What is Digg?31 Comments
- netnerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dugg because that's interesting, but I have an explanation:
It is not always feasible to run an encrypted protocol on the network. This is especially true at a conference where they usually have open access points. It is just not logistically feasible to register each computer that is going to be using the network. Plus, most of the people at the convention wouldn't want to do that.
In the case of passwords, not all sites offer SSL login pages so the passwords have to be transmitted in plaintext, unless the user is running through an proxy (presumably running IPSec). - jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have a question here, it's just the channel that's unencrypted, you really don't have a choice whether the protocal you use is. Besides, any important password authentication system won't be unencrypted, and readable even if the channel is. Email clients, ssh sessions, vnc sessions, logging into a bank website using https, even some webemail authentication takes place in https, even AIM does some variation on rot13?
So what are they sniffing exactly? Passwords to sites like Digg? - schrags, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If your anywhere but your house, channel all of your vunerable traffic through an ssh tunnel on a pc at your house.
- kkessler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They are sniffing clear text authentication things like POP/SMTP, telnet, & FTP
- outpour, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes that is my question. What exactly is that site sniffing? Traffic in their intranet? Do they have a router or something that general internet traffic is flowing through?
- craigtheguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Many mail protocols use plaintext passwords and until all service providers enable SSL for mail this is what we're left with. In the case of those "hot" passwords, my guess is that they are POP email passwords with email apps set to check for new mail every 5 minutes or so.
- stray, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Wait, wait; "Hackers" taught me that the most commonly-used passwords were "god", "sex", "love" and "secret". I don't see those there at all!
- PurpleMeteor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What is a "plaintext network protocol"? A protocol is a set of rules you have to follow in order to achieve something. But this is more like "plaintext password" or "lack of cryptography"...
- SamMiller0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"No *****, sherlock. But what network(s) are they monitoring for that data?"
SCinet builds and supports the network each year for the supercomputing (SC) conference. The network consists of wireless, wired ethernet, infiniband, and some other experimental networks. For about 1 week each year during the SC conference, the convention center becomes the most wired place on the planet:
http://scinet.supercomp.org/SCinet-2005-public.pdf
The passwords they grab come from people inside the conference network, presumably most of them are attendees using laptops on the wireless network. - orabox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Look, this is bad. First off this is a Supercomputer conference think about it, mainly university academics and such. Their infrastructure is a mixture of state of the art and super old dinosaurs. It is hard enough for business to get away from clear text passwords I am sure they have some big issues as demonstrated by sc05.org but…
What is bad is that the file is out there for want reason? Sco05.org hello? Is this a joke? Publicity stunt? What purpose did this page serve? - osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Which network protocol are you referring to? IP?
- *narf*, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0for testing and whatnot I use plain text all the time, its easier and quicker to debug.. just use a low security 'testing' password for it who cares if someone sniffs it, if they have access to nothing useful thats going to be taken offline in a few minutes anyway.
- zone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"If your anywhere but your house, channel all of your vunerable traffic through an ssh tunnel on a pc at your house."
you do that with the windows xp built in VPN or what? thanks! - sublime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0SSH tunneling is nice but only works for some things (smtp, web browsing and such). Use VPN and enable the setting to *redirect your gateway* to the remote VPN server. That is important. That way, any outbound traffic is encrypted and you dont have to reconfigure your settings at all.
My explanation on why people still use cleartext in 2005: They are ignorant to what is going on. - cyberdave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0lol...doesn't movies teach us anything? Why is my phone number on one of those passwords? God i hate the internet... :)
- trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0With passwords like "password" and "abc123" I don't really think some of these people care about security at all.
- Qwertie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Antiwmac, thanks for the criticism and all, but can you explain why POP, SMTP, SNMP, FTP, Telnet and HTTP can't be described as plaintext network protocols?
- isny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I find it totally bizarre that 'matsu402' was used 1000+ times while abc123 was only 63.
- sublime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm sure the submitter meant "network protocols which use plaintext passwords"
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> Look, this is bad. First off this is a Supercomputer conference think
> about it, mainly university academics and such
Yeah... if their computers are so "super", they should be cracking the encrypted passwords in real time. - SilverRocket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A lot of ISPs, not to mention shared webhosts (millions of sites) don't even have password encryption implemented for any email server communication whatsoever... and lots of webhosts don't even offer sftp!!
- Philip_McClure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks like the author of the brute force SSH attack that's going around just got a decent cache of username/passord pairs to seed his proggie, with no effort on his part.
I mean, these *are* workin pairs, right? - Danathar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok..first of all...I did ***** up the title. Look, I was in my hotel room writing it after 3 beers, so give me a freaking break! Yea, I KNOW there is no such thing as a cleartext network protocol, but the text BELOW the title does clear it up a little!
- amitrix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1holy *****!! how did they know my dog's name????
- mburns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Plaintext protocols is a valid (and common) term that means the protocol isn't encrypted. POP, SMTP, SNMP, FTP, Telnet, HTTP, and others, send passwords in plaintext, as in, they don't encrypt the password (or data payload in general) at all.
The conference was sniffing (listening to) the network traffic from the various laptop or workstations on site. While this can be done with a wireless card and a laptop, they might have used a workstation plugged into a hub or similar setup. - battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0sftp!!
posted by SilverRocket (2)
Its WAY too new for most ISPs.
I dont know of ONE ISP that offers it externally to there customers - not even VDS customers. - antiwmac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0whats ISP got to do with sftp?
or you mean hosting server?
if they offer you ssh, they probably have sftp running.. but low chance. - zyphbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks like "password" and "trygod" (quote from 'Hackers') are still used ALOT. Though I'm thinking the number of times could be 1] a certian user is using the same password for all of their accounts (Always bad to do), or 2] it is seeing such a high number of hits for the same password due to how many times someone logs into certian sites like FTP/POP (which more than likely means they have it set to "check" their email every minute, which would hit some of those high numbers quickly).
- antiwmac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0>"plaintext network protocol"
looks like this digg starter doesnt even know a thing, or just that he/she want to pretend like a hacker, but.. "planetext network protocol" made me laugh, nice making-up-your-own-protocol.
I think it was sniffed from telnet, since there is a link to ssh - battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Because people r still using Win98?
- gbm85, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0"They are sniffing clear text authentication things like POP/SMTP, telnet, & FTP"
No *****, sherlock. But what network(s) are they monitoring for that data?
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