1) a secure server doesn't have to cost money, if you stick with open source projects and don't get a signed certificate. (signed by the Big boys (Verisign) at least).

2) Don't use /etc/password with the web at all. If you don't have an SSL connection, that userid/password is sent in plaintext, and could give any blackhat the info to login to your box via that account. Update: oh, you meant LIKE /etc/password. Yeah, you could do that, but again, without the encrypted connection it's not secure. (You'll be as secure as telnet)

3) Without an ecrypted session, there's no way to guarantee the security of the data. You can encrypt the data, but either you use something on the box side as the key, or you use something user-provided.

In reply to Re: CGI Password/Login and Security by swiftone
in thread CGI Password/Login and Security by r.joseph

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.