On 3/29/21 6:02 PM, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 11:02:58PM +0100, Björn Persson wrote:
> Kevin Fenzi wrote:
>> I'd like us to add security query/respond pairs.
>
> Those can very easily weaken security, as the answers are often public
> and easy for an attacker to look up, especially when there are only a
> few predefined questions to choose from.
I was not advocating predefined questions. :)
> If I can enter my own question, then I can come up with some things
> that only I and my family know. That requires careful and security-
> conscious consideration. Many people would come up with insecure
> questions.
Well, I always use randomly generated words for mine.
But I agree, some people would make poor choices there.
> There's a limited supply of such personal secrets that I can be sure
> I'll remember, so I can't do that for too many sites. It also requires
> a not too public life. People who publish their entire lives on
> Facebook will have trouble coming up with a question that an attacker
> can't find the answer to.
Another reason to randomly generate.
[Snip]
But if randomly generating is best practice, why not automate it for the
user in the form of recovery codes? Take away the temptation to do
something insecure.