4 ms·

Alternative attack: Change everyone's email address to one you control, get the system to send everyone a "you forgot your password" email.

• n09n 15y ago
  That requires write access to the database, not just read access.
• ceejayoz 15y ago
  That attack isn't unique to a system with reversible encryption. If I can change the e-mail column, I can do this on any system with one-way password hashing too.
  • jbri 15y ago
    No you can't (or rather, it's not very useful). Sure, you can set someone's password to something you know that way - but since you've already got write access to the database, you might as well do it directly. This is a flaw of any system that sends your password back to you in plain text, that is not shared by systems that don't.
    • ceejayoz 15y ago
      If I can change your e-mail in the database and have it send me your password reset e-mail, I'm in. Write access to the database is a huge issue in that case whether or not passwords are hashed, encrypted, or plain text.