From e2612c7873a9bbc79e9c250e700d634792570e59 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joey Hess Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:19:53 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] on the security of this plugin.. --- doc/plugins/contrib/unixauth/discussion.mdwn | 17 +++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/plugins/contrib/unixauth/discussion.mdwn diff --git a/doc/plugins/contrib/unixauth/discussion.mdwn b/doc/plugins/contrib/unixauth/discussion.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 000000000..162e5d323 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/plugins/contrib/unixauth/discussion.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +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]] -- 2.45.0