[SAC] passwords being sent in clear text

Do you guys get a lot of these? This is just mailman being mailman,
but it's the second irate "you have a security problem" mail I've
gotten in just a couple months.
p

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jason Quinn <jason.lee.quinn@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 9:11 AM
Subject: passwords being sent in clear text
To: pramsey@cleverelephant.ca

I just got a "reminder" email from mailman-owner@lists.osgeo.org about
my subscription information. You are listed on the website as the
maintainer. The reminder e-mail contains my e-mail address and
listserv password sent in clear text. It even contains the word
"password" which is one of the first things a packet sniffing cracker
would filter on. This is clearly a security issue. Please fix this.

I have not seen such a request before. I will note that the behavior is
the same for every mailman list I'm subscribed to on the web. I don't
think mailing list preference passwords are typically considered secure.

That said, it's not a bad idea to research options to make it more secure.

Quick search says, we should simply disable the monthly reminders.
Supposedly updates to mailman years ago should have moved to hashed
passwords and not auto-mailing them, but I don't see any evidence that
those patches were ever released.

Thanks,
Alex

On 12/01/2012 10:07 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:

Do you guys get a lot of these? This is just mailman being mailman,
but it's the second irate "you have a security problem" mail I've
gotten in just a couple months.
p

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jason Quinn <jason.lee.quinn@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 9:11 AM
Subject: passwords being sent in clear text
To: pramsey@cleverelephant.ca

I just got a "reminder" email from mailman-owner@lists.osgeo.org about
my subscription information. You are listed on the website as the
maintainer. The reminder e-mail contains my e-mail address and
listserv password sent in clear text. It even contains the word
"password" which is one of the first things a packet sniffing cracker
would filter on. This is clearly a security issue. Please fix this.
_______________________________________________
Sac mailing list
Sac@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/sac

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev@wildintellect.com> wrote:

I have not seen such a request before. I will note that the behavior is
the same for every mailman list I’m subscribed to on the web. I don’t
think mailing list preference passwords are typically considered secure.

That said, it’s not a bad idea to research options to make it more secure.

Quick search says, we should simply disable the monthly reminders.
Supposedly updates to mailman years ago should have moved to hashed
passwords and not auto-mailing them, but I don’t see any evidence that
those patches were ever released.

It may be good policy to universally disable this.

Right now the user already has complete control and can make their own decisions.

Copied from logging into an OSGeo list:

Get password reminder email for this list?

Once a month, you will get an email containing a password reminder for every list at this host to which you are subscribed. You can turn this off on a per-list basis by selecting No for this option. If you turn off password reminders for all the lists you are subscribed to, no reminder email will be sent to you.

No
Yes

Set globally

Is this thread about universally establishing good policy for all users or helping 1 user change their settings to how they like them?

Eli

Thanks,
Alex

On 12/01/2012 10:07 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:

Do you guys get a lot of these? This is just mailman being mailman,
but it’s the second irate “you have a security problem” mail I’ve
gotten in just a couple months.
p

I just got a “reminder” email from mailman-owner@lists.osgeo.org about
my subscription information. You are listed on the website as the
maintainer. The reminder e-mail contains my e-mail address and
listserv password sent in clear text. It even contains the word
“password” which is one of the first things a packet sniffing cracker
would filter on. This is clearly a security issue. Please fix this.


Sac mailing list
Sac@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/sac


Sac mailing list
Sac@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/sac

On 12/01/2012 11:27 AM, Eli Adam wrote:

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev@wildintellect.com>wrote:

I have not seen such a request before. I will note that the behavior is
the same for every mailman list I'm subscribed to on the web. I don't
think mailing list preference passwords are typically considered secure.

That said, it's not a bad idea to research options to make it more secure.

Quick search says, we should simply disable the monthly reminders.
Supposedly updates to mailman years ago should have moved to hashed
passwords and not auto-mailing them, but I don't see any evidence that
those patches were ever released.

It may be good policy to universally disable this.

Right now the user already has complete control and can make their own
decisions.

Copied from logging into an OSGeo list:

*Get password reminder email for this list?*

Once a month, you will get an email containing a password reminder for
every list at this host to which you are subscribed. You can turn this off
on a per-list basis by selecting *No* for this option. If you turn off
password reminders for all the lists you are subscribed to, no reminder
email will be sent to you.
No
Yes

*Set globally*

Is this thread about universally establishing good policy for all users or
helping 1 user change their settings to how they like them?

Eli

Universal good policy. Users seem to expect the default to be that a
password is somewhat secure (even if its not true or they are told it
isn't so). Note I have not seen a way to do this for all lists at once,
might need to be done 1 list at a time. I have also failed to find where
to set it to store encrypted passwords.

Yes, users can opt out of the reminders themselves, I have my doubts
users will ever find/see that. I'll note password notification can be
requested from the list page at any time by any user who needs it, so
disabling the reminders loses no functionality.

Some have noted that mailman for regular users shouldn't even bother
with passwords as everything could be done via email verification
(things sent to the email address).

Any mailman admins up for trying to change the settings? Perhaps
changing the default value for new list creation too?

Thanks,
Alex

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Hash: SHA1

SAC,
I'll make a motion to turn off the reminders in a separate mail.

The argumentation is in this mail (ignore in case you don't want to
bother).

Thanks for bringing this up. I have been using mailman for so long
that I do not see these things anymore. Unfortunately it is a broader
issue, I'll try to expand here.

New people will potentially use their "secure" password trusting that
we deal with it in a secure manner. Which we (or rather mailman)
obviously don't! Therefore we can obviously not continue proceeding as
we did so far. More inline.

On 12/01/2012 07:38 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:

On 12/01/2012 11:27 AM, Eli Adam wrote:

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Alex Mandel
<tech_dev@wildintellect.com>wrote:

I have not seen such a request before. I will note that the
behavior is the same for every mailman list I'm subscribed to
on the web. I don't think mailing list preference passwords are
typically considered secure.

That said, it's not a bad idea to research options to make it
more secure.

Quick search says, we should simply disable the monthly
reminders. Supposedly updates to mailman years ago should have
moved to hashed passwords and not auto-mailing them, but I
don't see any evidence that those patches were ever released.

It may be good policy to universally disable this.

Right now the user already has complete control and can make
their own decisions.

Copied from logging into an OSGeo list:

*Get password reminder email for this list?*

Once a month, you will get an email containing a password
reminder for every list at this host to which you are subscribed.
You can turn this off on a per-list basis by selecting *No* for
this option. If you turn off password reminders for all the lists
you are subscribed to, no reminder email will be sent to you. No
Yes

*Set globally*

Is this thread about universally establishing good policy for all
users or helping 1 user change their settings to how they like
them?

Eli

Universal good policy. Users seem to expect the default to be that
a password is somewhat secure (even if its not true or they are
told it isn't so).

The very concept of "password" is security. Therefore in my opinion we
cannot just say that we don't deal with it in secure ways. We know
that people do not bother to read terms-of-service or any other
fineprint (http://tos-dr.info)

Note I have not seen a way to do this for all lists at once, might
need to be done 1 list at a time. I have also failed to find where
to set it to store encrypted passwords.

To do this properly our system would have to send a one time token in
a link to our website and ask the user to interactively change the
password. Any sending around of passwords via mail is a no-go.

Yes, users can opt out of the reminders themselves, I have my
doubts users will ever find/see that.

Correct. But even if people turn it off we would still not have a safe
way of resetting user passwords because we should not have it in
unencrypted form anywhere on our system anyway.

I'll note password notification can be requested from the list page
at any time by any user who needs it, so disabling the reminders
loses no functionality.

Yes, but we are still not secure at all when we send it unencrypted
via email.

Some have noted that mailman for regular users shouldn't even
bother with passwords as everything could be done via email
verification (things sent to the email address).

This is probably the only right way of doing it. What implications
will this have on our Spam issues? We do need to have a certain
barrier of entry making sure that humans with some intention can get
into a mailing list, even if only to prevent automated spam.

What do we lose? A monthly reminder that this list exists and that you
are subscribed to it. Is that something we cannot afford to miss?

Any mailman admins up for trying to change the settings? Perhaps
changing the default value for new list creation too?

I support deactivating reminders. Lets see if anybody else has
something to say that we might have forgotten. If not I suggest to
switch this setting off maybe in a week, if necessary I will go through

We can't be the only ones with this problem?!

Cheers,
Arnulf

Thanks, Alex _______________________________________________ Sac
mailing list Sac@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/sac

- --
Seven of Nine
http://arnulf.us/Seven
Exploring Body, Space and Mind
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Thanks for bringing this up Paul; I agree with a universal disable
reminder emails.

-jeff

Note that the issue still exists (I just received March 1st blast from
lists.osgeo.org with passwords in clear text).

-jeff

On 03/01/2013 05:32 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:

Note that the issue still exists (I just received March 1st blast from
lists.osgeo.org with passwords in clear text).

-jeff

My understanding is that it's a list by list setting. Which lists?

Thanks,
Alex

On 13-03-01 2:14 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:

On 03/01/2013 05:32 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:

Note that the issue still exists (I just received March 1st blast from
lists.osgeo.org with passwords in clear text).

-jeff

My understanding is that it's a list by list setting. Which lists?

Thanks,
Alex

Ok no problem, here are the lists, in my case, sending clear texts:

discuss@
ottawa_users@
mapserver-users@
grass-user@l
webcom@
aust-nz@
standards@
conference-workshops@
sac@
routergeocoder@
conference_dev@
osgeo4w-dev@
wps-discuss@
geodata@
osgeojapan-discuss@
foss4g-academic@
africa@
gdal-dev@
geos-devel@
grass-windows@
fusion-users@
atlanticcanada@
foss4g2011@
local-chapters@
mapbender_users@
foss4g2010@
qgis-developer@

-jeff

yet another round of passwords just got sent out in plaintext

···

On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 5:24 AM, Jeff McKenna <jmckenna@gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:

On 13-03-01 2:14 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:

On 03/01/2013 05:32 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:

Note that the issue still exists (I just received March 1st blast from
lists.osgeo.org with passwords in clear text).

-jeff

My understanding is that it’s a list by list setting. Which lists?

Thanks,
Alex

Ok no problem, here are the lists, in my case, sending clear texts:

discuss@
ottawa_users@
mapserver-users@
grass-user@l
webcom@
aust-nz@
standards@
conference-workshops@
sac@
routergeocoder@
conference_dev@
osgeo4w-dev@
wps-discuss@
geodata@
osgeojapan-discuss@
foss4g-academic@
africa@
gdal-dev@
geos-devel@
grass-windows@
fusion-users@
atlanticcanada@
foss4g2011@
local-chapters@
mapbender_users@
foss4g2010@
qgis-developer@

-jeff


Sac mailing list
Sac@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/sac

Zac Spitzer
+61 405 847 168

Zac wrote:

yet another round of passwords just got sent out in plaintext

a reminder that any subscriber can go into their mailman settings and
turn off the monthly reminders by hand, and tick the 'apply to all
lists at this site' checkbox while they're at it.

seeing the ML passwords are being sent out as plain text, they must
also be stored in plain text on the server, and so are inherently
unsafe & you should never (re)use an important password for the
mailing lists anyway. So with that in consideration I'd suggest the
best short-term approach is to put a warning on the mailing list
signups not to use something you want to keep super-secret. It
wouldn't exactly instill a sense of trust in our products from new
users, but it would be the truth.

As to monthly reminders being on or off by default, I'd lean on the
side of off-by-default, my main point though is that it's not the
whole of the issue.

regards,
Hamish