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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><a name="_MailEndCompose"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Hi Matt,<o:p></o:p></span></a></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I’m no security “expert” but I have plenty of experience with this sort of thing in the past, I guess it is something that gets drummed into you if you’re a developer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>It is good practice to hash passwords using a strong algorithm before storing them in a database, that way if the database is ever compromised and an attacker is able to dump the user table they will not be able to directly read the passwords.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Probably wouldn’t be that difficult to change the management.php script to check the hash of the password entered at login against a hashed password in the database, rather than just comparing the passwords in plain text. I might take a look into it myself next week if I have time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>It may be worth also considering password protecting the file itself at the server level, so that if you try to access management.php from your browser you will first be presented with an authentication dialogue from the browser. Use a different password for this than you do for the Xerte admin page. See this tutorial for using .htaccess (Apache) to do this... </span><a href="http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2007/01/09/password-protecting-single-file-htaccess.html"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2007/01/09/password-protecting-single-file-htaccess.html</span></a><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>This way, even if an attacker manages to dump the database to a page and read the management password, they will still not be able to log in to the admin section because they won’t be able to get past the browsers authentication dialogue (as this uses a different password not stored in the database at all).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Another thing you can do to make the process of dumping database tables a little more difficult for a would be attacker is to use a unique table name prefix, this will make it harder for an attacker to guess the correct table names if they find an SQL injection vulnerability anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Let me know if this helps, or if you think I’m wrong, I have been know to be wrong many times in the past!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dale Davies - VLE / E-Learning Developer<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Liverpool Community College, CIS Dept, Bankfield Road, Liverpool, L13 0BQ.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Web:</span></b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><a href="http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:blue'>www.liv-coll.ac.uk</span></a><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Tel:</span></b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> 0151 252 3238<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Matt Lingard<br><b>Sent:</b> 11 August 2011 15:46<br><b>To:</b> Xerte discussion list<br><b>Subject:</b> [Xerte] Security concern<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>The systems manager at my institution has raised a security concern regarding the password for the admin account for our Xerte Online toolkit.<br><br>I'm told that the password is clear text (ie the characters are visible) in a table in the database called 'sitedetails' (as it is the management.php interface). He suggests that this isn't good practice. Has anyone else had any concerns raised about this? We run other services on the same server.<br><br>I'm not particularly technical myself, just trying to ascertain the level of risk.<br><br>thanks,<br>Matt<br clear=all><br>-- <br>Matt Lingard,<br>Learning Technologist<br>LSE<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p>This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. 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