Tagged Questions

3
votes
3answers
138 views

Securely feeding a program with a password

After understanding the problem with using a password in the command line, I need to find a way of feeding a program with a password without it being a problem (without the password being recorded ...
23
votes
3answers
1k views

Why shouldn't someone use passwords in the command line?

Why do people fear writing passwords in the command line? The history file is located in ~/.history, so it's available only to the user who executed the commands (and root).
2
votes
1answer
44 views

Nemo: Forget encryption password

I have mounted an encrypted disk by selecting it in Nemo (1.1.2), then typing a password. I can unmount the disk using Nemo, but now it can be remounted without requiring the password. Probably ...
2
votes
1answer
81 views

wpa_supplicant store password as hash (WPA-EAP with phase2=“auth=PAP”)

Is there a way to store my password in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf as some hash instead of plaintext? By "password" I refer here to the password used for phase2 authentification. I do not ...
1
vote
1answer
117 views

Setting the root password vs. sudo -i

Should one always set a root password, or is sudo -i acceptable? Two problems is in reading other posts (maybe junk I realize): sudo -i eliminates the need for a password. Isn't that a problem for ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views

Apache boot without asking for passwd

So I'm maintaining a server which has a verified SSL certificate setup, however there is a password on the private key and so whenever apache is reboot, we get a message asking for the password. This ...
3
votes
3answers
410 views

Stracing su and ssh shows the password. Is this a security flaw or am I missing something?

I'm currently fascinated by strace so, being new to it, I decided to play around a little. As suggested by the question title, I tried both strace su and strace ssh. Both commands displayed the ...
2
votes
1answer
114 views

Security drawbacks of disabling tty password check

I found that, in /etc/inittab, this modification (-a username) for the user u disables the login/password check for all tty:s: 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -a u 38400 tty1 2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -a u ...
1
vote
1answer
594 views

Can I automate mounting a cifs share without storing my password in plaintext?

I currently use a script which contains commands along the lines of sudo /sbin/mount.cifs $SERVER_SHARE $MOUNT -o username=$DOMAIN_$USER,uid=$USER,gid=$USER,file_mode=0664,dir_mode=0775 to mount my ...
5
votes
1answer
214 views

Automated ssh login with passphrase?

Logging onto a machine over ssh typically requires a password to be entered before access is granted. Alternatively, a key/certificate (without a passphrase) can be installed onto the remote machine ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views

SSH authentication: either SSH keys or one time password

I have an Ubuntu 10.04 Linux server that I normally ssh into (from my home machine) using ssh key authentication. However, sometimes I need to ssh remotely from potentially insecure machines (like ...
2
votes
2answers
130 views

Is it possible (and a good idea) to do `pw lock root` on FreeBSD?

I have set up sudo on my FreeBSD server. As I now never want to log in as root anymore, I was wondering whether I should do sudo pw lock root. My questions are: Is this possible, without forever ...
2
votes
4answers
477 views

sudo without password - security? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What specific vulnerabilities am I creating by disabling the sudo password? I'm involved yet again in the old argument on whether sudo without password is secure enough ...
8
votes
1answer
149 views

Does ssh-agent store my passphrase?

Is it possible to determine the passphrases of private keys added to ssh-agent? I'm thinking along the lines of someone with root privileges trying to find out my passphrase after I have added the ...
5
votes
2answers
996 views

Can KWallet manage my ssh passwords?

I need a way to store some SSH passwords. Note that these are login passwords which I need to pass to ssh; key authentication is unfortunately not an option. I'd like to be able to have KWallet fill ...
2
votes
1answer
369 views

root password changed automatically

I have my system on dual boot (win7 and RHEL 6). I have 2 user account on RHEL 6. A normal user and a root user. I put passwords of both accounts same. It was working fine from 5 6 days. Yesterday I ...
2
votes
1answer
276 views

A local, centralized, secure way to store FTP login data, including passwords

I want to be able to store the login details all of my remote FTP accounts in one place, securely. Then I'd like clients like autofs/curlftpfs, Filezilla, etc to use this one store of passwords. I'm ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views

GNOME-keyring KWallet integration?

I use some GNOME apps, and some KDE apps, so some of them use G-keyring and some KWallet... What I would like to have is a single place for managing passwords. Is there a way to integrate G-keyring ...
5
votes
7answers
1k views

Is there a way to store Firefox passwords in a local encrypted database in Linux?

I want Firefox to "remember" my passwords so I don't have to type them in; unfortunately, the built-in password manager stores them in plain text, which is too high a security risk. I'd like to find a ...
11
votes
3answers
292 views

What specific vulnerabilities am I creating by disabling the sudo password?

Here are some instructions on how to disable your sudo password. These carry the following warning If you disable the sudo password for your account, you will seriously compromise the security of ...
4
votes
3answers
188 views

Randomise or shred memory of an application

Is it possible to randomise or shred memory of a particular application just after its life ends, or better, whenever it deallocates some memory? A command-line utility like this would be perfect: ...
31
votes
2answers
10k views

Why is there a big delay after entering a wrong password?

I notice a weird (well, according to me) thing about passwords. For example, if I type an incorrect password during login, there will be a few seconds' delay before the system tells me so. When I try ...
6
votes
4answers
707 views

How to set up two-factor authentication with OTP on FreeBSD?

I have a FreeBSD hosted server that I like to be able to get to from anywhere. Normally I use SSH publickey to log in, or if I don't have my SSH private key available then I might use regular password ...
2
votes
8answers
1k views

How to give a normal user permission to change root password

Please do not ask why, but is it possible to do it? p/s: I know it's not a good thing, let's just say someone from the top management who is computer illiterate want some sort of control over the ...
4
votes
3answers
301 views

Something like pwgen-win for linux?

Is there some kind of pwd generator for Linux that has a nice GUI and options like this one for Windows? I know that there is pwgen, but as far as I know it does not support mouse/keyboard entropy and ...
16
votes
10answers
929 views

How to create strong passwords in Linux?

I wonder how I can create strong passwords on Linux (for both normal and admin users) and if there are specific programs to do that.