Created
March 8, 2012 15:15
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Security Alert - Please reset your npm registry account | |
================================================== | |
The security of the npm registry has just been upgraded. This corrects a known | |
flaw which led to the leakage of the password_sha and salt fields. The good | |
news is that the leak is plugged. The bad news is that it existed for quite a | |
while. | |
tl;dr | |
* Your password wasn't leaked, but the hash was. Still not great. | |
* It's fixed now. | |
* Reset your npm account at http://admin.npmjs.org/reset | |
* I'm very sorry. | |
* Email me at i@izs.me if you have questions or would like to chew me out. | |
You have every right to be upset. | |
Details | |
To do login, npm uses the /_users database in couchdb. By default, CouchDB | |
prior to version 1.2.0 makes this database world-readable. | |
Your password wasn't leaked. However, the password_sha hash and the salt was. | |
This means that someone with lots of CPU power at their disposal could | |
eventually crack it. If your password is relatively short, then less CPU power | |
would be needed. If your password is a single dictionary word, then even less. | |
What We Did About It | |
The npm registry has been upgraded to Couchdb 1.2. | |
In order to facilitate the use cases where npm needs to read a user's public | |
info, the non-sensitive pieces of the user record are being copied to a | |
/public_users database, and the rewrites have been changed to point to the | |
right places. | |
This means that the npm client continues to work without changes, and that | |
the problem is fixed at the source, rather than relying on adding additional | |
layers. Any downstream replicants of the registry will continue to work with | |
their (exposed) _users databases without any changes. | |
Why Wasn't This Disclosed Sooner | |
It seemed wise to fix the exposure before telling a few thousand people about | |
it. Jason Smith and I deployed the fixes on Monday 2012-03-05. We waited a | |
few days to make sure that it didn't cause any additional problems, and to test | |
things out. So far, it looks solid. | |
I'm very thankful to the handful of people who reported this to me discretely | |
rather than create more drama than necessary. | |
What You Should Do | |
Here are the options: | |
Do nothing. Least secure, most convenient. Probably not enough. | |
If you used a very strong password (eg, some string at least 20 characters or | |
so) for your npm account, then this might be ok. If it was something short, | |
or something you use in multiple places, then please read on. | |
Reset your npm password at http://admin.npmjs.org/reset | |
It's a 3-step process. The thing emails you a link. You click the link. Then | |
you remove the `_auth` line from your ~/.npmrc file, and run `npm adduser` | |
to re-create your account. If you only used the password for npm, and not for | |
anything else, then you're done. | |
If you have an old account containing capital letters or spaces in the | |
username, then you'll need to create a lowercase url-safe version and add it | |
to your packages. Ping me on IRC and I'll help out. (There are only a few of | |
you.) | |
Reset/change the password of any service that has the same password. | |
Because your username and email address are part of the public npm registry | |
data, someone could take the exposed password and try it on facebook, twitter, | |
foursquare, HSBC, Bank of America, and so on. This would not be good. | |
Once again, I'm very sorry about the exposure, and the inconvenience it causes | |
for you. You have a right to be upset. Feel free to email me with your gripes | |
and complaints, as well as any additional questions you might have, or if you | |
have any problems resetting your password. | |
-- | |
isaacs i@izs.me |
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..............dammit..... i've got like 30 modules and a decent npm name. boo