_______________________________________
From: Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Audit recommendation

On Dec 22, 2007 7:26 PM, Ken Schaefer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Fast brute force can be simply defeated by having long and/or
> > complex passwords and/or account lockout ...
>
>  Brute force attacks can be effective against even long passwords,

Really? How long do you think it woudl take you to brute force a 15 character, 
complex, password, over FTP?

Even at 1000 login attempts per second, you'd be spending many hundreds of 
years.

> and the problem with account lockout is that it also locks out the
> legitimate users.  So your objections have issues, too.

Which is why i suggested a 1 minute lock out, every 100 consequtive failed 
login attempts. Most legitimate users either (a) can get this password correct 
within 100 guesses -or- (b) give up and called the Helpdesk before that point 
in time.

And even if they do manage to lockout their account, it's only for 1 minute. 
Which usually isn't an issue for a legitimate user.

> > I'd rather Microsoft concentrate on other, new, functionality that we need 
> > ...
>
>  Given that this isn't exactly rocket science to implement (maybe a
> few dozen lines of code in C), and Microsoft isn't exactly hurting for
> engineering budget, I think it's reasonable to ask for both.

Total effort is more than writing a few lines of code (someone has to do the 
documentation, it needs to work other APIs, ISVs would need to be notified, 
SDKs/documentation would need to be updated, regression tests and threat models 
written and tested etc)

I still don't see the benefit of this technology. So, I'd rather we had more 
useful stuff.

Cheers
Ken

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