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The problem with two-factor is that if user forgets the device the options to bypass two-factor can be limited and inconvenient. If I happen to be using a publi

by yeukhon 13y ago

The problem with two-factor is that if user forgets the device the options to bypass two-factor can be limited and inconvenient. If I happen to be using a public computer because I need to retrieve something urgently from my email, Google will make it so hard that I can't access it immediately. (https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185834?hl=en&ref_topic=1099588#phone https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185834?hl=en&ref_...) Password seems broken for two reasons: 1. password requirement varies and is a pain in the ass. Some sites will ask for at least 8 characters, mix of uppercase and lowercase, one occurence of non-alphanumeric character and the password is at least certain length. Some even go as far as no repeating characters or max password length (8-15 characters). While the intention is great, it makes password so hard to remember and people are less likely 2. every website runs its own password management. How the heck can I tell website X is actually hashing my password and doing it correctly? I can't. Persona - single identity is probably the way to go. Adding multi-factor auth will be great. But again, I argue that password by itself is not entirely broken. If the attacker can access the database directly by ssh into the server, then there is also a possibility that the app server can be compromised and therefore alerting app code is just a finger tip away. This is the highest level of attack and the story is over at this stage. I personally think password is not entirely broken. It has value. By itself it may not be as strong as having multi--step authentication. Authenticating yourself with key-only, or device-key only is the worst thing ever. It's like running EC2 instance. If I delete the instance's key off my computer, I will cry. So keeping infrastructure secure is important. Multi-factor authentication on the server side is critical. Keeping database apart from app server is too critical.

ams6110 13y ago
I probably should have been more explicit in my comment. I think that passwords in theory can be OK. In a perfect world where websites use strong password hashes, and users don't use easily guessed passwords, or share passwords across sites, or fall for phishing and other social engineering hoaxes, they work. The problem is that never happens. I think at this point we need to admit that human nature being what it is, it will not happen. So we need to move away from passwords being the sole authenticator for online services.

by yeukhon 13y ago

ams6110 13y ago

I probably should have been more explicit in my comment. I think that passwords in theory can be OK. In a perfect world where websites use strong password hashes, and users don't use easily guessed passwords, or share passwords across sites, or fall for phishing and other social engineering hoaxes, they work. The problem is that never happens. I think at this point we need to admit that human nature being what it is, it will not happen. So we need to move away from passwords being the sole authenticator for online services.