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Out-of-Scope Wishful Thinking

Written by Evan Schuman
November 17th, 2009
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Isn’t it wonderful how many security vendors are so altruistic that they leap to the microphone to point out the failings of their industry? Somehow, though, solely to advance reality and context, they volunteer that this particular shortcomings don’t apply to their product or service.

That vendor helpfulness—especially when it comes to helping retailers navigate the treacherous PCI out-of-scope minefield—is the subject of StorefrontBacktalk’s security column this week on the new McAfee security blog.


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Most Recent Comments

Kill All The Passwords

This article does mention, but does not give enough attention to, the fact that the attacks discussed are only feasible when the encrypted password file can be copied and subjected to an offline attack. The trick is to have authentication performed on a separate, much more strongly secured host - such as an Active Directory Domain Controller, or a Kerberos server, or a NIS+ server, or even using something as banal as an LDAP-over-SSL authentication dialog. In these environments, the odds of the "password file" being stolen and subjected to an offline attack go to near zero, and only online attacks may be carried out by the attacker. With sensible exponential backoff between failed password attempts, lockout after a modest number of failed attempts on a single account, and pattern detection, that minimum 7 character password is quite secure enough. Passwords aren't dead yet for security purposes, and they will be with us for a very long while to come for practical purposes. The trick is to employ them correctly. Read more...
The possibilities you describe are years away from being implemented at best, so for the moment passwords are an ugly reality. Luckily, password managers can easily manage hundreds of passwords of any length. The only thing a user needs to remember is the master password. It seems like an easier task to educate users on how to use password managers rather than implement complex security technology on a global basis. Read more...