[PHP] Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
The obvious fix was to trim() the values that I receive, but I worry
how that would affect users who use a space at the beginning or end of
their password. Of course, if I trim() also when the user is setting
his password then he will never know that his password is really 1
digit shorter, but do I really want to do that? Thoughts? Thanks!

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 15:27, Al n...@ridersite.org wrote:
 Can't you simply specify the allowed characters that can be used for PWs and
 usernames?


No, I hate when websites do that. It leads to less secure passwords,
not more secure, and it is passing the burden of fixing the issue onto
the user.


 I always do, e.g., 6-8, case sensitive, alphanumerics, and the following
 characters: @, #, $, %, , *, -.

 Then, I trim() and check the submitted PW for any exceptions to the rules.



I regularly use other characters in my passwords. Of the top of my
head, I have passwords with the tilda, underscore, and exclamation
point. Sites that don't let me use them don't get my business.
Seriously. I once even switched banks twice in one week: once because
the old bank's website did not work with Firefox in Fedora, and the
second time because the new bank's website would not let me use an
exclamation point in my password. I might be an extreme example, but
it is behaviour that I do not agree with.





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Re: [PHP] Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Paul M Foster
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 02:49:59PM +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:

 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 The obvious fix was to trim() the values that I receive, but I worry
 how that would affect users who use a space at the beginning or end of
 their password. Of course, if I trim() also when the user is setting
 his password then he will never know that his password is really 1
 digit shorter, but do I really want to do that? Thoughts? Thanks!

If users want to embed spaces in their passwords, well and good. But at
the beginning or end? No. Trim them. As mentioned elsewhere, I suspect
this is mostly because of copying and pasting.

Paul

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Re: [PHP] Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Govinda

... And yes, I'm the OCD
geek with such passwords.


Dotan,
that is great!  You made a dry topic hilarious!  (on top of the  
practical points you make.)

Thanks!


Govinda







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[PHP] Static content at runtime

2010-12-28 Thread knl
Hi.

I am currently looking into improving a system that (like many systems)
generate static content at runtime.

I have always been against generating static content at runtime and
believe static content should be generated by a cronjob or manually at
some idle time (if possible).

This will provide real static content (no PHP at all) that doesn't need
to be checked every time a request is made hence a huge performance
benefit is achieved.

A nice article on the issue:
http://zoompf.com/blog/2009/12/the-challenge-of-dynamically-generating-static-content

Quote: The moral of the story is never make the user pay for your
laziness. Do not use the application tier of a website to dynamically
generate static content at runtime. Instead do it at publishing time or
even do it in a daily or hourly cron job. This approach allows you all
the advantages of using application logic without drastically reducing
the very web performance you were trying to improve in the first place!

Sometimes however many pages are linked together and when working with
a system with hundreds or thousands of pages re-creating a lot of
content each night perhaps isn't always the best way to do things.
Especially if the content needs to be updated right away and can't wait
for the nightly cronjob to do its business.

To illustrate with a simple example..

A blog system with a menu that displays how many posts exists in each
category.

- Home
- About
- Tech (412)
- News (2030)

etc.

When a new page is added to the News category every single page in the
system needs to get updated in order for the menu to display the new
number (2031).

Some use a compromise to include only changing items (like the menu
in the above example), but that would mean using PHP and not serving
pure static content.

Others use ugly solutions like frames.

Care to share your experiences and recommendations on the issue?

Kind regards

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Re: [PHP] Static content at runtime

2010-12-28 Thread Govinda


Care to share your experiences and recommendations on the issue?




It seems to me that you ask a great question, and ask it well.

I have worked on both kinds of systems.  But I am not expert enough to  
say anything definitively.  Just one thought I had while thinking  
about it:


How about:  publish static content.. and for the changing menu number,  
use Ajax instead of PHP include(s).  Would that be any better?  ...or  
maybe it is effectively the same dynamic burden in the end?



Govinda







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Re: [PHP] Static content at runtime

2010-12-28 Thread Ashley Sheridan
On Tue, 2010-12-28 at 13:25 -0500, Govinda wrote:

 
  Care to share your experiences and recommendations on the issue?
 
 
 
 It seems to me that you ask a great question, and ask it well.
 
 I have worked on both kinds of systems.  But I am not expert enough to  
 say anything definitively.  Just one thought I had while thinking  
 about it:
 
 How about:  publish static content.. and for the changing menu number,  
 use Ajax instead of PHP include(s).  Would that be any better?  ...or  
 maybe it is effectively the same dynamic burden in the end?
 
 
 Govinda
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


I'd tend towards server-side includes handled by Apache instead of Ajax
if you're that worried about dynamic content cost. It's faster than have
PHP produce the entire page each time as it's only using Apache instead
of Apache and PHP.

Aside from that Ajax shouldn't be used for this sort of thing. Not
everyone has Javascript enabled, a lot of search engines won't process
the content pulled in via Ajax (Google does handle some Javascript now
to a limited extent) and it takes extra time for a clients browser to
load the Javascript that is being used, and then it has to make the
request and wait for the response, all of which takes time. It might
seem fine in local testing, but in the real world on a variety of
connections it doesn't work the way you want.

Thanks,
Ash
http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk




Re: [PHP] Static content at runtime

2010-12-28 Thread David Harkness
The other option is to generate the page dynamically and cache it (we use
Varnish) for the next users. This way you pay the cost to regenerate pages
only for those someone views--and only once. This pays off well when you
have high traffic.

David


[PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Nathan Rixham

Dotan Cohen wrote:

I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.


Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more 
importantly /don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate 
passwords at all, let users enter there desired password, then they 
won't be copy and pasting them ;)


ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like 
passwords are case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and 
that you haven't included any additional spaces.


Best,

Nathan

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Nathan Rixham

Joshua Kehn wrote:

Trim usernames but not passwords.


agree. nice catch, I was thinking about passwords specifically and 
forgot usernames was in the topic too!




On Dec 28, 2010, at 2:57 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:

Dotan Cohen wrote:

I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.

Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more importantly 
/don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate passwords at all, 
let users enter there desired password, then they won't be copy and pasting 
them ;)

ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like passwords are 
case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and that you haven't included any additional 
spaces.

Best,

Nathan

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Re: [PHP] Static content at runtime

2010-12-28 Thread Bastien


On 2010-12-28, at 2:19 PM, David Harkness davi...@highgearmedia.com wrote:

 The other option is to generate the page dynamically and cache it (we use
 Varnish) for the next users. This way you pay the cost to regenerate pages
 only for those someone views--and only once. This pays off well when you
 have high traffic.
 
 David

Yep. Been there, done that! Got massive increases out of the system by using 
that process.

Bastien Koert
Sent from my iPhone
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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
Specifically:

 Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.

Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise a 
system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an issue 
then educate the users. 

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com

On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:07 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:

 Joshua Kehn wrote:
 Trim usernames but not passwords.
 
 agree. nice catch, I was thinking about passwords specifically and forgot 
 usernames was in the topic too!
 
 
 On Dec 28, 2010, at 2:57 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:
 Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more importantly 
 /don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate passwords at 
 all, let users enter there desired password, then they won't be copy and 
 pasting them ;)
 
 ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like 
 passwords are case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and that 
 you haven't included any additional spaces.
 
 Best,
 
 Nathan
 
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 To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
 
 



[PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 21:57, Nathan Rixham nrix...@gmail.com wrote:
 Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more importantly
 /don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate passwords at
 all, let users enter there desired password, then they won't be copy and
 pasting them ;)

 ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like passwords
 are case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and that you haven't
 included any additional spaces.


I'm toying with the idea of having the passwords hashed twice: they're
already in the database hashed, and javascript hashes them on the
client before sending them over, but I'm thinking about sending an
additional salt to the client to hash the hashed passwords with salt,
and that's what is sent back. This way, each login is done with a
different hash of the password so an attacker cannot simply capture
and reuse the hashed password.

But before all that goes on, I have to decide what to do about leading
and trailing spaces.


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:02, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 Trim usernames but not passwords.
 Some people put spaces at the beginning and end of their passwords. Double
 confirm and don't mess with the input otherwise they tend to get confused.


How about:

if ($trimmedUsername != $username){
trim($password);
}

I suppose that it is reasonable to assume (ha!) that if one was
copy-pasted with spaces, so would the other. Naive, I know, too bad I
don't dare start logging raw data to determine how true this might or
might not be.

Maybe I will start anonymising the data on the client, testing for
this, then logging it to a separate database with no correlation to
the users. Interesting it will be, at least.

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
Trim usernames but not passwords.

Some people put spaces at the beginning and end of their passwords. Double 
confirm and don't mess with the input otherwise they tend to get confused. 

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com

On Dec 28, 2010, at 2:57 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:

 Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 
 Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more importantly 
 /don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate passwords at all, 
 let users enter there desired password, then they won't be copy and pasting 
 them ;)
 
 ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like passwords 
 are case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and that you haven't 
 included any additional spaces.
 
 Best,
 
 Nathan
 
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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Peter Lind
On 28 December 2010 21:18, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 21:57, Nathan Rixham nrix...@gmail.com wrote:
 Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more importantly
 /don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate passwords at
 all, let users enter there desired password, then they won't be copy and
 pasting them ;)

 ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like passwords
 are case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and that you haven't
 included any additional spaces.


 I'm toying with the idea of having the passwords hashed twice: they're
 already in the database hashed, and javascript hashes them on the
 client before sending them over, but I'm thinking about sending an
 additional salt to the client to hash the hashed passwords with salt,
 and that's what is sent back. This way, each login is done with a
 different hash of the password so an attacker cannot simply capture
 and reuse the hashed password.

Sounds like https would be MUCH simpler and likely as safe or safer. I
wouldn't waste my time on trying to come up with very clever schemes
when tried and true technologies are out there.

 But before all that goes on, I have to decide what to do about leading
 and trailing spaces.

As has been noted a couple of times: trim usernames. Never trim passwords.

Regards
Peter

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[PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Nathan Rixham

Dotan Cohen wrote:

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 21:57, Nathan Rixham nrix...@gmail.com wrote:

Don't trim or limit the range of input characters, but far more importantly
/don't send passwords in clear text/, indeed don't generate passwords at
all, let users enter there desired password, then they won't be copy and
pasting them ;)

ps: if unavoidable, then give some advice on login failure like passwords
are case sensitive, check you don't have caps lock on and that you haven't
included any additional spaces.



I'm toying with the idea of having the passwords hashed twice: they're
already in the database hashed, and javascript hashes them on the
client before sending them over, but I'm thinking about sending an
additional salt to the client to hash the hashed passwords with salt,
and that's what is sent back. This way, each login is done with a
different hash of the password so an attacker cannot simply capture
and reuse the hashed password.


That would possibly address some man in the middle attacks, however it'd 
be much easier and more secure to simply have all logged in 
functionality over http+tls (https://) which will ensure encryption over 
the wire, and it's peer to peer thus impossible for anything to even be 
in the middle.


Best,

Nathan

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:11, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise a
 system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an
 issue then educate the users.


Educate the users?!? Is that like making water flow uphill, or
reversing aging? I can do a lot of things, but don't even ask me to
bring back the dead!

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:18 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:

 I'm toying with the idea of having the passwords hashed twice: they're
 already in the database hashed, and javascript hashes them on the
 client before sending them over, but I'm thinking about sending an
 additional salt to the client to hash the hashed passwords with salt,
 and that's what is sent back. This way, each login is done with a
 different hash of the password so an attacker cannot simply capture
 and reuse the hashed password.
 
 But before all that goes on, I have to decide what to do about leading
 and trailing spaces.

Toy with it and discard it. Client side hashing / salting is not a good idea. A 
much better alternative is to use SSL.

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:23, Peter Lind peter.e.l...@gmail.com wrote:
 Sounds like https would be MUCH simpler and likely as safe or safer. I
 wouldn't waste my time on trying to come up with very clever schemes
 when tried and true technologies are out there.


You are right, I know.


 But before all that goes on, I have to decide what to do about leading
 and trailing spaces.

 As has been noted a couple of times: trim usernames. Never trim passwords.


I think that is right. I needed that push. Thanks.


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Nicholas Kell

On Dec 28, 2010, at 2:11 PM, Joshua Kehn wrote:

 Specifically:
 
 Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 
 Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise a 
 system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an 
 issue then educate the users. 
 

If you work for a company that admins over a hundred websites, you may be 
inclined to copy-paste a few passwords.

I don't know about you, but when we use passwords that are over 16 characters 
long and I don't want to get an incorrect pass, because it was a grave 
character versus a single apostrophe, or a capital i versus a lowercase L or a 
zero versus an O, etc.. There is no way I am retyping passwords for every-time 
I need to log in, or FTP into a site. 

We use apps to store all our passes, so yeah I copy and paste. But on the same 
note I am conscious of copying a space at the end of the password / username.

Sorry, you are not going to (re)educate the public on what you think is 
password best practices. But I do however, think that it is the users problem, 
not the developers. Learn how to copy-paste.



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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:23 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:

 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:02, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 Trim usernames but not passwords.
 Some people put spaces at the beginning and end of their passwords. Double
 confirm and don't mess with the input otherwise they tend to get confused.
 
 
 How about:
 
 if ($trimmedUsername != $username){
trim($password);
 }
 
 I suppose that it is reasonable to assume (ha!) that if one was
 copy-pasted with spaces, so would the other. Naive, I know, too bad I
 don't dare start logging raw data to determine how true this might or
 might not be.

Educate the users, don't compromise the system. Either go full on and trim 
everything (I don't recommend this) or trim nothing. Be consistent in which one 
you pick.

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Nathan Rixham

Joshua Kehn wrote:

On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:18 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:


I'm toying with the idea of having the passwords hashed twice: they're
already in the database hashed, and javascript hashes them on the
client before sending them over, but I'm thinking about sending an
additional salt to the client to hash the hashed passwords with salt,
and that's what is sent back. This way, each login is done with a
different hash of the password so an attacker cannot simply capture
and reuse the hashed password.

But before all that goes on, I have to decide what to do about leading
and trailing spaces.


Toy with it and discard it. Client side hashing / salting is not a good idea. A 
much better alternative is to use SSL.


indeed, and on reflection, if you're putting this much effort in to it, 
and security is a worry, then forget username and passwords, and issue 
each user with a client side RSA v3 certificate and identify them via 
the public key of the cert.


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:26, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 Educate the users, don't compromise the system. Either go full on and trim 
 everything (I don't recommend this) or trim
 nothing. Be consistent in which one you pick.


Then how about:
if ($trimmedPassword==$realPassword  $enteredPassword!=$realPassword){
print pWarmer!/p;
}

I'm kidding. I'll not trim. But if $trimmedUsername !=
$enteredUsername I'll mention that fact to the user and remind him to
be careful to copy exactly what he means to copy. Username only, not
password.

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:29 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:

 Joshua Kehn wrote:
 On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:18 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I'm toying with the idea of having the passwords hashed twice: they're
 already in the database hashed, and javascript hashes them on the
 client before sending them over, but I'm thinking about sending an
 additional salt to the client to hash the hashed passwords with salt,
 and that's what is sent back. This way, each login is done with a
 different hash of the password so an attacker cannot simply capture
 and reuse the hashed password.
 
 But before all that goes on, I have to decide what to do about leading
 and trailing spaces.
 Toy with it and discard it. Client side hashing / salting is not a good 
 idea. A much better alternative is to use SSL.
 
 indeed, and on reflection, if you're putting this much effort in to it, and 
 security is a worry, then forget username and passwords, and issue each user 
 with a client side RSA v3 certificate and identify them via the public key of 
 the cert.


I just realize that this would also completely solve your trim() problem!

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com



Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:26 PM, Nicholas Kell wrote:

 
 If you work for a company that admins over a hundred websites, you may be 
 inclined to copy-paste a few passwords.
 
 I don't know about you, but when we use passwords that are over 16 characters 
 long and I don't want to get an incorrect pass, because it was a grave 
 character versus a single apostrophe, or a capital i versus a lowercase L or 
 a zero versus an O, etc.. There is no way I am retyping passwords for 
 every-time I need to log in, or FTP into a site. 
 
 We use apps to store all our passes, so yeah I copy and paste. But on the 
 same note I am conscious of copying a space at the end of the password / 
 username.
 
 Sorry, you are not going to (re)educate the public on what you think is 
 password best practices. But I do however, think that it is the users 
 problem, not the developers. Learn how to copy-paste.

You have a good point. Both with (1) you won't stop it, and (1) learn how to 
copy-paste.

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com



Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:30, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 indeed, and on reflection, if you're putting this much effort in to it, and
 security is a worry, then forget username and passwords, and issue each user
 with a client side RSA v3 certificate and identify them via the public key
 of the cert.

 I just realize that this would also completely solve your trim() problem!


Hello, Dotan? Hi, we haven't spoken in a full week now that we don't
have the trim problem. But I reinstalled Windows and wiped the drive,
now I can't log in. Can you help me?

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:32 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:

 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:30, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 indeed, and on reflection, if you're putting this much effort in to it, and
 security is a worry, then forget username and passwords, and issue each user
 with a client side RSA v3 certificate and identify them via the public key
 of the cert.
 
 I just realize that this would also completely solve your trim() problem!
 
 
 Hello, Dotan? Hi, we haven't spoken in a full week now that we don't
 have the trim problem. But I reinstalled Windows and wiped the drive,
 now I can't log in. Can you help me?
 
 -- 
 Dotan Cohen

Hey, progress is progress!

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Nathan Rixham

Dotan Cohen wrote:

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:30, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:

indeed, and on reflection, if you're putting this much effort in to it, and
security is a worry, then forget username and passwords, and issue each user
with a client side RSA v3 certificate and identify them via the public key
of the cert.

I just realize that this would also completely solve your trim() problem!



Hello, Dotan? Hi, we haven't spoken in a full week now that we don't
have the trim problem. But I reinstalled Windows and wiped the drive,
now I can't log in. Can you help me?



that's what pkcs12 was invented for, just issue another certificate / 
key pair.


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 3:24 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:

 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:11, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise a
 system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an
 issue then educate the users.
 
 
 Educate the users?!? Is that like making water flow uphill, or
 reversing aging? I can do a lot of things, but don't even ask me to
 bring back the dead!
 
 -- 
 Dotan Cohen


We're PHP programmers, we do the impossible all the time. Without automatic 
migrations, managed models, succinct ORM's. Other developers look at us in 
shock as we memorize the $haystack and $needle argument orders for explode and 
str* functions. Raising the dead would be easy in comparison.  

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:52, Joshua Kehn josh.k...@gmail.com wrote:
 We're PHP programmers, we do the impossible all the time. Without automatic 
 migrations, managed models, succinct
 ORM's. Other developers look at us in shock as we memorize the $haystack and 
 $needle argument orders for explode
 and str* functions. Raising the dead would be easy in comparison.


Oh, how about verbNoun() vs nounVerb() vs
mysql_adjective_verb_noun()?!? I'm not a PHP programmer by trade, more
of a side thing while I maintain some servers, but I know to
appreciate those who do the impossible!

While we're at it, how about adding just one little feature...


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 22:43, Nathan Rixham nrix...@gmail.com wrote:
 that's what pkcs12 was invented for, just issue another certificate / key
 pair.


I could probably automate and script it, I would just give the users a
name/password combo to their own control panel...

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 23:02, Daniel Brown danbr...@php.net wrote:
    This thread has really just gone on far too long without the only
 correct answer: always use the same username/password for everything,
 and always make them as simple as possible so that you can remember
 them.  For example, I always use the password 'brown1' for everything
 --- all of my servers root passwords, my bank accounts and credit
 cards, email addresses, nuclear arsenal, electronic safe containing
 all of my ninja swords up in my toddler daughter's room, customer
 cPanel accounts, social networking passwords, medical records,
 utilities payment sites, credit history, customer's credit cards, the
 antidote, the original KFC secret recipe, the key to your heart, the
 meaning of life, the true name of ***, the better mousetrap, the cure
 for the common cold, the last of the Mohicans, the look on your face,
 the way we were, the DeLorean, the secret of nirvana, and all of my
 exabytes of pr0n collections.


Did you know that when you type 'brown1' we see it as **? Your
system does that automatically.


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Daniel Brown
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 16:05, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:

 Did you know that when you type 'brown1' we see it as **? Your
 system does that automatically.

That's how I see it, too.  It took me fourteen years to realize
that my password wasn't just six asterisks (though, in my hand-made,
high-security login scripts, the same will work, in case I forget my
password).

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Network Infrastructure Manager
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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Peter Lind
On 28 December 2010 22:06, Daniel Brown danbr...@php.net wrote:
 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 16:05, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:

 Did you know that when you type 'brown1' we see it as **? Your
 system does that automatically.

    That's how I see it, too.  It took me fourteen years to realize
 that my password wasn't just six asterisks (though, in my hand-made,
 high-security login scripts, the same will work, in case I forget my
 password).


Bla bla bla not Friday yet bla bla bla cut down on the noise on the list bla bla


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Daniel Brown
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 16:10, Peter Lind peter.e.l...@gmail.com wrote:

 Bla bla bla not Friday yet bla bla bla cut down on the noise on the list bla 
 bla

I tend to think that you fail to see the actual meaning behind the
messages, Peter, and instead just like to remind me of my own words.
Don't worry: I remember them, thanks.

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Paul M Foster
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 03:11:56PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:

 Specifically:
 
  Dotan Cohen wrote:
  I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
  passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 
 Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise a 
 system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an 
 issue then educate the users. 
 

Wrong. I use a program called pwgen to generate passwords for me, which
I cannot remember. I use another program I built to store them in an
encrypted file. When I have to supply a password which I've forgotten
(as usual), I fire up my password vault, find the password, and paste
it wherever it's needed. Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.

Paul

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread David Harkness
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 3:28 PM, Paul M Foster pa...@quillandmouse.comwrote:

 Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
 this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.


Aww man, I've been using somesuch as the password for all my accounts and
now you've ruined it! Luckily I use your dog's name for my bank passwords
which is probably still safe.

To address the OP, I would agree with skipping trim on both the user name
and password. If it's a copy-paste error, they will try again. If you want
to get fancy, warn when the password starts with or ends with spaces if it
comes back incorrect, but I think that's probably going to be so rare as not
to be worth the extra effort.

David


Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:

 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 03:11:56PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
 
 Specifically:
 
 Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 
 Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise a 
 system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an 
 issue then educate the users. 
 
 
 Wrong. I use a program called pwgen to generate passwords for me, which
 I cannot remember. I use another program I built to store them in an
 encrypted file. When I have to supply a password which I've forgotten
 (as usual), I fire up my password vault, find the password, and paste
 it wherever it's needed. Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
 this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.
 
 Paul
 
 -- 
 Paul M. Foster
 http://noferblatz.com
 

What is wrong? That users should not be copy-pasting passwords or don't 
compromise the system?

I agree that users should not use weak passwords, but not everyone goes 
everywhere with a vault. I am more then capable of memorizing 20 or so 16-32 
character full set passwords. 

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Paul M Foster
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:28:12PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:

 On Dec 28, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:
 
  On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 03:11:56PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
  
  Specifically:
  
  Dotan Cohen wrote:
  I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
  passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
  
  Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise 
  a system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an 
  issue then educate the users. 
  
  
  Wrong. I use a program called pwgen to generate passwords for me, which
  I cannot remember. I use another program I built to store them in an
  encrypted file. When I have to supply a password which I've forgotten
  (as usual), I fire up my password vault, find the password, and paste
  it wherever it's needed. Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
  this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.
  
  Paul
  
  -- 
  Paul M. Foster
  http://noferblatz.com
  
 
 What is wrong? That users should not be copy-pasting passwords or don't 
 compromise the system?
 
 I agree that users should not use weak passwords, but not everyone goes 
 everywhere with a vault. I am more then capable of memorizing 20 or so 16-32 
 character full set passwords. 
 

And so you assume everyone can do that? I can remember maybe 5 of the
passwords I regularly need. (I rarely repeat passwords for different
sites.) In addition, some passwords have been *assigned* to me and
cannot readily be changed (and are usually difficult to remember). Many
of the rest I so seldom use that it would be silly to try to remember
them. Particularly when I do have a password-locked file I can use to
record them for me.

Under the circumstances I described, I have yet to hear in what way
copying and pasting passwords compromises security of anything by
itself. Please enlighten me.

Paul

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http://noferblatz.com


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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Joshua Kehn
On Dec 28, 2010, at 11:51 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:

 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:28:12PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
 
 On Dec 28, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:
 
 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 03:11:56PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
 
 Specifically:
 
 Dotan Cohen wrote:
 I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
 passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 
 Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not compromise 
 a system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If this is an 
 issue then educate the users. 
 
 
 Wrong. I use a program called pwgen to generate passwords for me, which
 I cannot remember. I use another program I built to store them in an
 encrypted file. When I have to supply a password which I've forgotten
 (as usual), I fire up my password vault, find the password, and paste
 it wherever it's needed. Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
 this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.
 
 Paul
 
 -- 
 Paul M. Foster
 http://noferblatz.com
 
 
 What is wrong? That users should not be copy-pasting passwords or don't 
 compromise the system?
 
 I agree that users should not use weak passwords, but not everyone goes 
 everywhere with a vault. I am more then capable of memorizing 20 or so 16-32 
 character full set passwords. 
 
 
 And so you assume everyone can do that? I can remember maybe 5 of the
 passwords I regularly need. (I rarely repeat passwords for different
 sites.) In addition, some passwords have been *assigned* to me and
 cannot readily be changed (and are usually difficult to remember). Many
 of the rest I so seldom use that it would be silly to try to remember
 them. Particularly when I do have a password-locked file I can use to
 record them for me.
 
 Under the circumstances I described, I have yet to hear in what way
 copying and pasting passwords compromises security of anything by
 itself. Please enlighten me.
 
 Paul

I believe you misunderstood. I believe that trimming passwords to remove spaces 
is a compromise of the system, not the copy-paste. 

Regards,

-Josh

Joshua Kehn | josh.k...@gmail.com
http://joshuakehn.com



Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread David Hutto
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:51 PM, Paul M Foster pa...@quillandmouse.com wrote:
 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:28:12PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:

 On Dec 28, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:

  On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 03:11:56PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
 
  Specifically:
 
  Dotan Cohen wrote:
  I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames and
  passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
 
  Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not 
  compromise a system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. 
  If this is an issue then educate the users.
 
 
  Wrong. I use a program called pwgen to generate passwords for me, which
  I cannot remember. I use another program I built to store them in an
  encrypted file. When I have to supply a password which I've forgotten
  (as usual), I fire up my password vault, find the password, and paste
  it wherever it's needed. Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
  this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.
 
  Paul
 
  --
  Paul M. Foster
  http://noferblatz.com
 

 What is wrong? That users should not be copy-pasting passwords or don't 
 compromise the system?

 I agree that users should not use weak passwords, but not everyone goes 
 everywhere with a vault. I am more then capable of memorizing 20 or so 16-32 
 character full set passwords.


 And so you assume everyone can do that? I can remember maybe 5 of the
 passwords I regularly need. (I rarely repeat passwords for different
 sites.) In addition, some passwords have been *assigned* to me and
 cannot readily be changed (and are usually difficult to remember). Many
 of the rest I so seldom use that it would be silly to try to remember
 them. Particularly when I do have a password-locked file I can use to
 record them for me.

 Under the circumstances I described, I have yet to hear in what way
 copying and pasting passwords compromises security of anything by
 itself. Please enlighten me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but If you initially type the username and
password into a file, and you have, in my paranoid scenario, a
keylogger you don't know about, it get's logged, but also, i assume it
would get logged if you typed it in as well, on the site, or that
someone could lift the password if given the authority on your system,
correct?

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Re: [PHP] Static content at runtime

2010-12-28 Thread Donovan Brooke

k...@bitflop.com wrote:

Hi.

I am currently looking into improving a system that (like many systems)
generate static content at runtime.

I have always been against generating static content at runtime and
believe static content should be generated by a cronjob or manually at
some idle time (if possible).

This will provide real static content (no PHP at all) that doesn't need
to be checked every time a request is made hence a huge performance
benefit is achieved.



Does your needs really call for a publishing system at all? Back in the 
day, machines were slow and search engines didn't like much of the URL 
past the ?.. thus creative app design was needed to get around these 
issues, such as publishing systems and caching etc... Since it was 
stated you are improving a system.. I thought this would be something 
to consider.


Today, it's a lot easier to create a punctual, scalable, and search 
engine friendly app that doesn't use a publishing system (nor caching).
Anyway, my point is sometimes improving a system, can mean making it 
simpler. If publishing or caching is not needed, why complicate the 
matter?.. and btw, I found that Billy Hoffman article to be inaccurate 
in many of his assertions.


Cheers,
Donovan

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RE: [PHP] how would I do this?

2010-12-28 Thread Tommy Pham
 -Original Message-
 From: David McGlone [mailto:da...@dmcentral.net]
 Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 1:14 PM
 To: PHP
 Subject: [PHP] how would I do this?
 
 Hi all,
 
 I am trying to make the link in this code not show the underscore and I
can't
 figure out how I could do it. I've tried various different things I
thought
 would work. I've tried things like lawn_maintenance= lawn
 maintenance, I tried concatinating lawn . maintenance and various
 other things. The examples above both produce just the word lawn
 
  here's the code I have so far:
 
 $services = array(lawn_maintenance, core_areation, over_seeding,
 hedge_trimming, mulch_installation, natural_debris_removal,
 leaf_cleanup_removal, snow_plowing);
 

$services = array('Lawn Maintenance', 'Core Areation', 'Over Seeding',
'Hedge Trimming', 'Mulch Installation', 'Natural Debris Removal', 'Leaf
Cleanup Removal', 'Snow Plowing');

echo 'ul';

 foreach ($services as $service){
// echo ulliraquo; a
href=index.php?page=$service$service/a/li/ul;
echo 'lia href=index.php?page='.str_replace(' ', '_',
strtolower($service)).''.$service.'/a/li';
 }

echo '/ul';


Happy holidays, new year,  coding,
Tommy

 
 Could anyone give me a hand? Obviously I don't understand arrays very well
 :-/
 
 --
 Blessings
 David M.
 
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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread Paul M Foster
On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 12:00:01AM -0500, David Hutto wrote:

 On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:51 PM, Paul M Foster pa...@quillandmouse.com
 wrote:
  On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:28:12PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
 
  On Dec 28, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:
 
   On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 03:11:56PM -0500, Joshua Kehn wrote:
  
   Specifically:
  
   Dotan Cohen wrote:
   I seem to have an issue with users who copy-paste their usernames
 and
   passwords coping and pasting leading and trailing space characters.
  
   Users should not be copy-pasting passwords or usernames. Do not
 compromise a system to cater to bad [stupid, ignorant, you pick] users. If
 this is an issue then educate the users.
  
  
   Wrong. I use a program called pwgen to generate passwords for me, which
   I cannot remember. I use another program I built to store them in an
   encrypted file. When I have to supply a password which I've forgotten
   (as usual), I fire up my password vault, find the password, and paste
   it wherever it's needed. Users would be wise to follow a scheme like
   this, rather than using their dog's name or somesuch as their passwords.
  
   Paul
  
   --
   Paul M. Foster
   http://noferblatz.com
  
 
  What is wrong? That users should not be copy-pasting passwords or
 don't compromise the system?
 
  I agree that users should not use weak passwords, but not everyone
 goes everywhere with a vault. I am more then capable of memorizing 20 or
 so 16-32 character full set passwords.
 
 
  And so you assume everyone can do that? I can remember maybe 5 of the
  passwords I regularly need. (I rarely repeat passwords for different
  sites.) In addition, some passwords have been *assigned* to me and
  cannot readily be changed (and are usually difficult to remember). Many
  of the rest I so seldom use that it would be silly to try to remember
  them. Particularly when I do have a password-locked file I can use to
  record them for me.
 
  Under the circumstances I described, I have yet to hear in what way
  copying and pasting passwords compromises security of anything by
  itself. Please enlighten me.
 
 Correct me if I'm wrong, but If you initially type the username and
 password into a file, and you have, in my paranoid scenario, a
 keylogger you don't know about, it get's logged, but also, i assume it
 would get logged if you typed it in as well, on the site, or that
 someone could lift the password if given the authority on your system,
 correct?

Well, let's see. My system sits behind a firewall. No external services
are advertised to the internet. All internal addresses are non-routable.
I do not use or have any wifi. The system sits in my home office. I use
a Debian Linux system and practice very safe computing. I often
investigate little-known sites before surfing to them, and never accept
temptations to click on ads. In fact, I have my /etc/hosts file set up
to block the vast majority of ad servers (I see a fraction of the ads
most people see). I never download content of questionable origin, nor
accept it from others without investigating it first. I have a root kit
detector installed, which I periodically use. I'm the only person who
uses this computer. No one who enters this space is more knowledgeable
than I am about computers (= not capable of hacking a computer). And
suffice it to say that I'm easily capable of dropping an intruder in his
tracks from a distance should he enter my abode uninvited. Moreover, the
law here allows me to do so with impunity.

Now, theoretically, assuming I'm entering a password over an unencrypted
internet connecton (non-HTTPS), someone could theoretically capture that
password. However, I can't think of the last time I've been asked to do
such a thing, if ever. And if invited to do so, I would check first what
kind of content such a hacker would thereby gain access to. If the
content wasn't that important, then it wouldn't much matter to me if
they captured the password. (I've worked at places where a password on
in unencrypted internet-facing server would give someone access to the
bug-tracking system. Big deal.)

So, yes, on planet Epsilon-3-Bingo, perhaps. But here? Unlikely.

Paul

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Re: [PHP] Re: Do you trim() usernames and passwords?

2010-12-28 Thread David Hutto
It would seem that with in the streaming of information that moves
across networks, that such things as virus detection within these
networks(meaning governmental oversite of info...post 9/11), which, if
I'm not mistaken is regexing for matching strings of definitions, are
checked for as they stream through systems, leaving mainly encrypted
versions for release.

That way, even if they don't stop it, and watch it propagate(to see
what it does), then they still know you weren't a part of it.

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