Re: Messenger/Hotmail passwords at risk

From: Jeffrey W. Baker (jwbakerat_private)
Date: Mon Jul 09 2001 - 12:32:54 PDT

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    On Fri, 6 Jul 2001, gregory duchemin wrote:
    
    > hi bugtraqers,
    >
    >
    > Background
    > ==========
    >
    > i sent the following advisory to Microsoft there is about 1 month of
    > that, and since i did not get any reply. The problem described below
    > is still working on the latest MSN client version currently available.
    > A bug in the Hotmail Messenger cryptographic system may allow the
    > recovery of millions of hotmail mailboxes's password.
    
    Uh huh.  So you are saying that, given MD5(password), password may be
    recovered by brute force.  And this is new/interesting in what way?  You
    can brute force ANY_FUNCTION(password) in exactly the same way.
    
    The password is a secret key, and its length is important.
    
    > say user toto has a password "titan"
    > then his client generate the string "yyyyyyyyy.yyyyyyyyytitan" and the
    > according MD5 hash, say xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
    > the client send MD5(yyyyyyyyy.yyyyyyyyytitan) on the wire.
    >
    > Problem
    > =======
    >
    > by sniffing the wire, a malicious user can obviously retrieve the
    > scrambler string and the final hash. then he can start a bruteforce
    > session trying all password combinaisons with the same scrambler
    > prepended and comparing the resulting hash with this he previously
    > sniffed. (an exhaustive attack)
    
    Wow if you are worried about that I suggest you have a good long look at
    the SMB protocol!
    
    -jwb
    



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