Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!necntc!dandelion!ulowell!eagle!arosen
From: arosen@eagle.ulowell.edu (MFHorn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: reusing passwords
Keywords: VMS security password
Message-ID: <5024@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 21 Feb 88 03:00:06 GMT
References: <2133@bsu-cs.UUCP> <2500@codas.att.com> <2137@bsu-cs.UUCP> <1996@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Sender: news@swan.ulowell.edu
Reply-To: arosen@hawk.ulowell.edu (MFHorn)
Organization: University of Lowell, CS Dept.
Lines: 31

In article <1996@saturn.ucsc.edu> wolf@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Michael Wolf) writes:
>>In article <2500@codas.att.com> mikel@codas.att.com (Mikel Manitius) writes:
>>>We soon learned that often over-anxious users type their password at
>>>the login prompt, resulting it it's showing up on the console.
>>
>>It's enough to be unable to log in a number of
>>times, and this helpful operating system will make a console record of
>>the username *and* the password that were typed.
>
>You must have a very strange version of VMS.  Harvey Mudd College has
>several VMS systems, and a casual look at the login records on the
>console shows no sign of the user's passwords being printed out.

This is all configurable by your system manager.  S/he can set it up so
if you get n invalid login attempts (ie. if the system detects a possible
breakin attempt), it starts reporting them to the log file and/or operator
terminals (like the console, usually), password and all.  I think n is also
configurable.  This can be turned on for the different types of logins,
interactive, network, batch, etc. (7 in all), or turned off completely.

I still think printing the password under ANY circumstance is wrong.  If you
think someone is trying to crack a password, change it.

Andy Rosen           | arosen@hawk.ulowell.edu | "I got this guitar and I
ULowell, Box #3031   | ulowell!arosen          |  learned how to make it
Lowell, Ma 01854     |                         |  talk" -Thunder Road
                   RD in '88 - The way it should be
Andy Rosen           | arosen@hawk.ulowell.edu | "I got this guitar and I
ULowell, Box #3031   | ulowell!arosen          |  learned how to make it
Lowell, Ma 01854     |                         |  talk" -Thunder Road
                   RD in '88 - The way it should be