Bugtraq: Re: NcFTP - password leaking

From: Frank v Waveren <fvw_at_var.cx>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 19:02:15 +0200

On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 12:46:10AM +0100, Konstantin Gavrilenko wrote:
> ncftp client does not hash the password under certain conditions. And
> such information is made available to other users through `ps aux`
[snip]
> root 798 0.0 0.1 2020 1064 pts/3 S 15:04 0:00 ncftp
> ftp://testuser:testpassword@filo.dmz.arhont.com/

I assume by hashing you mean scribbling over the password value in
ARGV? That still leaves a race condition where the password is visible
between the execve and the overwriting; There is no secure way of
passing secrets on the commandline on a multiuser unix system. Use a
file descriptor or a file (either of which can ofcourse be referenced
on the command line).

-- 
Frank v Waveren                                      Fingerprint: 9106 FD0D
fvw@[var.cx|stack.nl] ICQ#10074100                      D6D9 3E7D FAF0 92D1
Public key: hkp://wwwkeys.pgp.net/8D54EB90              3931 90D6 8D54 EB90

Received on Apr 20 2004