And despite security recommendations, too many IT depts still force password resets every 90 days...
And people confronted with this change their password from "p@55w0rd!1" to "p@55w0rd@2". Yep extra-secure!
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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At some point most security recommendations are self-defeating.
Hey, how do you know my password?
I work in the IT section of a bank and they force a change every 30 days and can only have an 8 character password no more no less 🙃
Seems like a job for Bobby tables
@278 and going strong, across 7 companies. One time, just to mix things up, I used an exclamation mark instead. It was exhilerating. /s
Some IT guys have caught on to this and require 2 digits difference.
So "ThisJobSucks#11" becomes "ThisJobSucks#22"
How would they know how many digits changed? They don't store the password in cleartext.
Right?
...
Well they don't need to store it to a drive. You just entered your old password in order to login and authorise your password change.
It'll still be in memory against your session.
Used to have monthly changes for a Microsoft account. When trying to change, it said "You used this password 6 months ago, please use another", besides the "passwords needs to be at least this different" message. Clearly they are storing them, not sure if they're stored cleartext or they're decrypting them on the fly somehow
You should not be able to decrypt a password, passwords aren't encrypted but hashed, they would be insecure would they be encrypted.
Hashing differs from encryption in that it is irreversible, because two or more strings might result in the same hash if the hashing function is applied to them (hashing is not injective).
But since your password will always yield the same hash you can compare the two hashes and if they are equal you are considered authenticated. If you try to log in with a different password (or even the hash of the correct password) then it will produce a different hash resulting in a failed authentication attempt
The way crackers get a password if they have the hash is by guessing pw candidates and using the hash function on them, if its the same as the hash they have they found the/a valid password. The guessing can be quite involved and with enough time and data about a victim often 12-13 digit passwords with special characters and all can be cracked - If the victim used a somewhat mnemonic pw that is. Generated pws from a password safe are much safer (but usually also longer).
In your case I suspect MS was storing a history of hashes which is not advisable as it gives potential crackers more to work with, but its way less bad then storing plain text or encrypting passwords
No you don't need to store anything in clear text to check password parameters
A job I quit about 6mos ago required monthly changes. It was awful. And, yes, it absolutely led to me just incrementing a number at the end. I knew it was time to quit when I was about to hit double digit numbers.
you're saying not to hold a job for more than 10 months?
It was a joke.
But also, holding a shitty toxic job for 10mos took a mental health toll.
But also, I don't know, in some cases that might be good advice. Since 2020 I've changed jobs every 6-10mos and I'm making triple what I made in 2019, so that's nice.
{Sitename}+{SaLt}+{yymmdd of password change} easy peasy
I college we had to change our password every semester. Guess who added the semester number onto the end of their password. Hint: everyone.
Same as a government job that required monthly password changes. Well, at least those people had more security than the post-it note on the monitor people
NavyExchange!(ddmm of password change) for as long as I worked there, it was really only to use a register though, I had nothing compromising behind the password lock.
Why am I in this picture?
If it helps, I think we’re all in this picture at some point lol.
Who still isn't using a password manager?
The most infuriating part is when this happens while using a password from a password manager
The fact this happens is infuriating. 😣
Then you finally do the password change, go to login and now the new password doesn't work because you copied it to clipboard and overwrote it somehow in that small time frame goddamn shit! I always win+r and put it there until I know everything is all good.
What if I were to tell you my password manager password is the most vulnerable of all?
Nobody would guess it's hunter2.
I only see ******* when you type hunter2
Thank God!
You should really upgrade to hunter3
But how did you see it? I used the spoiler tag
/s
Mine is bigboipassword123. Can't dictionary attack it cuz boi isn't in the dictionary.
P455w3rd
My parents. All written down on paper in handy notebooks for anyone that breaks in. Two entire lives and everything in them just there for the taking.
If I recall, a few (most) security experts now support written-on-paper passwords. Why? Because it is the solution for users who would otherwise commit far a more egregious security faux pas otherwise.
In most circumstances, it is easier to keep the notebook secure than your wallet, your car, etc. And let's be honest, the list of suspects are REALLY short if someone breaks into your house, opens the third drawer, grabs the notebook and runs. And if it's more than that and somebody ransacks your entire house, I guarantee having to change your passwords is the least of your headaches.
Ultimately, physical compromise is the lowest possible security risk for most people throughout their lives. Yes, it happens. Yes, it sucks. But having your bank password out in the wild with nobody realizing it is possibly far more dangerous.
I promise you that does not help.
I suspect a large number of these incidents are due to the password field in the login page allowing fewer characters than the field in the sign up page, so the password gets truncated. A couple of help desk meat shields have confirmed that for me, but mostly I think this because it seems to fix itself if I use a shorter password.
How short, you ask? Who tf knows! They sure as shit won't tell you! Just spend the next 20 minutes trying shit til it works, because you have nothing better to do with your time!
My company doesn't tell you what the AD policy is for changing your domain logon password but windows will just tell you that it doesn't meet the policy. What IS the password policy you ask?
Well it's uh... 🤷♂️
Try again!
I am annoyed on your behalf.
I've had goons tell me they can't tell me the character max because of "security"
Ah, of course! Security through obscurity.
Stelth
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And that’s why I generate my passwords randomly.
Thank you Bitwarden.
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Whelp…reevaluate life.
We need the bonus frame showing a funeral occurring, let's make this dark.
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