From 25945b8fead989cca09a23983623b63ce36dcc0c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Cleberg Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2024 20:11:17 -0600 Subject: feat: total re-write from Emacs org-mode to Zola markdown --- content/blog/2019-12-16-password-security.md | 126 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 126 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/blog/2019-12-16-password-security.md (limited to 'content/blog/2019-12-16-password-security.md') diff --git a/content/blog/2019-12-16-password-security.md b/content/blog/2019-12-16-password-security.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9c5318 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2019-12-16-password-security.md @@ -0,0 +1,126 @@ ++++ +date = 2019-12-16 +title = "Password Security" +description = "Password security basics." ++++ + +# Users + +## Why Does It Matter? + +Information security, including passwords and identities, has become one +of the most important digital highlights of the last decade. With +[billions of people affected by data breaches each +year](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/28/data-breaches-2018-billions-hit-growing-number-cyberattacks/2413411002/), +there's a greater need to introduce strong information security +systems. If you think you've been part of a breach, or you want to +check and see, you can use [Have I Been +Pwned](https://haveibeenpwned.com/) to see if your email has been +involved in any public breaches. Remember that there's a possibility +that a company experienced a breach and did not report it to anyone. + +## How Do I Protect Myself? + +The first place to start with any personal security check-up is to +gather a list of all the different websites, apps, or programs that +require you to have login credentials. Optionally, once you know where +your information is being stored, you can sort the list from the +most-important items such as banks or government logins to less +important items such as your favorite meme site. You will want to ensure +that your critical logins are secure before getting to the others. + +Once you think you have a good idea of all your different authentication +methods, I recommend using a password manager such as +[Bitwarden](https://bitwarden.com/). Using a password manager allows you +to automatically save your logins, create randomized passwords, and +transfer passwords across devices. However, you'll need to memorize +your "vault password" that allows you to open the password manager. +It's important to make this something hard to guess since it would +allow anyone who has it to access every password you've stored in +there. + +Personally, I recommend using a +[passphrase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passphrase) instead of a +[password](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password) for your vault +password. Instead of using a string of characters (whether random or +simple), use a phrase and add in symbols and a number. For example, your +vault password could be `Racing-Alphabet-Gourd-Parrot3`. Swap +the symbols out for whichever symbol you want, move the number around, +and fine-tune the passphrase until you are confident that you can +remember it whenever necessary. + +Once you've stored your passwords, make sure you continually check up +on your account and make sure you aren't following bad password +practices. Krebs on Security has a great [blog post on password +recommendations](https://krebsonsecurity.com/password-dos-and-donts/). +Any time that a data breach happens, make sure you check to see if you +were included, and if you need to reset any account passwords. + +# Developers + +## What Are the Basic Requirements? + +When developing any password-protected application, there are a few +basic rules that anyone should follow even if they do not follow any +official guidelines such as NIST. The foremost practice is to require +users to use passwords that are at least 8 characters and cannot easily +be guessed. This sounds extremely simple, but it requires quite a few +different strategies. First, the application should check the potential +passwords against a dictionary of insecure passwords such +`password`, `1234abc`, or +`application_name`. + +Next, the application should offer guidance on the strength of passwords +being entered during enrollment. Further, NIST officially recommends +**not** implementing any composition rules that make passwords hard to +remember (e.g. passwords with letters, numbers, and special characters) +and instead encouraging the use of long pass phrases which can include +spaces. It should be noted that to be able to keep spaces within +passwords, all unicode characters should be supported, and passwords +should not be truncated. + +## What Does NIST Recommend? + +The National Institute of Standards and Technology +([NIST](https://www.nist.gov)) in the US Department of Commerce +regularly publishes information around information security and digital +identity guidelines. Recently, NIST published [Special Publication +800-63b](https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html): Digital +Identity Guidelines and Authentication and Lifecycle Management. + +> A Memorized Secret authenticator - commonly referred to as a password +> or, if numeric, a PIN - is a secret value intended to be chosen and +> memorized by the user. Memorized secrets need to be of sufficient +> complexity and secrecy that it would be impractical for an attacker to +> guess or otherwise discover the correct secret value. A memorized +> secret is something you know. +> +> - NIST Special Publication 800-63B + +NIST offers a lot of guidance on passwords, but I'm going to highlight +just a few of the important factors: + +- Require passwords to be a minimum of 8 characters (6 characters if + randomly generated and be generated using an approved random bit + generator). +- Compare potential passwords against a list that contains values + known to be commonly-used, expected, or compromised. +- Offer guidance on password strength, such as a strength meter. +- Implement a rate-limiting mechanism to limit the number of failed + authentication attempts for each user account. +- Do not require composition rules for passwords and do not require + passwords to be changed periodically (unless compromised). +- Allow pasting of user identification and passwords to facilitate the + use of password managers. +- Allow users to view the password as it is being entered. +- Use secure forms of communication and storage, including salting and + hashing passwords using a one-way key derivation function. + +NIST offers further guidance on other devices that require specific +security policies, querying for passwords, and more. All the information +discussed so far comes from [NIST +SP800-63b](https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html) but NIST +offers a lot of information on digital identities, enrollment, identity +proofing, authentication, lifecycle management, federation, and +assertions in the total [NIST SP800-63 Digital Identity +Guidelines](https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/). -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2