Account lock-out



  • I was going to post this as a reply, but decided to make a new topic instead. It happened a while ago, but the thread reminded me of it. 

    Basically, due to a failed payment for an online website, my account was locked, BUT, I never noticed this for months as I could still login.

    A customer services employee asked me how I knew their account lock-out password, and that if I knew someone at the company, I should have told them. 

    I didn't get much more information than that, but what are the chances that my password was the same as their lock-out password? Fairly slim I would imagine, but then again, unless they rolled there own hash routines, I'd imagine my password generating the same hash would be quite slim too.

    and why the hell do they "lock" your account by changing the password? Wouldn't they have some kind of checkbox for that feature?



  • @Mole said:

    I didn't get much more information than that, but what are the chances that my password was the same as their lock-out password?

     

     Maybe you coded their website's authentication system in a drunken stupor and forgot about it by the next day.



  • It's a website that changes your password to a 'lock-out' password when you haven't paid.

     

    Why would you think they haven't rolled their own hashing algorithm?



  • @Mole said:

    what are the chances that my password was the same as their
    lock-out password?

    What are the chances they have it automated? I'm guessing some drone has to manually change the passwords on expired accounts, and missed one.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Mole said:

    but what are the chances that my password was the same as their lock-out
    password?
    'hunter2' is a fairly common password...



  • @boba_fett said:

    It's a website that changes your password to a 'lock-out' password when you haven't paid.

    Why would you think they haven't rolled their own hashing algorithm?

    Well, even sane systems sometimes lock out attacks by jamming the password. Normally, though, they do that by setting the password hash to something that isn't the hash of anything (typically something like 'x' when the hashes are made out of hex digits).



  • @Mole said:

    online website

    That's your problem right there.



  • @badcaseofspace said:

    @Mole said:

    online website

    That's your problem right there.

    Sidenote: I love how Amazon describes their video and music products as "digital downloads." As opposed to what... analog downloads?



  • So what kind of message did the company send you to notify you that you are actually locked out? "Stop logging into your account, pretty please"?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Sidenote: I love how Amazon describes their video and music products as "digital downloads." As opposed to what... analog downloads?
     

    Like, vinyl streaming.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Sidenote: I love how Amazon describes their video and music products as "digital downloads." As opposed to what... analog downloads?
     

    Still celebrating the move to 8 bits per byte?



  •  @dhromed said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Sidenote: I love how Amazon describes their video and music products as "digital downloads." As opposed to what... analog downloads?
     

    Like, vinyl streaming.

    They play the LP down the phone to you and you record it on a cassette.



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

     @dhromed said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Sidenote: I love how Amazon describes their video and music products as "digital downloads." As opposed to what... analog downloads?
     

    Like, vinyl streaming.

    They play the LP down the phone to you and you record it on a cassette.

     

    Sounds much better than that cold, harsh, lifeless CD!



  • Actually wheren't there at one time radio broadcasts that would broadcast software that you could tape and run on your computer.  Sounds like a clear case of analog download to me ;)

    The real reason is of course that digital download just sounds better.  Now they can even have double deal digital download days, because aliterations are cool after V for vendetta.

     

    Also changing a password to lock a account is moronic at best, even to a bloody 'x'. 



  • @dhromed said:

    @RTapeLoadingError said:

     @dhromed said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Sidenote: I love how Amazon describes their video and music products as "digital downloads." As opposed to what... analog downloads?
     

    Like, vinyl streaming.

    They play the LP down the phone to you and you record it on a cassette.

     

    Sounds much better than that cold, harsh, lifeless CD!

     

    The youth of today will never experience that moment when you're listening to a cassette that you realise the tape is unspooling into the innards of the player.



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    The youth of today will never experience that moment when you're listening to a cassette that you realise the tape is unspooling into the innards of the player.

    Are you kidding me? I don't even play CDs. Too much hassle changing the CD if I want to listen to another band... Just click on the song you want, Winamp will play it. I do own CD's, but after ripping em once, they disappear into my bookshelves.

    Then again, if anything ever 'unspools into its innards' it does mean one of my harddrives died violently...



  • @steenbergh said:

    Winamp will play it

    Winamp is old-school. Kids these days wouldn't know Winamp if a llama whipped their ass! iTunes annoys me: no "sort by path and filename" feature.



  • Yeah, I was an early adopter for MP3 music. I have a lot of music and I like to mix it up. Winamp's always on shuffle. Conventional media didn't offer that variety.

    Always stuck with managing my own collection instead of an iTunes / Zune or other DRM library. I also own an MP3 player that doesn;t need additional software installed to copy files to it.I cannot possibly begin to understand why one would give up such freedom by buying Apple.



  •  Foobar2000, then.



  •  Winamp is old school? Damn I'm behind the times. My kid isn't at "can operate a mouse" stage yet, so I don't have any feedback. @Zemm said:

    @steenbergh said:
    Winamp will play it

    Winamp is old-school. Kids these days wouldn't know Winamp if a llama whipped their ass! iTunes annoys me: no "sort by path and filename" feature.



  • @steenbergh said:

    @RTapeLoadingError said:

    The youth of today will never experience that moment when you're listening to a cassette that you realise the tape is unspooling into the innards of the player.

    Are you kidding me?

     

    I will admit that my cassette playing days are behind me now.  Despite this being the case when (about a year ago) we tried to buy a CD/DVD/Radio type system for the spare room we couldn't find one without a cassette player.



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    I will admit that my cassette playing days are behind me now.  Despite this being the case when (about a year ago) we tried to buy a CD/DVD/Radio type system for the spare room we couldn't find one without a cassette player.

    I still have cassette tapes and players. Admittedly, I use them less often than I used to, but I still use them somewhat. I really need to work on replacing them with CDs.



  • @Scarlet Manuka said:

    @RTapeLoadingError said:
    I will admit that my cassette playing days are behind me now.  Despite this being the case when (about a year ago) we tried to buy a CD/DVD/Radio type system for the spare room we couldn't find one without a cassette player.
    I still have cassette tapes and players. Admittedly, I use them less often than I used to, but I still use them somewhat. I really need to work on replacing them with CDs.
     

    We made the decision during our latest clear-out to get rid of the bulk of our cassettes.  The only ones we kept have some sort of rarity or sentimental value.



  • @stratos said:

    Actually wheren't there at one time radio broadcasts that would broadcast software that you could tape and run on your computer.  Sounds like a clear case of analog download to me ;)
    Yup, a student radio station used to broadcast ZX Spectrum games after midnight this way. Though I'm still not sure if this counts as analog download...



  • @ender said:

    @stratos said:
    Actually wheren't there at one time radio broadcasts that would broadcast software that you could tape and run on your computer.  Sounds like a clear case of analog download to me ;)
    Yup, a student radio station used to broadcast ZX Spectrum games after midnight this way. Though I'm still not sure if this counts as analog download...




    i remember those days ...

    they also printed programs and games in computer magazines and you had to type them in ...



  • You could also buy BOOKS that had games printed in them in the same manner.



  • @Nelle said:

    @ender said:
    @stratos said:
    Actually wheren't there at one time radio broadcasts that would broadcast software that you could tape and run on your computer.  Sounds like a clear case of analog download to me ;)
    Yup, a student radio station used to broadcast ZX Spectrum games after midnight this way. Though I'm still not sure if this counts as analog download...


    i remember those days ...
    they also printed programs and games in computer magazines and you had to type them in ...
     

    Typing in those programs for an hour.... hitting run....  "Integer out of range"

    Er... now what?

     

    A C90 full of games.....  Sabre Run..... Atic Atac.... Horace.... Elite....Bomb Jack......


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @RTapeLoadingError said:

    Typing in those programs for an hour.... hitting run....  "Integer out of range"

    Er... now what?

    "The Micro User" came up with a solution to that - they had checksums (per line) against the listings.



    Of course, that assumed that the listing - as printed - was correct.



  • @PJH said:

    @RTapeLoadingError said:

    Typing in those programs for an hour.... hitting run....  "Integer out of range"

    Er... now what?

    "The Micro User" came up with a solution to that - they had checksums (per line) against the listings.

    Of course, that assumed that the listing - as printed - was correct.
     

    I was a Crash man (well, boy really) myself

    I know they were the bible when it came to reviews but not sure if they did the whole "type in a program" thing


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