Bitcointalk Forum's Security

[francisdean]

A lot of users have been hacked this past few days, weeks or months. I'm not sure. I'm one of those who have been recently hacked.
And thanks to Cyrus and Theymos i managed to get my account back. The things is i don't want this kind of thing to keep on happening!
I don't want this to happen to other users and i think my idea would be a great leap to our forum's security.

So here's how it's going to work. Most of us that we're hacked weren't able to regain access on our account because our email was changed.
What if every time a user wants to change his email he needs to authenticate that request using the current email address registered to his account.
And after authenticating the request there will be a 24 hour process. The user can still cancel it within 24 hours if he change his mind.

I also think that it would be great if we add the service like Cloudflare to completely secure our forum. Of course all of us should be a part of this.
We should all contribute on this. We should build a donation address for this plan.

Getting hacked feels really bad. And i don't want that to happen to any of you.

So what do you guys think?

I really want this post to be noticed by our mods, staff and admins! So if you agree with me reply to this post saying that you want to make this forum secure as well.
Or if you have other ideas put it here as well

Let this post serve as a petition to make our forum more secure and greater than before!

[achow101]

A lot of users have been hacked this past few days, weeks or months. I'm not sure. I'm one of those who have been recently hacked.
And thanks to Cyrus and Theymos i managed to get my account back. The things is i don't want this kind of thing to keep on happening!
I don't want this to happen to other users and i think my idea would be a great leap to our forum's security.

So here's how it's going to work. Most of us that we're hacked weren't able to regain access on our account because our email was changed.
What if every time a user wants to change his email he needs to authenticate that request using the current email address registered to his account.
And after authenticating the request there will be a 24 hour process. The user can still cancel it within 24 hours if he change his mind.

24 hour process for what? You have to wait 24 hours to change the email? That's just plain stupid. What if the hacker got into your email as well?

The only good idea here is to validate that the email or password was changed. Unfortunately that isn't going to happen since a lot of users here just registered with a fake email address.

I also think that it would be great if we add the service like Cloudflare to completely secure our forum. Of course all of us should be a part of this.
We should all contribute on this. We should build a donation address for this plan.

No. This has been discussed before. Cloudflare does not provide any additional security whatsoever, in fact, they actually reduce your security. Cloudflare acts as a man in the middle, they can see all of your communication in plaintext, not encrypted as it should be. This opens up a whole other attack vector and a bunch more problems.

Let this post serve as a petition to make our forum more secure and greater than before!

The forum is already very secure; it's part of the reason that the SMF version hasn't been updated, many many changes have been made to significantly increase the security. The problem is when people fall for phishing scams, use weak passwords, or set a security question. There is only so much the forum can do to protect you from yourself.

[francisdean]

A lot of users have been hacked this past few days, weeks or months. I'm not sure. I'm one of those who have been recently hacked.
And thanks to Cyrus and Theymos i managed to get my account back. The things is i don't want this kind of thing to keep on happening!
I don't want this to happen to other users and i think my idea would be a great leap to our forum's security.

So here's how it's going to work. Most of us that we're hacked weren't able to regain access on our account because our email was changed.
What if every time a user wants to change his email he needs to authenticate that request using the current email address registered to his account.
And after authenticating the request there will be a 24 hour process. The user can still cancel it within 24 hours if he change his mind.

24 hour process for what? You have to wait 24 hours to change the email? That's just plain stupid. What if the hacker got into your email as well?

The only good idea here is to validate that the email or password was changed. Unfortunately that isn't going to happen since a lot of users here just registered with a fake email address.

I also think that it would be great if we add the service like Cloudflare to completely secure our forum. Of course all of us should be a part of this.
We should all contribute on this. We should build a donation address for this plan.

No. This has been discussed before. Cloudflare does not provide any additional security whatsoever, in fact, they actually reduce your security. Cloudflare acts as a man in the middle, they can see all of your communication in plaintext, not encrypted as it should be. This opens up a whole other attack vector and a bunch more problems.

Let this post serve as a petition to make our forum more secure and greater than before!

The forum is already very secure; it's part of the reason that the SMF version hasn't been updated, many many changes have been made to significantly increase the security. The problem is when people fall for phishing scams, use weak passwords, or set a security question. There is only so much the forum can do to protect you from yourself.

24 hour process until the user's account is updated with the newly registered email address. I think people aren't dumb enough to use one password for all his accounts.

[achow101]

24 hour process until the user's account is updated with the newly registered email address.

That is not a good idea. What website takes 24 hours to update an email address? There are very few cases where this would be useful at all. It provides no security to do that, and may be even more insecure. The security is in requiring users to confirm that they are changing their emails, not having to wait for the change to happen.

I think people aren't dumb enough to use one password for all his accounts.

You'd be surprised, but you really shouldn't be. A lot of people use the same password or some variation of the same password. Once you know one of them, you can get the rest. Common word mangling makes that very easy. Just google it, there are tons of studies of how people reuse passwords, use simple passwords, and are very vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

[francisdean]

24 hour process until the user's account is updated with the newly registered email address.

That is not a good idea. What website takes 24 hours to update an email address? There are very few cases where this would be useful at all. It provides no security to do that, and may be even more insecure. The security is in requiring users to confirm that they are changing their emails, not having to wait for the change to happen.

I think people aren't dumb enough to use one password for all his accounts.

You'd be surprised, but you really shouldn't be. A lot of people use the same password or some variation of the same password. Once you know one of them, you can get the rest. Common word mangling makes that very easy. Just google it, there are tons of studies of how people reuse passwords, use simple passwords, and are very vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

You don't get it. If the hacker was able to change the email address instantly like what happened to us here then we "instantly" don't have and can't access our accounts anymore.

If he can't change our email address instantly, then the account won't do him any good.

In some cases like what you're stating before, what if both account and email was hacked? Then that's where the 24 hour process comes in.

Let's say you can't access your account so you use your email to retrieve it, (you can still retrieve your account using your old email because it takes 24 hours to update your profile)  but what if the email was hacked as well, then you have 24 hours to retrieve your email before everything goes into shit.

It's very easy to retrieve email accounts as long as it's really yours.

[ToucheCoin]

I got no confirmation email from bitcointalk when i joined the forum. it is very esy to change the email without confirming the email ownership. we can set security question to secure our accounts from hacker.every time if you want to change your password/email you must answer the security question to prove the account is still under your control.

[achow101]

You don't get it. If the hacker was able to change the email address instantly like what happened to us here then we "instantly" don't have and can't access our accounts anymore.

If he can't change our email address instantly, then the account won't do him any good.

In some cases like what you're stating before, what if both account and email was hacked? Then that's where the 24 hour process comes in.

Let's say you can't access your account so you use your email to retrieve it, (you can still retrieve your account using your old email because it takes 24 hours to update your profile)  but what if the email was hacked as well, then you have 24 hours to retrieve your email before everything goes into shit.

It's very easy to retrieve email accounts as long as it's really yours.

If both your email and your Bitcointalk are hacked, then the 24 hours doesn't help you at all. You won't be able to access your email either so you can't fix anything.

[francisdean]

I got no confirmation email from bitcointalk when i joined the forum. it is very esy to change the email without confirming the email ownership. we can set security question to secure our accounts from hacker.every time if you want to change your password/email you must answer the security question to prove the account is still under your control.

this is a great idea!

[francisdean]

You don't get it. If the hacker was able to change the email address instantly like what happened to us here then we "instantly" don't have and can't access our accounts anymore.

If he can't change our email address instantly, then the account won't do him any good.

In some cases like what you're stating before, what if both account and email was hacked? Then that's where the 24 hour process comes in.

Let's say you can't access your account so you use your email to retrieve it, (you can still retrieve your account using your old email because it takes 24 hours to update your profile)  but what if the email was hacked as well, then you have 24 hours to retrieve your email before everything goes into shit.

It's very easy to retrieve email accounts as long as it's really yours.

If both your email and your Bitcointalk are hacked, then the 24 hours doesn't help you at all. You won't be able to access your email either so you can't fix anything.

You can always recover your email within 24 hours. Most people use Google, Hotmail, Yahoo and most of this services have great recovery options and live support. (except for Google; they suck at this)

[satmas]

I got no confirmation email from bitcointalk when i joined the forum. it is very esy to change the email without confirming the email ownership. we can set security question to secure our accounts from hacker.every time if you want to change your password/email you must answer the security question to prove the account is still under your control.

The database was hacked a while ago, which is why Theymos disabled the security question(I think). Although, Theymos should get confirmation from us by email if we change the email address.

[Cloverdale]

The authentication requirement sounds good but I think that the 24 hours process is a bit too much. Also the only way you can be secure is for you to secure your account. There is a new forum being made and I think things are more secure on that one. I don't think the cloudflare will be implemented in this forum as theymos has his reason not to put one in the first place.

[Xanidas]

I suggest we should increase password requirements to minimum 12 characters with alpha numeric and symbol that way hackers would have hard time decrypting the passwords in case of database leak.

they are already working on the new forum so probably it will not be made in our current forum. try to post it here, that way forum dev team can make it if admin wants

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=167.0

[Avirunes]

I suggested this earlier and I am suggesting again now.

How about adding an email verification system for users who are logging in after a long time? If they lost their email then maybe a signed message from btc address staked in.

And also dissallowing disposable email addresses for new account signups as they are easy to access and it might get in bad hands.

[ranochigo]

I suggest we should increase password requirements to minimum 12 characters with alpha numeric and symbol that way hackers would have hard time decrypting the passwords in case of database leak.

The passwords in the database are encrypted with SHA256 with 7500 rounds so that isn't a problem. The amount of resources required is insane, since there is no vulnerabilities found in SHA256 that can reduce its security as of now. The only way for them to do so is bruteforcing it. However, a real concern is if the attacker manages to do MITM using the SSL certificate again. This would result in the attacker having plain text access to the passwords.
The 24 hours wait is likely to make little to no difference to the impact. Most of the time, the hackers use these accounts for loans and currency exchange scams. They can't sell it since they have no signed message and they have little use for it. They don't need to change the email or password to conduct such trades. Furthermore, as the time passes, the chances of the original owner finding out about the hack increases.

[Sharma]

I suggest our mobile numbers are allowed to be linked to our profile and any change in password or other information must require code sent on linked mobile number.This will not only prevent hacking but also curb the menace of account farming as a person cannot afford so many mobile numbers for obvious reasons.
This will also take lots of work load off Admins as members will themselves be able to get back their hacked/stolen account back themselves

[ranochigo]

I suggest our mobile numbers are allowed to be linked to our profile and any change in password or other information must require code sent on linked mobile number.This will not only prevent hacking but also curb the menace of account farming as a person cannot afford so many mobile numbers for obvious reasons.
This will also take lots of work load off Admins as members will themselves be able to get back their hacked/stolen account back themselves

It would in turn compromise the privacy of the user. Not many users would like to store their numbers with Bitcointalk. Bitcointalk might have to find a third party to send the SMSes. It is fairly easy and cheap to get a phone number.

It is also possible for hackers to redirect the SMSes and phone calls to their own sim card through social engineering. The most direct way is to allow users to use 2FA for actions that concern account security. It is implemented in the new forum IIRC so the hacking cases would he reduced.

[francisdean]

I suggested this earlier and I am suggesting again now.

How about adding an email verification system for users who are logging in after a long time? If they lost their email then maybe a signed message from btc address staked in.

And also dissallowing disposable email addresses for new account signups as they are easy to access and it might get in bad hands.

i agree. we should start disallowing disposable email addresses during signup.

[unindentified]

not possible with current forum owner and staff. Stop asking for more security if it is obvious, theymos does not want more security, be clever to understand the reason/s.

There are simple and complex solutions for your request, in your words, it is very easy. But theymos denied any suggestion or help, make your own conclusions, if you would understand me, you would lock your own thread.

A lot of users have been hacked this past few days, weeks or months. I'm not sure. I'm one of those who have been recently hacked.
And thanks to Cyrus and Theymos i managed to get my account back. The things is i don't want this kind of thing to keep on happening!
I don't want this to happen to other users and i think my idea would be a great leap to our forum's security.

So here's how it's going to work. Most of us that we're hacked weren't able to regain access on our account because our email was changed.
What if every time a user wants to change his email he needs to authenticate that request using the current email address registered to his account.
And after authenticating the request there will be a 24 hour process. The user can still cancel it within 24 hours if he change his mind.

I also think that it would be great if we add the service like Cloudflare to completely secure our forum. Of course all of us should be a part of this.
We should all contribute on this. We should build a donation address for this plan.

Getting hacked feels really bad. And i don't want that to happen to any of you.

So what do you guys think?

I really want this post to be noticed by our mods, staff and admins! So if you agree with me reply to this post saying that you want to make this forum secure as well.
Or if you have other ideas put it here as well

Let this post serve as a petition to make our forum more secure and greater than before!

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I suggested this earlier and I am suggesting again now.

How about adding an email verification system for users who are logging in after a long time? If they lost their email then maybe a signed message from btc address staked in.

And also dissallowing disposable email addresses for new account signups as they are easy to access and it might get in bad hands.

i agree. we should start disallowing disposable email addresses during signup.

Then these email hosts need to start disallowing disposable people.

[actmyname]

i agree. we should start disallowing disposable email addresses during signup.

Like what? If you mean temporary email addresses, it's easy to see that you could sign up for a gmail account in about 2 minutes and use that as a "disposable email address".

Adhere to proper Internet safety and you should be fine. Change your password regularly (or use a manager if you truly wish) and keep your computer virus-free. It's easy, really. You just have to not be stupid.