It’s 2023, why are websites actively preventing pasting into fields like passwords and credit card number boxes? I use a password manager for security, it’s recommended by my employer to use one, and it even avoids human error like accidentally fat-fingering keys, and best of all with the credit card number I don’t have to memorize anything or know a single digit/character!

I have to use the Don’t Fuck With Paste addon just to be able to paste my secrets into certain monthly billing websites; why is my electric provider and one of my banks so asinine that pasting cannot be allowed? I can only imagine downsides and zero upsides to this toxic dark-pattern behavior.

There is even a mention about this in NIST SP 800-63B, a standard for identity management that some companies must follow in the USA, which mentions forcefully rotating passwords and denying “password paste-in” as antiquated/bad advice:

Verifiers SHOULD permit claimants to use “paste” functionality when entering a memorized secret. This facilitates the use of password managers, which are widely used and in many cases increase the likelihood that users will choose stronger memorized secrets

Edit: I discovered that for Firefox users there’s a simpler way than exposing your secrets to someone’s third-party addon. Simply open about:config, search for dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled, and change it from true to false.

Edit 2: As some have pointed out, that config value interferes with regular functionality on some sites. Probably best to leave it alone unless you know what you’re doing.

  • SolidGrue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    631·
    1 year ago

    Clipboards (the buffer where copypasta is stored) are a weak link in security because ANY app can expect access to it. If there is malware on your system it generally has access to the clipboard buffer, and therefore any credentials you might paste.

    “OK, but usually you only paste the password and type the username?”

    Quite true. Keyloggers are also a thing and easy to install on desktop OS, maybe harder on mobile.OS.since (at least on android) you need to grant permissions for keyboard apps. Either way if a keylogger is installed then you’re fucked.

    It boils down to a bad risk assessment. Those services decided memorized credentials must be manually typed to prevent clipboard snooping at the (likely) cost of reduced password entropy and/or weak MFA (e.g., SMS or email based TOTP). In other words: stupid CISOs.