Follow @Openwall on Twitter for new release announcements and other news
[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 20:11:11 -0500
From: adam swanda <adam@...oharbor.org>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: /dev/ptmx timing

Don't you need to be running as root for this to be possible? For example,
I know you can use strace to capture keystroke "writes" for any given PID,
but unless you want to capture only processes you are running you need to
be root or use sudo strace <cmd>.

It looks like your PoCs fall into the same category. Following that same
logic, if a user has root access, what would they gain by sniffing password
character length? Since they can view hashes, change passwords, etc,
without this method.

I might be completely wrong here but I personally wouldn't classify this as
a security issue. Just putting in my own opinion, of course, as a casual
reader of this list.
On Jan 7, 2013 5:24 PM, "vladz" <vladz@...zero.fr> wrote:

>
> Hi list,
>
> I noticed that it was possible to measure inter-keystrokes timing thanks
> to the /dev/ptmx character device.  Any local user that is using
> pseudo-terminal can be targeted.
>
> As it may also be used to disclose sensible information such as password
> length, I was wondering if it should be treat as a security issue?
>
> Description + PoC: http://vladz.devzero.fr/013_ptmx-timing.php.
>
> No sure right now but I think the only way to solve this is to modify
> the pts handling at kernel level.  Any opinions on that?
>
> Thanks,
> vladz.
>
>

Powered by blists - more mailing lists

Please check out the Open Source Software Security Wiki, which is counterpart to this mailing list.

Confused about mailing lists and their use? Read about mailing lists on Wikipedia and check out these guidelines on proper formatting of your messages.