on the security of this plugin..

[ikiwiki.git] / doc / plugins / contrib / unixauth / discussion.mdwn

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+The security of this plugin scares me. As noted in the plugin
+documentation, you basically have to use it with SSL, since snooping on the
+login password doesn't give you an essentially useless account -- it gives
+you an actual account on the machine!
+
+Also, apparently pwauth defers *all* auth attempts if one fails, and it
+does this by using a lock file, and sleeping after a failed auth attempt.
+Which is needed to avoid brute-forcing, since this is a significant
+password.. but how will that interact with ikiwiki? Well, ikiwiki _also_
+uses a lock file. So, at a minimum, someone can not only try to brute-force
+the pwauth password, but the ikiwiki processes that stack up due to that
+will also keep ikiwiki's lock held. Which basically DOSes the wiki for
+everyone else; noone else can try to log in, or log out, or edit a page,
+all of which require taking the lock.
+
+So I don't think I'll be accepting this plugin into ikiwiki itself..
+--[[Joey]]