in reply to Password hacker killer

Use user-level authentication and limit the number of retries per user to something like four and then put a wait period between unsuccessful login series. So if someone makes four unsuccessful login attempts in a row, block the user account so that that user cannot log in for the next hour, no matter the password, or until you reset the account.

Also make sure your passwords are good in the first place. No dictionary words, no names (there are dictionaries for those, too). You could maybe use something like Data::Password, although I cannot personally vouch for it.

Good luck keeping them out.

--
Allolex

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Re: Re: Password hacker killer
by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 07, 2003 at 14:27 UTC

    This method leads the way for an effective DOS - if I want to prevent you from logging in, I just write a script that repeatedly tries to log in as you, with a wrong password. You won't be able to ever get at your account again.

    You need to block at least only a certain IP address, then only AOL users can block AOL users ...

    perl -MHTTP::Daemon -MHTTP::Response -MLWP::Simple -e ' ;    # The  
$d = new HTTP::Daemon and fork and getprint $d->url and exit;#spider
($c = $d->accept())->get_request(); $c->send_response( new   #in the
HTTP::Response(200,$_,$_,qq(Just another Perl hacker\n))); ' #  web

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      Yes, thanks for pointing that out. It would therefore be logical to block the IP instead of the user for the same time period, or better yet block the combination of user/IP.

      --
      Allolex

[reply]
        this does not work, most of the automated cracking tools will use huge proxy lists to change the source IP of the attack after X attempts. You chase your own tail by limiting the user/ip block.

        -Waswas
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