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ppurka
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Joined: 26 Dec 2004
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 Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:14 am Post subject: oh no! wifi passwordsare stored in plain text! |
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http://www.itworld.com/open-source/397843/did-ubuntu-goof-storing-wi-fi-passwords-clear-text
That is so incredibly bad! Now we need a pass-me-the-word-kit (pmtwkit) that will securely store our wifi passwords using 16384 bit one-way encryption. This will be futuristic kit using which networkmanager will be able to query for the password using dbus and pmtwkit will return you the password via dbus.
However, there is just one problem. All these low level wpa_supplicant, dhcpcd do not understand dbus and so do not fit this model. Dbus-aware networking component should be integrated with systemd to efficiently and transparently talk over dbus with networkmanager. After these changes wpa_supplicant, dhcp clients, etc will not be supported anymore. In the far future, we in fact need to merge nm into systemd so that there is no need to even use dbus. At that point we can deprecate pmtwkit.
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Muso
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Joined: 22 Oct 2002
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Location: The Holy city of Honolulu
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| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:18 am Post subject: Re: oh no! wifi passwordsare stored in plain text! |
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| ppurka wrote: | | That is so incredibly bad! |
Beyond bad, it's stupid.
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Bones McCracker
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Joined: 14 Mar 2006
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Location: U.S.A.
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| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:12 pm Post subject: Re: oh no! wifi passwordsare stored in plain text! |
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| ppurka wrote: | http://www.itworld.com/open-source/397843/did-ubuntu-goof-storing-wi-fi-passwords-clear-text
That is so incredibly bad! Now we need a pass-me-the-word-kit (pmtwkit) that will securely store our wifi passwords using 16384 bit one-way encryption. This will be futuristic kit using which networkmanager will be able to query for the password using dbus and pmtwkit will return you the password via dbus.
However, there is just one problem. All these low level wpa_supplicant, dhcpcd do not understand dbus and so do not fit this model. Dbus-aware networking component should be integrated with systemd to efficiently and transparently talk over dbus with networkmanager. After these changes wpa_supplicant, dhcp clients, etc will not be supported anymore. In the far future, we in fact need to merge nm into systemd so that there is no need to even use dbus. At that point we can deprecate pmtwkit. |
What is sad is that this is frighteningly close to the truth. It makes me want to bang my head on the table. |
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ppurka
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| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:57 pm Post subject: Re: oh no! wifi passwordsare stored in plain text! |
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| BoneKracker wrote: | | What is sad is that this is frighteningly close to the truth. It makes me want to bang my head on the table. |
It's a reflection of the past projected on to the future. 
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salahx
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| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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The files (though not the directory itself) /etc/NetworkManager/system-connection has permissions of 600, so only root can read them anyway. So this is a non-concern.
Second, pmtwkit already exists (although i am unsure if its been implemented or not) - http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/secret-storage-spec/ . Although that service is a per-user service, it would make less sense to create a system one since the user keyring are encrypted using the user's password, no such password exists (unless the system has a TPM or similar) on the system so it no better than what's already being done now. |
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McSwartz
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| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm also trying to understand what the big deal is. |
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pjp
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Posts: 16223
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:43 pm Post subject: Re: oh no! wifi passwordsare stored in plain text! |
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| ppurka wrote: | | Now we need [...] However, there is just one problem. All these [...] do not fit this model. |
systemd.
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Greens
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Joined: 23 Aug 2013
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| Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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It actually requires root access to read it.
If someone suspicious has root access to your computer or is sitting there booting a livecd to look at your unencrypted disk, I don't think they care much about your wifi password, maybe they'd check it to see if your using it for anything else. |
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Bones McCracker
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| Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah, fuck it. |
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Naib
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| Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Greens wrote: | It actually requires root access to read it.
If someone suspicious has root access to your computer or is sitting there booting a livecd to look at your unencrypted disk, I don't think they care much about your wifi password, maybe they'd check it to see if your using it for anything else. |
exactly... as wswartzendruber posted as well...
thats why I don't mind my samba credential files are "plain text" since they are 600 anyway...
for them to read that and my wifi files... some srs issues must have occured. Nice if they were encrypted BUT if non-root users or non-root process do not need to read them then ... its a problem for another day rather than feeding the sysd monster pushing into the linux userland.
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Bones McCracker
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| Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah, that's all the security anybody needs: root access or no root access. |
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ppurka
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Joined: 26 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 7:14 am Post subject: |
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I guess the ubuntu guys panic because of the bad way sudo is (mis)configured in their systems - any command can be run with sudo, and once credentials are provided, the user remains authenticated for about 15 or so minutes.
Ideally, they either should enable sudo only for some very specific applications by default (package manager, system settings like time, etc), OR they should simply not enable sudo with a timeout. Ask for the user password every single time one needs to access anything using sudo.
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