[jbossseam-issues] [JBoss JIRA] Reopened: (JBSEAM-2079) CLONE -Remember-Me automatic authentication

Sat Jun 7 07:01:48 EDT 2008

     [ http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JBSEAM-2079?page=all ]

Christian Bauer reopened JBSEAM-2079:
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I'm reopening because it needs to be documented in the reference with a warning:

IMPORTANT: Automatic client authentication with a persistent cookie stored on the client machine is dangerous. While convenient for users, any cross-site scripting security hole in your website would have dramatically more serious effects than usual. Without the authentication cookie, the only cookie to steal for an attacker with XSS is the cookie of the current session of a user. This means the attack only works when the user has an open session - which should be a short timespan. However, it is much more attractive and dangerous if an attacker has the possibility to steal a persistent Remember Me cookie that allows him to login without authentication, at any time. Note that this all depends on how well you protect your website against XSS attacks - it's up to you to make sure that your website is 100% XSS safe - a non-trival achievement for any website that allows user input to be rendered on a page.

Browser vendors recognized this issue and introduced a "Remember Passwords" feature - today almost all browsers support this. Here, the browser remembers the login username and password for a particular website and domain, and fills out the login form automatically when you don't have an active session with the website. If you as a website designer then offer a convenient login keyboard shortcut, this approach is almost as convenient as a "Remember Me" cookie and much safer. Some browsers (e.g. Safari on OS X) even store the login form data in the encrypted global operation system keychain. Or, in a networked environment, the keychain can be transported with the user (between laptop and desktop for example), while browser cookies are usually not synchronized. 

To summarize: While everyone is doing it, persistent "Remember Me" cookies with automatic authentication are a bad practice and should not be used. Cookies that "remember" only the users login name, and fill out the login form with that username as a convenience, are not an issue.

> CLONE -Remember-Me automatic authentication
> -------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: JBSEAM-2079
>                 URL: http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JBSEAM-2079
>             Project: Seam
>          Issue Type: Feature Request
>          Components: Security
>            Reporter: Eugene Kisly
>         Assigned To: Shane Bryzak
>             Fix For: 2.1.0.BETA1
>
>
> Extend the behaviour of Remember-Me to automatically authenticate the user after they have selected the "Remember Me" service rather than have him or her re-enter their password each time.

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