've heard about you doing 2-factor auth. Why would you think I would comment on a post I hadn't read? You keep talking about "the math of the Javascript". You're a smart guy. I think you know that we're not saying the math in SJCL is wrong. I don't know what "just browser attacks" mean; you're asking the browser to implement cryptography, the browser is relevant. Nate does talk about "the math of Javascript", by the way.
- zedshaw 16y agoI know he talks about it, but he doesn't really. He starts talking about it, and then switches to a browser environment attack. The main crux of my disagreement with you is that you say: Doing javascript in the browser makes it more vulnerable to an exploit than just doing bcrypt+ssl passwords. However, if someone can exploit the browser (XSS, content modification, etc) then no login system is safe. In other words, you're pimping bcrypt+ssl as a better alternative because it's NOT vulnerable to browser environment exploits, but it is. Every browser is. A browser environment exploit is all the things you keep bringing up: cache poisoning, SSL exploits, phishing, XSS attacks, content modification, etc.
- tptacek 16y agoYou think maybe he's making it up? :)