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  1. #1
    McAllister, Andrew
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    Thread Starter

    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489

    Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    the @ sign while older versions do not.

    Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    dangerous to allow in their products.=20

    Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    2) Using cookies.

    I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    - a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.
    Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    relatively safe given the convenience it provides.

    I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.

    Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    the browser IS the OS).

    Andrew McAllister
    University of Missouri

  2. #2
    Vinny Abello
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    Interestingly, I've already found that this patch doesn't fix this problem
    when using IE as an object in VB6. You can still programmatically call an
    instance of IE as a browser object and use that format to login to a web site.

    At 05:54 PM 1/28/2004, McAllister, Andrew wrote:
    >I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    >embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    >able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/
    >
    >See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489
    >
    >Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    >recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    >so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    >the @ sign while older versions do not.
    >
    >Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    >dangerous to allow in their products.
    >
    >Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    > 1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    > 2) Using cookies.
    >
    >I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    >- a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.
    >Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    >idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    >bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    >am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    >relatively safe given the convenience it provides.
    >
    >I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    >stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.
    >
    >Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    >Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    >the browser IS the OS).
    >
    >Andrew McAllister
    >University of Missouri



    Vinny Abello
    Network Engineer
    Server Management
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    (973)300-9211 x 125
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    Tellurian Networks - The Ultimate Internet Connection
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    There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and
    those that don't.



  3. #3
    Fergus Brooks
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    Thread Starter

    RE: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs


    Andrew - I agree entirely about "Remember my password" and cookies being
    no safer. Password saving on shared machines is a nightmare - especially
    as machines built with XP by default allow you to have a passwordless
    generic login to the machine.

    Seeing some of the passwords that come up on machines in cafes etc makes
    me understand why there is so much shared-machine related fraud and
    misuse of people's webmail accounts.

    Also I have found that often to get to an FTP server on the Internet
    (depending on the proxy, connection, firewall etc) that you need to use
    this format. Taking this functionality away will certainly make it
    harder for a lot of support people and consultants to do their jobs.

    Back to having *every imaginable tool* in the CD case when visiting
    client sites. Or maybe we should just starting putting all our good
    stuff up on anonymous FTP sites?

    Rgds...


    -----Original Message-----
    From: McAllister, Andrew [mailto:McAllisterA@umsystem.edu]
    Sent: Thursday, 29 January 2004 6:54 AM
    To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
    Subject: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs


    I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489

    Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    the @ sign while older versions do not.

    Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    dangerous to allow in their products.

    Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    2) Using cookies.

    I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    - a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.
    Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    relatively safe given the convenience it provides.

    I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.

    Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    the browser IS the OS).

    Andrew McAllister
    University of Missouri
    --
    This message has been scanned by AVMail


  4. #4
    N407ER
    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    McAllister, Andrew wrote:
    > I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    > embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    > able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/
    >
    > See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489
    >
    > Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    > recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    > so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    > the @ sign while older versions do not.
    >
    > Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    > dangerous to allow in their products.
    >
    > Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    > 1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    > 2) Using cookies.
    >
    > I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    > - a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.
    > Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    > idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    > bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    > am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    > relatively safe given the convenience it provides.
    >
    > I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    > stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.
    >
    > Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    > Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    > the browser IS the OS).
    >
    > Andrew McAllister
    > University of Missouri
    >


    Despite what MS's notice says, presumably the primary motive for this
    was to avoid the URL spoofing detailed here
    (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...n/MS04-004.asp).
    In fact, that webpage specifically states that it is to fix ``three
    newly-discovered vulnerabilities'' (``newly=discovered'' apparently
    being a relative term), including ``a misrepresentation of the URL in
    the address bar of an Internet Explorer window''.

    So the security reasons they cite on the page you link to probably
    aren't that they consider that syntax to be insecure relative to cookies
    or ``Remember My Password'', but that the best way to avoid URL spoofing
    they could come up with (after, apparently, months of effort) was to
    eliminate the feature alltogether.

    I can think of another great way to fix the vulnerabilities in Windows.
    It's called fdisk.

    Hope that helps!

  5. #5
    Francis Favorini
    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs
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    RE: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    Vinny Abello [mailto:vinny@tellurian.com] wrote...
    > Interestingly, I've already found that this patch doesn't fix
    > this problem when using IE as an object in VB6.


    From the KB article:
    http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489
    "After you install the 832894 security update, you can set registry values
    to use this new behavior in other programs that host the Web browser control
    or to disable this new behavior for Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer."

    The specifics of the registry values are also documented therein.

    -FF

  6. #6
    Andrew Harwood
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    RE: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    RFC 1738 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt) states is section 3.3
    (Note the last sentence):

    -------------------
    -- begin excerpt --
    -------------------
    An HTTP URL takes the form:

    http://<host>:<port>/<path>?<searchpart>

    where <host> and <port> are as described in Section 3.1. If :<port>
    is omitted, the port defaults to 80. No user name or password is
    allowed.
    -----------------
    -- end excerpt --
    -----------------

    So Microsoft has finally just adopted the RFC standard, not broken it.

    Anyway, you can always re-enable the old system, as documented in the
    Microsoft document you link, viz:

    -------------------
    -- begin excerpt --
    -------------------
    How to disable the new default behavior for handling user information in
    HTTP or HTTPS URLs
    To disable the new default behavior in Windows Explorer and Internet
    Explorer, create iexplore.exe and explorer.exe DWORD values in one of
    the following registry keys and set their value data to 0:

    For all users:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet
    Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME _PASSWORD_DISABLE

    For the current user only:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
    Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME _PASSWORD_DISABLE
    -------------------
    -- end excerpt --
    -------------------

    The other options are more secure in some ways, most specifically if the
    address is visible anywhere on screen, there is no reference to the
    username/password for anyone who passes by. I have this problem with our
    help desk at work - they have a PC which has the username/password of
    our network monitoring system visible in the URL, which any client who
    visits can see. Which is one reason why I will only give them read
    access :-)

    Further, the other options (at least yet) have no ways of breaking them
    that will hide the real URL you are visiting, since they only handle the
    username/password, and have no linkage to the actual web address.

    That's my 2c anyway.

    --
    Andrew Harwood
    aaharwood@bigpond.com

    -----Original Message-----
    From: McAllister, Andrew [mailto:McAllisterA@umsystem.edu]
    Sent: Thursday, 29 January 2004 09:24
    To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
    Subject: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs


    I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489

    Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    the @ sign while older versions do not.

    Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    dangerous to allow in their products.

    Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    2) Using cookies.

    I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    - a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.
    Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    relatively safe given the convenience it provides.

    I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.

    Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    the browser IS the OS).

    Andrew McAllister
    University of Missouri


  7. #7
    Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers
    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    On 2004-01-28 McAllister, Andrew wrote:

    [ MS about to invalidate usage of http://<user>:<pass>@<host> in IE ]

    > Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    > Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    > the browser IS the OS).


    There is no legitimate use of this syntax and never was. Although
    RFC 2396 does specify a generic URI syntax allowing

    <user>:<pass>@<host>:<port>

    it expressly excludes those URLs whose syntax is specified in RFC 1738:

    | This document updates and merges "Uniform Resource Locators" [RFC1738]
    | and "Relative Uniform Resource Locators" [RFC1808] in order to define
    | a single, generic syntax for all URI. It excludes those portions of
    | RFC 1738 that defined the specific syntax of individual URL schemes;
    | those portions will be updated as separate documents, as will the
    | process for registration of new URI schemes.

    RFC 1738 clearly says:

    | An HTTP URL takes the form:
    |
    | http://<host>:<port>/<path>?<searchpart>

    So do RFCs 1945 and 2616.

    Regards
    Ansgar Wiechers

  8. #8
    3APA3A
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    Dear McAllister, Andrew,


    --Thursday, January 29, 2004, 1:54:00 AM, you wrote to bugtraq@securityfocus.com:



    MA> Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    MA> Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    MA> the browser IS the OS).

    ftp://userass@site

    is _only_ way to authenticate FTP through HTTP proxy (if not given,
    proxy always use anonymous).

    --
    ~/ZARAZA
    Âñåãäà áóäåì ðàäû ïîñëóøàòü âàøå ÷èðèêàíüå (Òâåí)


  9. #9
    Dave McCormick
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    Andrew,

    You said:
    <I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    <embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    <able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    I wanted to point out the option to make a reg key change that will
    maintain the user@ functionality instead of utilizing the new default
    behavior that occurs by applying the patch.

    <snipped from MS article>
    How to disable the new default behavior for handling user information in
    HTTP or HTTPS URLs To disable the new default behavior in Windows Explorer
    and Internet Explorer, create iexplore.exe and explorer.exe DWORD values
    in one of the following registry keys and set their value data to 0:

    For all users:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet
    Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME _PASSWORD_DISABLE

    For the current user only:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
    Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME _PASSWORD_DISABLE


    Overall, I think that MS is doing the right thing with this. I cannot
    count how many html email's I've received that are supposedly from PayPal,
    or Visa or <insert your favorite finacial organization here> wherein a
    kiddie wannabe with minimal english skills asks "please verafy your
    accoont information". That information is piped to a cgi on a hacked box
    somewhere that snarfs the info then redirects you to the real site that is
    supposedly asking for the info.

    *yawn*

    I guarantee that there are people out there (although probably not on this
    list) that have swallowed the bait and forwarded their credit card #, SSN
    #, all their pin numbers to every bank account they own as well as their
    grandmothers bra size because they were presented with an official looking
    html email that asked for the info. Why else do so many of these types of
    con jobs flood the net?

    This is getting to be as bad as the Nigerian email scam. You know the one
    that starts out, "Dear Sir, <insert impressive title of some 3rd world
    country here> left me 10 million dollars and I need your help."

    Overall I think it's the right thing to do and I'm glad that MS is doing
    it.

    just my .02 so please, flames > /dev/null

    Regards,

    Dave McCormick
    dave@fred.net_nospam.com
    mccormic@xecu.net_nospam.com

    "Kool-Aid anyone?" - Bill Gates


  10. #10
    Thor Larholm
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    RE: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    This has already been implemented in the out-of-schedule IE patch they
    released yesterday, MS04-040. This is also the first time they broke their
    promised monthly patch schedule, so far they have released patches in the
    second week of the month.

    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...n/MS04-004.asp

    Navigating to a link with Basic Authentication details embedded
    (userassword@host) now yields an "invalid syntax error". Embedding HTTP
    authentication details as part of the URL is not part of the HTTP RFC in the
    first place, but is allowed in a generic URI. RFC 1738 has no mention of
    authentication in the syntax of an HTTP URL (see page 8) and its
    implementation in browsers has been an exception - much like the
    Content-Disposition MIME header that is widely implemented in the HTTP
    handling of browsers.

    However, if you hover your mouse over such a link you will see the status
    bar of the browser still displays the incorrect link. It seems like the
    incorrect parsing code is still there, but the current attack vector is
    gone - time to look for other pathways.



    Regards

    Thor Larholm
    PGP: 0x5A276569
    6BB1 B77F CB62 0D3D 5A82 C65D E1A4 157C 5A27 6569

    PivX defines "Proactive Threat Mitigation". Get a FREE Beta Version of
    Qwik-Fix <http://www.qwik-fix.net>


    -----Original Message-----
    From: McAllister, Andrew [mailto:McAllisterA@umsystem.edu]
    Sent: Wed 1/28/2004 2:54 PM
    To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
    Cc:
    Subject: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs


    I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489

    Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    the @ sign while older versions do not.

    Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    dangerous to allow in their products.

    Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    2) Using cookies.

    I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    - a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.
    Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    relatively safe given the convenience it provides.

    I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.

    Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    the browser IS the OS).

    Andrew McAllister
    University of Missouri




  11. #11
    Sam Schinke
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    Hello Andrew,

    Wednesday, January 28, 2004, 2:54:00 PM, you wrote:

    MA> I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    MA> embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    MA> able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    MA> See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489

    MA> Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    MA> recently been discussed here and in other forums.

    That reasoning is also in the KB article and the bug in this portion
    of IE is obliquely acknowledged.

    MA> The article even goes
    MA> so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    MA> the @ sign while older versions do not.

    The article states the opposite. It states that earlier versions
    displayed the entire URL (including authentication parts) whereas IE6
    conceals the authentication portion and displays starting with the
    hostname. This is, of course, excluding cases that use known flaws in
    the URL parsing and is also unique to windows 2003.

    MA> Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    MA> dangerous to allow in their products.

    If you read the HTTP 1.1 specs closely (RFC 2616) you will find that a
    HTTP URL does NOT include the usernameassword in the syntax.

    RFC 1738 and RFC 2396 specify the format of "generic" URL's but RFC
    1738 specifically refers to RFC 2616 for the format of HTTP URL's.

    RFC's 1738 and RFC 2396 both discourage the use of usernameassword
    information in URLs as well.

    That said, I liked the ability to source-specify login information as
    well. I think we may all be just a little shocked to see MS removing
    functionality in the interests of security. I wonder if this is
    because they were unable to fix the %00 spoofing or had too many other
    issues with this syntax.

    Another plus is that this change may see an upsurge in the use of
    Mozilla, which still supports this syntax.

    --
    Best regards,
    Sam mailto:sschinke@myrealbox.com


  12. #12
    Nick FitzGerald
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    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    "McAllister, Andrew" <McAllisterA@umsystem.edu> wrote:

    > I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    > embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    > able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/
    >
    > See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489


    And a good thing too...

    You see, rather sadly, MS failed to note in that KB article that this
    change _finally_ makes IE's HTTP URL-handling more or less standards-
    conforming. How many years is that now since IE 3.0 introduced this
    non-standard behaviour?

    > Their reasoning is that this will mitigate status bar spoofing as has
    > recently been discussed here and in other forums. The article even goes
    > so far as to admit that recent versions of IE show only the URL before
    > the @ sign while older versions do not.
    >
    > Apparently MS has decided that this RFC URL syntax is simply too
    > dangerous to allow in their products.


    It seems you misread the KB article and related RFCs. Admittedly the
    KB article seems to have been written be portray MS as the victim of
    harrassment by those nasty scammers, but in reality -- whatever MS'
    actual or professed reasons for making these changes -- MS has removed
    a _mis-feature_ that was not compliant with the agreed industry
    standards that IE is supposed to measure up against.

    Although that KB article refers the reader to RFC 2616 for further
    explanation, it also rather misleadingly refers to RFC 1738 and 2396.
    As RFC 2616 specifically covers the HTTP URL syntax in its section
    3.2.2, the others are irrelevant to the issue of "What is the proper
    syntax of an HTTP URL?". RFC 2616 clearly _does not allow_ the
    "userid" component of the generic URI syntax _which is OPTIONAL _AND_
    scheme dependent_. Go on, read all three RFCs and see for yourself...

    > Their suggested workarounds include among others:
    > 1) Having users click the "Remember my password" checkbox in IE.
    > 2) Using cookies.
    >
    > I personally use this syntax in only one production application, BBTray
    > - a windows tray applet that watches my bigbrother monitoring server.


    Then you should stop because it is not standards compliant. Do you
    really want to be part of the problem? (And a problem, that no matter it
    is not publicy admitting it is largely responsible for, MS itself is now
    trying to distance itself from?)

    > Click the applet and it opens a browser window with the
    > idassowrd@server.com syntax. The ID and password is specific to our
    > bigbrother application, my workstation sits behind two firewalls and I
    > am the only admin on the box. So, I consider this use to be legit and
    > relatively safe given the convenience it provides.


    You're welcome to your opinion, but as a few moments reading the RFCs,
    rather than the documention of the devil-spawn of all browsers would have
    shown you way back when, it is a poor opinion.

    > I certainly don't consider the "remember my password" functionality nor
    > stored cookies any more or less safe than this syntax.


    Indeed, but at least they cooform to the standards that are supposed to
    make the WWW work and interoperate between dozens upon dozens of otherwise
    largely incompatible systems.

    > Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and


    No, because there is no legitimate use of that syntax. If MS had
    implemented a scheme of its own -- say, "scamsRus" -- and allowed the
    userid component of the generic URI as a valid part of that scheme, then
    you would certainly be entitled to use a URL of the form:

    scamsRus://userassword@www.somehost.com/

    but HTTP is defined without such support so you aren't entitled to use it as MS should not have supported it.

    > Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    > the browser IS the OS).


    This is a good thing.

    The inconvenience to your relatively few users of their loss of this
    non-standard "feature" is worth the reduction in credible-seeming scams
    the removal of the feature will see in ensuing years.

    And perhaps MS removing this will pressure other browser developers to
    follow suit -- after all, who would want their product to be known as
    "the browser lagging IE in security features"? 8-)


    Regards,

    Nick FitzGerald


  13. #13
    Paul Smith
    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs
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    Thread Starter

    Re: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    At 22:54 28/01/2004, McAllister, Andrew wrote:
    >I just read that Microsoft will stop allowing IDs and passwords to be
    >embedded in URLs used by Internet Explorer. So you will no longer be
    >able to use a URL like https://userassword@www.somehost.com/
    >
    >See http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;834489


    >Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate uses of this syntax and
    >Microsoft removing it from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    >the browser IS the OS).


    Personally, I think it's a reasonable step - these spoofed URLs are a big
    problem for many people.

    You can disable the functionality in IE if you wish (the above link has
    details)

    I think I'd prefer it if you could override it on a site by site basis (eg
    using the 'trusted sites' functions, or by having the usernameassword@url
    in your IE 'favourites')

    (Although, having said that, having spammers use http://username@url is
    quite a good trigger to put in email anti-spam rules, as I've never seen
    anyone use that format in an email link legitimately..)
    Paul VPOP3 - Internet Email Server/Gateway
    support@pscs.co.uk http://www.pscs.co.uk/



  14. #14
    Richard M. Smith
    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs
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    Thread Starter

    RE: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs

    >>> Anyone have any comments regarding legitimate
    >>> uses of this syntax and Microsoft removing it
    >>> from their browser? (and presumably the OS since
    >>> the browser IS the OS).


    It always was a bad idea to put plaintext passwords in URLs because it
    encouraged users to give away passwords in links on public Web pages. The
    spoofing games were the second big problem with them that showed up later.
    Glad to see Microsoft getting rid of the feature.

    Richard


  15. #15
    Joe Weisenberger
    MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs
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    Thread Starter

    RE: MS to stop allowing passwords in URLs



    On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Fergus Brooks wrote:

    snipped ...
    > Also I have found that often to get to an FTP server on the Internet
    > (depending on the proxy, connection, firewall etc) that you need to use
    > this format. Taking this functionality away will certainly make it
    > harder for a lot of support people and consultants to do their jobs.
    >

    snipped ...

    I just applied this patch (KB832894 MS-04-004) to IE 6.0 on W2K to check
    handling of ftp url's. After the patch, ftp://usernameassword@site still
    works. I think the change only applies to http, https.

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