this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
999 points (98.4% liked)

Programmer Humor

32410 readers
360 users here now

Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Need the opposite costume, the overly eager sys admin.

  • wants to force password changes once a month for security
  • constantly changing security policies to reflect the flavor of the month
  • constantly sends out phishing emails tests, wonders why no one replies to any of his emails
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My fucking uni is trying to move to passwordless, but you will always need a password to log onto any lab device, and to the wifi, so why?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean you don't actually need a password for that when it's implemented the right way

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

...implemented the right way

see

...you will always need a password

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

A website once complained my password contained 3 consecutive letters there were 1 away from each other. This was back when I used sentences for passwords. It was complaining about the word worst because of r-s-t.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

That's wack. Passphrases are second only to random passwords generated by a password generator in terms of security, character proximity doesn't matter with that much length.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Then they have you make it some 12 character length minimum string with mixed case and special characters and dictionary lookup so it isn't some common phrase but you're also logging in through a telnet instance onto a Unix system.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

As someone in the InfoSec field, I also hate those people.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sysadmin: “A clear indication of phishing email is the sense of urgency. We would never send out any email regarding urgent updates that needs immediate action.”

Also sysadmin: “URGENT!!! You must update your system now before Friday!!! Click link here for instructions! Otherwise you will be locked out!”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Spot on. We're changing XYZ policy and we need everyone to do this training within the week. Wait, why's no one opening my emails

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • Installs antivirus on servers that wrecks application performance
  • installs content filtering proxy that prevents developers from reading “hacking materials” like OWASP documentation
  • won’t let developers install anything on their own machines without filing a ticket and waiting 6 weeks
  • pushes unannounced antivirus updates that pop up OS security dialogs like “Netscan Antivirus would like to monitor all network traffic. Enter your password to approve”, and is surprised when users don’t enter their passwords.

Your corporate IT guy

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

We might work at the same company lmao. My laptop is borderline unusable due to all the monitoring garbage despite having really fast hardware

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sigh. Their hearts are in the right places...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They usually don't have a choice. They know this stuff is bad, but they need it to demonstrate compliance with XYZ framework so they can fill out the marketing copy so sales can land a contract with some big customer that wants to know why $competitor has better security than you.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Password expiration is no longer considered a best practice. FYI.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Yes, that's true, and hasn't been considered so for a long time

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Encourages users to just add a rotating number or other not too secure thing to their password. I know that’s what I did when I worked somewhere with that dumbfuck policy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yep. My least secure password is the one I use at work because I'm restricted to 9-12 characters, can't be sequential forwards or backwards including keys next to each other (abc, 123, qwerty), can't begin with a number, must contain at least three numbers, must be at least four characters different from your last twelve passwords, and must be changed every 90 days. Oh and it can't include your first or last name.

Most of my coworkers just use a family members name and then change a few numbers at the end and keep a post it note at their desk with the numbers so they don't forget it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It was never best practices for anyone who had common sense.

It just forced people to make insecure, easy to remember passwords, cause they were gonna be changed in again soon so why make it complicated and hard to remember.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know I do this. Add another exclamation mark.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

NIST removed password expiration from their recommendations in 2020. Instead they recommend only forcing password changes when compromise is suspected.

The main argument is that they do not make users or systems demonstrably safer and encourage bad password habits.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I would imagine most users change their password by only 1 character, and maybe even in sequential order.

When time comes to change the password, it becomes password1234 instead of password123. Or password234. Something easy to remember, most users don't care about best security practices, and changing to a similar password is very convenient. Especially if it's "only" for work stuff

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The original idea was that you would take how long it took to brute-force a password, then require the password be changed before that. But we have better hashing now, like bcrypt, where you can tune it so that brute forcing anything would take 100s of years.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“What do you mean this password is too short? I use it for everything!”

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

"how many times do i have to tell you that your name + your birthday date js not a good password!"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Needs a special character?

Password123!

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even worse is the CEO.

He needs access to everything and he's far too important to waste time with security.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

This is the reason why those scams are so successful:

"Hi this is the CEO, wire $10000 to this account right now, we need it there yesterday. I don't have time to talk, just do it. Bye"

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

"My files are highly confidential"

password is suburb+suburbpostcode

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I used to have a lady I worked with who was like this. She had the common sense of a fucking carrot and was dumb as shit. What was weird is she was highly skilled in the one job she was hired for, the rest of the time she would click on everything and I would had to fix her computer multiple times a week. One time I tried to walk her thru something on the phone and I told her to click on an icon, her response was "Whats an icon?"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I bet he also picks up USB sticks from the parking lot and plugs them into his work computer.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

On the other side of things, don't you love systems that return "invalid password: password is not unique"?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The cybersecurity email tests I get at work are so transparent - Hi user, You have an unpaid invoice, please follow link to pay immediately.

I wish I could I could reply no I don't fuck off but I'd probably get in trouble lol

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

At my work the company wanted to show some gratitude and sent out email with free ice cream vouchers to everybody. Many suspected this was just another one of these cybersecurity email tests, so the company had to clarify it’s all real.

I think it’s hilarious the thought about hackers using ice cream as bait. Maybe that would work?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Well, I guess it's good that people were being vigilant. But yes, I guess anything could work

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Evidently not at your company

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Clicks on everything or is too scared to click on anything and never learns how to use the software

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wait untill you hear "if i remember correctly my email password was {name} {surname} something @ gmail.com... what do you mean that's not it? why do i even need a password?"...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Fuck my email is (first name)(last initial)(birthday and month)@gmail.com

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Searches for things online by typing it as a post on social media instead of using a search engine as in: "Google what is the weather like today near me?"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You must know my parents 😅

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey. Password123 is progress, right?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They made me change it, so it's Password124 now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

... And then 2 months later, "why can't I log in"

load more comments
view more: next ›