Password security was once just a small hassle. Now, they’re the main defense for bank accounts, cloud tools, customer data, and businesses. Attackers use automation to take over accounts, but we still have to manage all of these logins ourselves.
In this post, we’ll explain password security in simple terms, show how passwords have changed from early “watchwords” to today’s systems, and discuss the breaches and attack methods that shape current best practices. We’ll also take a brief look at what’s next for authentication, including passkeys, biometrics, and passwordless options.
Why does password security matter so much today?
Password security is the set of practices, technologies, and policies used to create, store, transmit, and verify passwords in a way that prevents unauthorized access. It covers how users choose passwords (length, uniqueness), how organizations protect them at rest (hashing and salting), and how login systems resist abuse (rate limiting, bot detection, lockouts, and monitoring).
It also covers how password reset and recovery work, and how fast a service can end sessions if your credentials are stolen.
This matters because so much of our value has moved from physical objects to digital identities. Your email account can reset your banking password. Your CMS login can publish malware to thousands of visitors. A single reused password can cascade into identity theft, financial fraud, and business disruption.
In short, password security has become about protecting the keys to your digital life and the people who trust you online every day.
A brief history of passwords and how we got here
The idea of using a secret phrase to prove you belong has been around for a long time. Ancient societies used watchwords for access, and military groups have used shared challenges and responses. The digital era changed things by making it possible for millions to access valuable systems, and by storing proof of access permanently in files and databases.
This change brought a new problem: once secrets are stored, they can be copied. The story of password security is really about learning, often through mistakes, how to keep those secrets safe online.
The origins of the computer password
The first well-known computer password system appeared at MIT in the early 1960s with the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS). Fernando Corbató and his team wanted to let many users share one machine safely, each with their own files, programs, and limited resources.
Time-sharing created a new need. The computer had to know who was asking for CPU time and storage, to keep things private and fair. CTSS needed a simple way to keep each user’s space separate, so passwords became the solution. Each user had a username and a secret password to get access.
It was learned early on that if passwords are not stored well, they’re easy to steal. In CTSS, one password file could be read by other users, showing that authentication is only as strong as its storage and permissions. Attackers did not need to crack passwords if they could just read them.
3 major data breaches that changed password security forever
Major breaches did more than just expose accounts. They revealed problems with how passwords are managed, how often people reuse them, and how long stolen credentials can still be useful.
- RockYou (2009): Millions of passwords were leaked in plain text. The “RockYou list” became a popular tool for attackers, showing that common passwords and simple changes are easy to guess at scale. It also proved that storing passwords without hashing is a serious mistake.
- LinkedIn (2012): The LinkedIn breach showed the risks of weak hashing. Many hashes were cracked because old, fast hashing methods are designed for speed, which helps attackers. Not using salt made it even easier to crack passwords, so more organizations started using stronger password hashing like bcrypt, scrypt, or PBKDF2.
- Yahoo (2013–2014, disclosed later): Yahoo’s incidents showed the risks of old security choices on a large scale. When big databases leak, even old credentials can still be useful because people often reuse passwords and rarely change them. These breaches showed why we need more than just passwords, like better recovery controls and stronger detection.
Together, these events led to stronger hashing and salting, tougher login limits, and a wave of complexity rules and forced password resets.
The current state of password security
Modern password security is a constant struggle. Users get tired of too many accounts, rules, and resets, so they often reuse passwords, take shortcuts, or use “temporary” passwords that end up being permanent. Organizations are trying to make things easier without lowering security, moving toward longer passwords, smarter lockouts, and risk-based checks across apps.
Attackers are getting more advanced. Botnets automate credential stuffing, powerful computers crack weak hashes, and phishing kits can copy real login pages in minutes. Because of this, password security is less about having one perfect password and more about using systems like password managers, MFA, rate limits, anomaly detection, and quick responses.
What are the most common password threats right now?
Attackers don’t need movie-style hacking when the easiest path is simply logging in as you. The most common password threats today are:
- Brute-force attacks: These are automated attempts to guess many passwords, often targeting exposed services like admin panels, email gateways, or VPNs. Brute force is not always random; attackers use wordlists, leaked password lists, and rules like adding years or swapping letters. A common type is password spraying, where a few popular passwords are tried on many accounts to avoid lockouts.
- Credential stuffing: Criminals use username and password pairs from one breach and try them on other sites. Since many people reuse passwords, even a small success rate can lead to thousands of compromised accounts. Attackers use bots that act like humans to get past simple defenses.
- Phishing and spear-phishing: These are tricks that get users to enter their credentials on fake login pages or approve harmful prompts. Modern phishing kits can copy real logins in real time, stealing session cookies and sometimes getting past one-time codes. Spear-phishing is more targeted and uses real personal or business details to seem real.
- Keylogging and info-stealer malware: This is harmful software that records what you type, steals passwords saved in your browser, grabs autofill data, or takes over logged-in sessions. It does not matter how strong your password is, because it targets your device and session instead of the password itself.
Most “password hacks” succeed because attackers exploit predictability, reuse, or human trust, not because they guess a truly unique, long password. Layering defenses is what breaks their cost model in practice.
5 best practices for secure password management
You don’t have to remember a hundred complicated passwords to stay secure. What you need is a system you can use every day, even when you’re busy.
- Use a trusted password manager. A good manager creates unique passwords, stores them in an encrypted vault, and only fills them in on the right website. This helps prevent reuse and lowers phishing risk. Many managers also offer password checks, breach alerts, and some now support passkeys.
- Choose long passphrases instead of short, complex passwords. Longer passwords are better for people to remember and harder for attackers to crack. A passphrase made of several unrelated words is stronger than a short password with lots of symbols. NIST’s digital identity guidelines also recommend longer, easy-to-use passwords and checking against known bad ones.
- Never use the same password for different accounts. Reusing passwords means one breach can unlock everything. Your email, banking, and admin accounts need unique passwords that are generated, not made up. Treat your email inbox as your main account, since it can reset all your other passwords.
- Check for compromised credentials often. Think of credentials like milk, not canned food. They go bad when exposed. Tools like Have I Been Pwned can show if your email is in a known breach, and many password managers can spot reused or weak passwords. If an account is exposed, change the password, sign out of other sessions, and turn on MFA right away.
- Don’t use personal information in your passwords. Names, birthdays, pet names, sports teams, and local details are easy for attackers to guess, especially if they can find them on social media. If you run a website, the OWASP Authentication Cheat Sheet is a good guide for making logins and sessions more secure.
Bonus tip: Protect your recovery options, such as email, phone, and backup codes, just like you would your main login.
The future of authentication and moving beyond the password
The industry is working to rely less on passwords because they’re hard for people to manage and easy for attackers to exploit. “Passwordless” does not always mean there is no password. It usually means you type passwords less often, there are fewer chances for phishing, and fewer databases store reusable secrets.
Expect to see hybrid logins in the coming years. Many folks out there are already using passkeys on their phones for daily access, MFA for sensitive actions, and background checks that spot unusual devices or behavior. Passwords will still exist, but mostly as a backup for recovery or older systems.
MFA, passkeys, and biometrics explained
While these terms tend to get grouped together, each one solves a different part of the problem.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) adds a second way to prove your identity, beyond just a password. This could be something you have, like a phone or hardware key, or something you are, like biometrics. The best options are phishing-resistant methods such as security keys and WebAuthn prompts, but app-based one-time codes (TOTP) are still a big improvement. SMS can work if needed, but it is easier to intercept or trick. Always keep backup methods, like recovery codes or a second key, in a safe place.
Passkeys are a newer method supported by the FIDO Alliance and standards like WebAuthn. Instead of sending a password to a server, your device uses public-key cryptography. The service keeps a public key, and your device keeps the private key. You unlock the key on your device, often with Face ID or a fingerprint, and your device proves you have the key without sharing a reusable secret. Passkeys are built to stop phishing and prevent password reuse. In many systems, passkeys can sync across devices, which is convenient, but it also means device security and account recovery are even more important.
Biometrics, like Face ID or fingerprint scanners, are usually used to verify you locally, not to replace passwords. The biometric data is stored on your device or in secure hardware and is used to unlock a key or approve an action. This works best when combined with passkeys or strong MFA.
How AI and zero trust are shaping digital security
Lastly, it’s clear AI is changing password security for both attackers and defenders. Defenders now use machine learning to spot abuse patterns that people might miss, like impossible travel, strange login speeds, bot-like actions, and sudden increases in failed logins. AI can also connect IP reputation, device fingerprints, and user behavior to catch credential stuffing early. Over time, this leads to “step-up” security, where MFA is only required when risk is higher. For teams, this means fewer broad lockouts and more targeted blocks that don’t affect regular users.
Attackers use AI to work at a larger scale and to be more convincing. They use it to write better phishing emails, create lures that fit a target’s job, and make fake “support chat” scripts. AI also helps criminals quickly build realistic fake login pages, test which messages work best, and keep scams going even when defenders block their websites.
Zero Trust fits well with these changes. Zero Trust means you never trust by default and always verify. This includes strong authentication, limited permissions, and constant checks. For organizations, this might mean using SSO with conditional access, checking device security, and giving only necessary permissions. For websites, it means restricting admin access, limiting login attempts, watching for suspicious activity, and protecting every session. When you add good logging, alerts, and incident response, authentication is no longer a single point of failure.
Future-proof your digital identity
Password security is all about making things harder for attackers. Use a password manager, switch to long, unique passwords or passphrases, turn on MFA wherever possible, and check for breached credentials. If your favorite services offer passkeys, try them. They reduce phishing risk and prevent password reuse.
If you manage a website, add site-level protection on top of account controls. Sucuri can help with monitoring and a website firewall to limit the damage from compromised logins.
Krasimir Konov
Rianna MacLeod
Art Martori![Malware comes in many different varieties. Analyst Krasimir Konov is on this month’s Sucuri Sit-Down to help keep them all straight. From malicious iframes to SEO spam, join host Justin Channell as he racks Krasimir’s brain on all the different types of malware. Also, Krasimir discusses his recent blog post about a malicious cURL downloader, and Justin breaks down the latest website security news, including patched plugins you should update. Podcast Transcript Justin Channell: Hello, and welcome to the Sucuri Sit Down. I'm your host, Justin Channell, and this is a monthly podcast about website security, where we get in-depth with the malware removal experts here at Sucuri. Later in the show, I'll have our analyst Krasimir Konov to chat about some different types of malware, but first, let's take a look at other topics we've published on our blog and Sucuri labs notes this month. First up, we have some new information about credit card skimming with hackers using a hybrid method to steal payment information from eCommerce websites. Our analyst Dennis Sinegubko wrote about this for the Sucuri blog back at the beginning of June. Now, most credit card stealing malware is a client side JavaScript that grabs data and sends it to a third party server. But, that approach has a drawback for bad actors because it's still possible to track the requests and catch them as being suspicious. Now, to get around that, bad actors have started harvesting information server side by modifying core PHP files. In this case, the infection would be undetectable from the outside, but it's still going to be pretty easy to find because you're rarely modifying any of those core files, so any of those changes that are going to come up are going to be suspicious. To get around both of these drawbacks, we're seeing bad actors combine the two. So client side snippets of JavaScript are sending stolen credit card data to server side scripts that they've installed on the same server as the site. Now, this allows bad actors to cover their tracks a little bit because the traffic that's being redirected is going to the same server, and that's less likely to be flagged as suspicious. It's a bit more complicated to pull this off, but our team has been seeing this hybrid approach in the wild, so it's something to be on the lookout for. Now, another month has passed, and we found more cross site scripting attacks targeting WordPress plugins. Most notably, we discovered one that affects users of the YITH WooCommerce Ajax Product Filter plugin. Now, this is a plugin that allows WooCommerce stores to be filtered by product type, and it's pretty popular. It's got about 100,000 users right now, so with it being vulnerable, it's very important that all of them update to the latest version, which is 3.11.1. Some of the other plugins we found cross site scripting vulnerabilities with included Elementor Page Builder, Careerfy, JobSearch, and Newspaper. If you're looking for a full list of vulnerabilities that have been patched this month, John Castro at the Sucuri Labs blog has you covered. Check out our show notes for the link. Also, this month I had a blog go up detailing what's called a jibberish hack. It's basically the same motivation as an SEO spam attack where bad actors use your site's good standing to redirect visitors to their own sites. But in this attack, you'll find a bunch of randomly named folders filled with a ton of HTML files with really nonsensical file names like cheap-cool-hairstyles-photos.html. It's just going to be a mishmash of keywords that clearly you didn't put there. Unfortunately, just deleting all those HTML files and folders is not going to be enough to get rid of that jibberish hack though. You're going to need to fully clean any hacked files and database tables, and then you're going to have to deal with all the damage caused to your site's standing. And just keep in mind, if you find anything about that process too daunting, we're always here to help. Now, for this month's Sit Down, we have Sucuri analyst Krasimir Konov. Earlier in June, he had written a lab's note about a malicious downloader script that used the curl function, and we chatted a bit about it, but more importantly, we went really in-depth on all the different varieties of malware that website owners need to be aware of. But, before I get started with Krasimir, I just wanted to remind you about the Sucuri Sync-Up, our sister podcast. It's a weekly website security news briefing that you can find anywhere you get your podcasts, as well as the video version on our social media feed, and now you can even get it on your Amazon Alexa smart speakers. Just search Amazon skills for Sucuri Sync-Up, add the flash briefing, and get new content delivered every Monday. Now, on with the show. Hi Krasimir, thanks for joining us on the show. I thought we could start off and maybe have you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do here at Sucuri? Krasimir Konov: Yeah, sure. Well, I joined Sucuri originally in 2014, but I've been in the IT business for about 10 years. Nine of those I did security. And currently at Sucuri I'm one of the malware analysts. I used to work in the front lines, used to clean websites and whatnot, and then I gradually moved up, and now I'm working in the malware research department. And my day to day job is basically analyzing malware, and then once I analyze it and figure out what it is, then I will create a signature for it. And we'll add those signatures to our tools, so we can automate some of the work we do. And I also write some Labs Notes blog posts. Usually, if I find something interesting in malware or some security topic, I'll write about it. Justin Channell: Yeah. And of those topics recently that you wrote about, one was about a malicious curl downloader, and how exactly did that work? Krasimir Konov: Right, yeah. That was an interesting one, but not very unique or anything like that. We see that a lot with curl being used as a downloader. It's a very common malware. So rather than including the actual malware in the file, the attackers would use curl to download the malicious code. In this case, they'll download it from Pastebin, but it could be anything. It could be another website or anything like that, and curl would just make a call to the website, request the code. The website will respond with the code, and then later on, there is some code to either save the output somewhere on the website, or you'll just run it through eval and execute the actual code right away. Justin Channell: Right. And you said that it's commonly found in malware, but let's kind of maybe talk a bit broader about malware in general. What is everything that is classified as malware? Krasimir Konov: Well, in general it will be anything that the owner of the website didn't authorize, anything that was added by a third party. There is a lot of different malware. It could be even something like a defacement that will also be considered malware because it was something the user did not authorize. Even though it might not be doing anything malicious on the website, it's not infecting users, the visit is still something they did not authorize. So defacement would also be considered malware. And even something like ransomware where the website is technically not really damaged, it's all encrypted, but it's not infecting anybody. It's not doing anything malicious, but it's still encrypting the entire website and asking the user or the customer, the owner of the website for a ransom they need to pay in order to get the website back online. Justin Channell: Okay. Let's maybe break it down to each individual type of malware. For example, what would be a way that maybe I-frames could be maliciously used by a hacker? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. An I-frame can be used maliciously when it loads content from another location. You can look at the I-frame as a window that just opens another website. So anything that website has on it, you're pretty much loading it through the I-frame. So if that website is infected and it's serving some kind of malware, by opening an I-frame, you're loading all those elements, everything that was on this website. And sometimes the I-frame can be as small as pixel or something hidden somewhere off the screen, so you wouldn't even know that it was opening it. Justin Channell: And yeah, I feel like we've also seen a lot of them where they're used almost to mimic popups as well. Krasimir Konov: Yeah. I mean the I-frame, it could just load from another website and the other website could do anything. It could be serving just malware and it would try to infect the user that doesn't even know that they're being connected to the other website. It could just have some other JavaScript that's just trying to open up pop ups on the original website through the I-frame. Yeah, it could be a lot of things. Justin Channell: Okay. And also, let's talk a little bit about conditional redirects and how those work. What allows a script to detect which devices are coming in and where they're coming from? Krasimir Konov: Right. Yeah. That's a common one we see a lot. Basically, a conditional redirect would be something, it's a redirect on the website. It's obviously malicious, but there's certain conditions that need to be met before the redirect is actually executed or the redirect happens. For example, let's say if it's on a phishing website or a phishing page that is hidden somewhere on the website. For example, if Google visits it, obviously the attacker doesn't want Google to see the actual phishing page and record it as a phishing page. So they'll look for, for example, the IP address. They would look for the user agent. And a lot of times they can tell that it's a bot. So they'll just return a 404 response, for example, that will be like, "Oh, page not found." So Google would be like, "Oh, it looks like this page doesn't exist." But then if a regular user goes to the same page, then those conditions will be met. The actual website or the script behind the phishing will check and see, and be like, "Oh, this one is running Firefox or Chrome," and be like, okay. And then they'll look at the IP and be like, "Oh, he's in whatever, he's in United States somewhere." And he's like, "Oh, okay. That's good." And then once all of these conditions are met, then the actual script will serve them the actual phishing page. And it'll be like, "Oh, you need to fill out this to recover your account or whatever, or type in your credentials to log in here." Justin Channell: And so this is the type of thing we're really, a website owner is going to run into this more commonly when people are complaining about they're getting served bad content or whatever, and they can't seem to replicate it. It's likely probably these kind of redirects. Is that right? Krasimir Konov: Right, right. It could be something as specific as, for example, a range of IP addresses that correspond to an ISP or maybe let's say a country. It could be like, "Oh, were targeting only customers in the US," so if you're connecting from another country and you go to the same website or the same page, it would just say 404. It will give you a page not found. But then if you actually have an IP address from the United States, you're connecting from the United States, then it will actually show you the phishing page. Justin Channell: Now another type of malware I feel like we see a lot here is SEO spam. We hear people talking about that. What are some of the top SEO spam keywords that you see coming through? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. We get that a lot. We see a lot of spam on websites. A lot of times attackers will use SEO spam to gain ranking for their own website. Or they'll just try to include some kind of SEO spam in links to another website that they're currently running or something. I mean, these things change all the time. So a website might be up for a week and then it'll disappear, and then they'll start another campaign. But yeah, we see that a lot. We see all kinds of keywords they use. Most common ones will be something like Viagra. We'll have like jerseys for sale. A lot of times, they'll use name brands like Nike, Rolex, Prada. We've seen even some essay writing services for some reason. I'm not sure why, but that's common. We see, for example, pharmaceuticals a lot that will use specific medicine names. They'll use all kinds of replicas, like a replica bag of this, replica this, replica that. We'd see prescription, also payday loans. And obviously there's some adult related sites and things like that keywords. Justin Channell: So pretty much anything that people are going to be searching and clicking on are probably going to be targets for SEO spam? Krasimir Konov: Right. I think a lot of it commonly is pharma related because a lot of people are looking to buy medicine online, and a lot of times will require a prescription. So a lot of people are like, "Oh, let me see if I can find this medicine that I can buy it online somewhere." They don't need a prescription. They don't want to pay to visit a doctor and whatnot, and they'll look for it. And yeah. Justin Channell: Now, whenever somebody's website does get hacked with a SEO spam attack, what kind of effect can it have on the website beyond just being defaced? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. You can have a lot of things can happen, negative things. For example, the website can be blacklisted because of the keywords. And that usually represents a big red warning when you go on the website, depending on who blacklisted it. But if it's Google, for example, you'll see a big warning and it'll tell you this website contains malware or there's something wrong with this website. So, pretty much all the traffic on the website will be gone. And then you can also lose a lot of your reputation if there is a SEO spam on the website. For example, if you were ranked in say number five for certain keywords that represent your product on Google search engines, and then suddenly you get hit with SEO spam, then all these search engines then go and visit the website. And all of a sudden they're like, "Oh, there's all these weird key words on here, all this SEO spam that's causing a lot of mixed signals." And the search engines are like, "Oh, where do we rank this website now? Do we rank them with this product that's originally what the website is about? Or do we take into consideration all these other keywords that are mixed up that are SEO spam?" So, all of a sudden your website might go from being ranked number five on the first page to being on the 10th page. And then you rank for all these other keywords that you didn't intend to. And then people search for something completely different. They're searching for jerseys or something, or now they're searching for Prada products, and then suddenly your website pops up in there. So you're not really getting any good traffic, not targeted traffic. But, yeah. Justin Channell: Okay. So in a lot of ways, the effects of SEO spam would kind of be the same for defacements or any kind of malware with the blacklisting, but it does bring that kind of unique part to it where then it can also then bring traffic that you weren't expecting from somebody searching for jerseys, for example. I had not really ever thought about that. Krasimir Konov: Right, right. Yeah. It will definitely bring some traffic. I've seen a lot of times where websites will be connected. Let's say, there was 1,000 websites that were all infected with SEO spam, and it will kind of link each other to try to bring each other up into the rankings. And so you would see a lot of strange traffic from some random websites that were, for example, that were previously infected, even if they might not be anymore. But yeah, they'll be sending traffic to you or there'll be usually search engines sending you traffic, but for the wrong keywords. People are looking for something else, so obviously they're not going to be interested in your website. They're not going to buy anything because they're not looking for that. Justin Channell: And now, so thinking of the way websites get infected, a very common way it seems to be is through phishing campaigns. What are some recommendations you have for the best ways to avoid becoming a phishing victim? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. There is some ways. I mean, it depends really on the type of attack. Obviously, a lot of people, when they think of phishing, they think, "Oh, it's just like a PayPal phishing page and it just looks like the original," but it could be more subtle. If it's just a regular page where you're just going and you get redirected to another website, obviously the first thing to look is if you have the security padlocks, make sure that traffic is encrypted. A lot of these websites don't really have any encryption nowadays. More are starting to get that with pre SSLs being issued and whatnot. But that's the first thing to look and see, make sure. Anywhere you're typing your sensitive information, you want to make sure you have the padlock to make sure everything is encrypted. Krasimir Konov: But also you want to look at the URL of the actual website you're visiting. A lot of times they'll try to hide it. So you might have to be careful and look closely. Something that might be an I will be an L or something like that. And a capital I and L might look kind of similar into your IRL, so you might miss something like that. Say, if you're looking for PayPal and it might replace the L with an I, and if you don't look closely, it might look exactly the same. And you're like, "Oh, okay, it's paypal.com," but not really. So yeah. Just pay attention to the URL, make sure it is the actual website. There's no paypal.com dot something, dot something else, dot com. Yeah. You want it to just say paypal.com, and then it'll have forward slash and something else. But yeah, it gets more complicated when you have, for example, a phishing page that's injected into a regular page. For example, you have a checkout page on a website that you're buying things from and you go through the checkout page and you're looking at where you type in your credit card information and whatnot. And you might have a phishing page that actually looks exactly like a little box that gives you where you put in your credit card number, or your name, your address, and all that. So that will be more subtle. For example, that could be also an I-frame that's just coming from another page. And it will look exactly like it's part of the website. You're on the legitimate website, but only that portion of the website is actually the phishing page. And you look at it and you're like, "Oh, okay. It looks fine. I'm just putting my credentials." So that one could be a lot harder to figure it out. Usually, if it's something like that, I look for something that looks kind of out of place. Maybe they didn't get the right font. It might not be the same as the original website or there might be something out of place, some fields that are missing or some fields that are squished into the left or the right. It looks kind of awkward. It's like, why would this be like this? The whole website looks professional. There's a pink background or something, for example, and then suddenly there's this white box in the middle. It's like, ah, it looks kind of weird, out of place. Justin Channell: So pretty much if anything looks slightly out of place, you really should double check everything at that point. Krasimir Konov: Right. Right. Yeah. Obviously there's more ways that you can check, but I wouldn't get into more technical, like inspecting elements and looking at stuff, but yeah. Justin Channell: And now another type of malware that's kind of, and it kind of plays in with whatever the other infection is, is backdoors. Can you give us some examples of what backdoors can be? It's mainly just when a hacker can get back into the site to reinfect it, but I know there are a ton of different methods. And what are some of the more common ones and then maybe some that really interesting that you've seen? Krasimir Konov: Yeah, there is a lot. They'll probably be one of the first things the hacker would do is if they compromise a website, obviously they'll try to spread backdoors and just inject code everywhere so they can get back in, even if the owner of the website or webmaster cleans it. They want to try and hide some malicious code somewhere so they can always get back in. There's many variations. A backdoor could be something as simple as a single line of code to just [inaudible 00:20:19] argument, some kind of string or something via get or post. Krasimir Konov: And then it runs into an eval, so it evaluates the code and executes it. And some backdoors are very complex and they can be included in, let's say you have a WordPress site and you have a specific login page where all the login credentials are being processed and everything else. They could even inject code into that to basically bypass the whole login mechanism so that they can just bypass everything. They don't even have to know any user. They don't have to know the password, nothing. They'll just include some lines in there, and every time they'll be just able to log in. Yeah. It gets pretty crazy. Yeah. I mean, there's all kinds of malware. There is always a malware, for example, that just targets credit cards and will just target the eCommerce websites. And they'll just try to steal the login credentials, I mean, the credit cards. They'll try to get your address, your credit card information, any kind of CVV code or whatever you typed into the billing address, everything. And then there's also malware like the backdoors that are just trying to keep the attacker in control and trying to get them back into the website. There's just so many variations of what a malicious user might want to do on a website. Some can be something as simple as just reinfecting the website. They don't want to keep control. They just want to keep reinfecting it with some kind of malware. So even if you clean it, it would just get reinfected. Some of them in the database, otherwise might be in the files. We've seen some added into a [inaudible 00:22:14] job that just keeps running on the server. There could be malware that is just a giant to, for example, attack out of websites. Like for example, a distributed denial service where they put the same malware on thousands of websites. And then they try to send traffic to one website to try to bring it down. Yeah. People try to do all kinds of stuff with websites. We've seen even some cryptocurrency mining malware that you go onto a website and suddenly your PC starts running like crazy. And you're like, what the hell is going on? Your fans turn on and the PC is 100% CPU. And it turns out that the website has some malware that's just by mining Bitcoins with your CPU and it's using all of it. Justin Channell: Wow. Okay. So one question now, the last question I have is of all the malware that you've seen, what do you think is the coolest piece of malware that you've ever seen? Krasimir Konov: I think the coolest would be the ones that are so subtle that you don't even know that it's there. For example, we've seen some that were pretty innovative. It will be just a one liner code that's just one line. And for example, it will be let's say 40-50 characters, something like that. And that's all it is. And they'll hide it somewhere in between the legitimate code. And if you don't know what you're looking for, you would never see it. It doesn't look suspicious. There is no links to some other website. There's no some kind of encrypted code or anything like that. It's just a simple one line. And then if you're just scrolling through the file looking for something, you would never see it. It just looks like all the other code. And then if you look closely, you're like, "Oh, there's this..." Look closely, and you're like, "Oh wow, this is not supposed to be there." And then you keep looking at it and you're like, "This looks really weird." And then you see that it's actually doing some malicious things and trying to evaluate some code or taking output from the outside, I mean, some input from outside, you can call it and give it code to run. Justin Channell: Well, Krasimir, thanks for coming on and talking to us for today. Krasimir Konov: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy. I'm glad I was able to do this podcast and I can't wait to do another one. Justin Channell: Yeah, we'll have you on again. Thanks. Krasimir Konov: Thank you. Justin Channell: Thanks again to Krasimir for joining us here on the Sit Down. We'll be back with another episode next month. So be sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcasting platform. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at Sucuri Security and check us out at sucuri.net. That's S-U-C-U-R-I.net. I'm Justin Channell, And this has been the Sucuri Sit Down. Stay safe out there.](https://blog.sucuri.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20-sucuri-podcast-blog-post_blog_image-390x183.jpg)
Allison Bondi
Peter Gramantik
Stephen Johnston
Sucuri Malware Research Team
Victor Santoyo
Juliana Lewis
Denis Sinegubko
9 comments
Very well covered. Having worked for some large companies in the past, I have seen many pitfalls when it comes to password management. Trying to get people to change is very hard, even when it is for the protection of the data they prize so highly. I have seen passwords using simple number and letter combinations for root access, telnet (yes, telnet) access to corporate VPN’s, and some data not even protected; although considered highly sensitive to the organization and definitely valuable to the outside world.
Pushing the change to longer, stronger and non-so-common substitutions is something many are resistant to. I have seen, in more that one organization, where executive management has refused password policies “because it’s too hard for people to remember”. When offered tools, like two factor, they are rejected due to being another step to accessing their computer or data. Fortunately I have always had an option to control the servers and data management systems, and have used long, strong and two-factor whenever I could. This of course was met with resistance by junior admins or peers, but when discussed and proven with haystack testing methods, they eventually understand and start to make similar changes in their own behaviors.
One of the best companies I had worked with four years ago was also the strongest in my opinion. They operate worldwide and any access to corporate resources required three steps. They used a VPN to access the desktop, as all data was stored on their systems, nothing was local to anyone’s PC. To access the VPN required a logon password no less than eight characters, followed by two-factor authentication (fob or phone), then followed by a four digit pin. This was one of the strongest processes I have ever seen in my career. Considering the work they did, it was well worth it to keep the data in-house and well protected. The beauty of it was it was open-source technology!
As data breaches are very common, although most not reported, I like seeing sites like Sucuri.net providing relevant information and a free service.
I was going to put in some password generators, but a simple search will lead to quite a few tools that can help with this, although most will not remember the generated password. To help remember them, there are quite a few programs you can use, two I recommend are KeePass (http://keepass.info/) and LastPass (https://lastpass.com/f?4665586). Yes I did stick a reference number in there, just visit lastpass.com if you do not wish to give me a free month. Both of these use a single password, like mentioned in the article, to protect all your passwords. Using a single strong password to protect your other randomly generated ones, helps eliminate using the same password on multiple sites. Both programs will generate random passwords, based on criteria you specify, then allow you to save them. Both allow non-US keyboard characters as part of the generation schema. As for usability, KeePass is a bit more work, but allows portability of your data on a thumbdrive; or you can store the encrypted files in the cloud. LastPass is browser integrated and does most work for you, just having to click save after generating. Both are free, although LastPass does require a subscription ($12/year) to use on your mobile device. Regarding the strength of a password, you can try these free sites. Although be wary what you type, nothing is truly secure when transmitted over the web.
How big is your haystack? – https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
Password test – https://howsecureismypassword.net/
Password strength meter – http://www.passwordmeter.com/
Kaspersky password check – http://blog.kaspersky.com/password-check/
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Thank you for your comment Anthony, you hit the nail on the head. The real challenge is getting people to see security as an essential and valuable part of their character, not as a burden or inconvenience.
Wearing a seat belt and following the road signs may not prevent a car accident, but we all like to pride ourselves on being good drivers. 🙂
Very good post.
Although we’ve seen (we – I mean developers and security people) the same weak, short and predictable passwords in many places, every day. People don’t want to use strong passwords (there’re a lot of reasons, eg. they are hard to remember or in many cases people simply don’t know consequences of password leaking)
You can change password, but you can’t change human nature and laziness 😉
I think I have this exact conversation with at least one client daily. I know you touched on password helpers and I just wanted to share how we implement this in a corporate setting.
We use LastPass Enterprise combined with physical 2FAs (Yubikey Neo’s). We employ IP restrictions on the account and each team member is given an account to which the don’t even know their master password. The master password is extremely long and complex and auto saved to each users machine. Without the Yubikey they cannot access the account. They can’t go home and access the account either because of IP restrictions and because they don’t know the password. Shared passwords within the account are prevented from being coppied or revealed. Managers have access to the account from mobile devices, but only with a pin and NFC 2FA from the Yubikey. If a Yubikey is obtained by a hacker, they would still have to guess that password that no one knows.
This may sound like an overkill or excessively complicated, but it’s not. The last thing we want is a week password generated by a lazy employee to be the Achilles heal of our clients personal and credit card data.
I think that’s brilliant! It only takes one lazy/incompetent/ignorant employee to be the weak link that sends a corporation into hackers delightful world. Seems to me more companies should consider the same approach. The more sensitive the data being handled, the tighter the security belt should get.
Isn’t the ol’ battery-horse-staple type of generator still the best mix of memorability and non-guessability, especially if it’s salted with some random non-alphanumeric characters? http://xkcd(.)com/936/
Ordinary users find most of these methods draconian
For many of them a password manager is too much and they need to be conditioned to accept it
When the user is in a home environment and resistant to password managers and long secure passwords I recommend the following as a first step to help them become comfortable with the idea of unique and unfriendly passwords
1. Explain to them that passwords must be unique but can be easy to type and remember (for the regularly used) if they are simply longer
2. Keep a book
In the home environment this book is safe from the hacker and (unless your are a high profile target) relatively safe from thieves/intruders (those who would break into a home likely wouldn’t look for it or know what to do with it)
Relatives are a concern and the book should be hidden or locked away from all but those who we trust completely
3. Create a separate page for each account (many users already write down their passwords but scribble it all on one page or miss important information and end up in a cycle of resetting the password for their AppleID when they were actually being prompted for their account login to install flash)
4. Create the password using a variation of horsebatterystaple
The variation is – look around, pick unrelated objects, non personal, total of at least 16characters (btw why does microsoft have a maximum password length for Office365?), use simple capitalisation, add a number, add punctuation only if forced
DO NOT reuse words from previous passwords
DO NOT reuse parts of previous passwords
This will generate passwords like ShoeWindowBiscuit7575
(passwords like this, importantly are easier to tap than qwerty678^&*)
5. Write it in the book
6. Get comfortable with this process (getting used to referencing the book for occasionally used passwords and simply remembering through regular use those that are used often)
7. Migrate to a password manager and begin to use auto generation
Go ahead, scroll to the end of this thread, read a couple of the other passwords mentioned and try to remember them
Then try to remember ShoeWindowBiscuit7575 without referring back to my post – I bet you can and so can your resistant friends and family
Thoughts?
Why not just use a password manager? It makes it super-simple and very secure. Why is a password manager too much? Sorry, does not compute. 🙂
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