Passwords are a part of our every day life. It is no wonder they are under such scrutiny, with many breaches focusing on them. We all know how to manage our passwords, or at least we should by now. We know that we should change our passwords every once in a while, especially if we believe they may have been a part of a recent breach. What about those access tokens? Access tokens are typically used by your mobile devices to access your account without the need for you to enter in your username … [Read more...] about Should Password Change Invalidate All Access Tokens?
secure design
Sharing with Social Media
Does your application provide a way for users to share their progress or success with others through social media? Are you thinking about adding that feature in the future? Everyone loves to share their stories with their friends and colleagues, but as application developers we need to make sure that we are considering the security aspects of how we go about that. Take-Aways Use the APIs when talking to another service Don't accept credentials to other systems out of your control Check … [Read more...] about Sharing with Social Media
Disabling Paste for Passwords?
Passwords, while a simple concept, are one of the most complex issues in security. A majority of user authenticated systems rely on a password to verify the end user. Over the years we have seen many different recommendations for strong passwords. I have talked about this subject many times. The complexity, while difficult to define, has gotten more difficult over time. At first, it was 8 characters with upper, lower case characters and a number or special character. The focus has … [Read more...] about Disabling Paste for Passwords?
Black Lists and White Lists: Overview
I came across an interesting post on twitter the other day (https://twitter.com/suffert/status/567486188383379456) that depicts a sidewalk with a sign indicating what wasn't allowed on the sidewalk. You have seen these before: NO bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, roller skates, scooters. In the information technology sector, this is known as a black list; a list that defines what is NOT allowed or permitted. You can see black lists all over the place, input validation, output encoding, … [Read more...] about Black Lists and White Lists: Overview