On Jun 28, 2011, at 11:36 42AM, Ian G wrote: > On 28/06/11 11:25 AM, Nico Williams wrote: >> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Marsh Ray<[email protected]> wrote: > >>> Consequently, we can hardly blame users for not using special characters in >>> their passwords. >> >> The most immediate problem for many users w.r.t. non-ASCII in >> passwords is not the likelihood of interop problems but the >> heterogeneity of input methods and input method selection in login >> screens, password input fields in apps and browsers, and so on, as >> well as the fact that they can't see the password they are typing to >> confirm that the input method is working correctly. > > This particular security idea came from terminal laboratories in the 1970s > and 1980s where annoying folk would look over your shoulder to read your > password as you typed it. > > The assumption of people looking over your shoulder is well past its use-by > date. These days we work with laptops, etc, which all work to a more private > setting. Even Internet Cafes have their privacy shields between booths. > > There are still some lesser circumstances where this is an issue (using your > laptop in a crowded place or typing a PIN onto a reader/ATM). Indeed in the > latter case, the threat is a camera that picks up the keys as they are typed. > > But for the most part, we should be deprecating the practice at its mandated > level and exploring optional or open methods. Like: > >> Oddly enough >> mobiles are ahead of other systems here in that they show the user the >> *last/current* character of any passwords they are entering. > As someone who regularly types a sensitive password with students looking over his shoulder -- when my advisees come to visit, I often log on to a web site to check their records -- I'd be unhappy to see this go away.
See Schneier's discussion at http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/the_pros_and_co.html Btw -- the real issue in the 1960s (not the 1970s) was not the people around you -- the amount of personal space required to do work hasn't increased since then, and may have decreased -- but the prevalence of hard-copy terminals, since you'd be required to shred your printout to maintain security... Some systems would print several different "dense" characters in the password area; others, if they could, did turn off echo. And if neither choice was available -- well, when using terminals based on Selectric typewriters, people would just pop off the type ball. --Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb _______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list [email protected] http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography
