16 ms·
I don't understand your suggestion. If you're still showing one character after each character entered, what's changed? What's the benefit of having a random c
by jadamson 6mo ago
I don't understand your suggestion. If you're still showing one character after each character entered, what's changed?
What's the benefit of having a random character from a random set, instead of just a random character?
- oneeyedpigeon 6mo agoI think the idea is that each character overwrites the previous, so you're never showing the total length (apart from 0/1!)
- jadamson 6mo agoAh, and the characters are supposed to be an ASCII spinner. I think if I was new to Linux that would confuse the life out of me :)
- DrawTR 6mo agoThey mean to have a static single character on the screen and have it change with every keypress. For example, you type "a" and it shows /. You type "b" and it shows "|", etc.
- NiloCK 6mo agoThere's no persistent reveal of password length after you're finished typing. It reduces the length-reveal leak from anyone who eventually sees the terminal log to people who are actively over-the-shoulder as you type it.
- ordu 6mo agoIf you can see 1 char from set of 4 you know the number of characters modulo 4. If the minimum length of a password is 6, and probably it is no longer than 12 characters, then you can narrow the length to 1 or 2 numbers. It is marginally better than asterisks of course, of course, but it is still confusing.
- NiloCK 6mo agoThe original suggestion included randomizing the first character of the set, which removes this attack.