this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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354
Genetics firm 23andMe says user data stolen in credential stuffing attack (www.bleepingcomputer.com)
submitted 1 year ago by return2ozma to c/news
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
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[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Credential_stuffing

Credential stuffing is the automated injection of stolen username and password pairs (“credentials”) in to website login forms, in order to fraudulently gain access to user accounts.

Since many users will re-use the same password and username/email, when those credentials are exposed (by a database breach or phishing attack, for example) submitting those sets of stolen credentials into dozens or hundreds of other sites can allow an attacker to compromise those accounts too.

[–] doppelgangmember 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

So they brute forced the login?

No request limiting?

Wtf

Edit: yeah it's just a brute force with less steps. That's fuckn embarrassing "Credential Stuffing is a subset of the brute force attack category. Brute forcing will attempt to try multiple passwords against one or multiple accounts; guessing a password, in other words. Credential Stuffing typically refers to specifically using known (breached) username / password pairs against other websites."

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just because this method is a subset of the brute force attack doesn't mean that they don't have request limiting. They are reusing known breached passwords from other platforms, which makes it basically a guarantee that they will get the right password if they don't use a password manager. Their computer systems are secure, it's just their business model that's a privacy nightmare.

[–] doppelgangmember 1 points 1 year ago

I mean true, there's nothing you can do with a successful attempt.

But i feel like this still could have been limited. Required 2FA obvi comes to mind... You can limit rate in a lot of ways.

[–] PixxlMan 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

According to the quote they would've used breached passwords. You don't know anything about request limiting. It wasn't just randomly entering passwords unrestricted, as per your own quote.

[–] doppelgangmember 1 points 1 year ago

Okay 2FA then. Limit it somehow

[–] KillAllPoorPeople 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Limits aren't a concern if you're controlling a bunch of zombies. The big guys usually have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of 'em.

[–] doppelgangmember 1 points 1 year ago

Mandatory 2FA.

Easy.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Never re-use a password between services; every password for every system should be unique. Use a “password manager” to help.

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) / multi-factor authentication (MFA) on any platform/service you can. It makes logging in a little longer but it makes these kinds of attacks much harder to pull off.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Suggested password manager: Bitwarden

[–] Salamendacious 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whatever password manager you choose don't choose last pass lasspass breach

[–] Airazz 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They'll all get hacked sooner or later. Ironically, a physical paper notebook might be the safest option right now.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

if by all you mean the closed source ones where they probably don't even encrypt your passwords, sure

but open source ones (bitwarden) are really good and have a clear track record, you can even verify they encrypt everything by checking the source code.

If you wanna go ultra paranoid, however, you can also use something like keepassxc, where not only it gets encrypted, but it stays on your device.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Or an encrypted db like KeePass or KeePass XC and your own storage sync arrangement. It has the advantage of not storing your passwords alongside everyone else's.

But a decent password manager will be better protected than LastPass was, even if hackers steal the database. If you use a good one and a strong master password which you keep secret, the risk from that kind of attack is not great. They'll get useless encrypted data.

Of course there are still other attacks like your master password being stolen through a keylogger, so two-factor authentication is important too.

[–] Salamendacious 2 points 1 year ago

Evening has an upside and a downside.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If it is data someone can get it.

I do not know the solution. In a few years password managers will be seen as bad things, it's a collection of all your passwords ffs how is that really any safer?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If it's stored locally, has a strong password (it should be a very strong passphrase. I don't know how long mine is, but more than 40 characters), and is encrypted (which any good password manager should be), then it should be fine. I don't see any issue, at least not a reasonable alternative. Now using a password manager service that you're trusting with your data probably isn't a great idea.

I use KeepassXC. It's free and open source. The android app I use is KeepassDX, though there are others, and I use Synchthing to synchronize changes between devices.

[–] PixxlMan 0 points 1 year ago

Not if it's encrypted ;-)

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This only happened because we expected it to happen.

[–] aceshigh 4 points 1 year ago

So we caused it. Got it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

What should have 23andme done?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm always astonished by the amount of information that people give away freely without securing it properly.

As for yet another billion dollar company's data being stolen... well... that's just a normal Friday. I'm not one for government intervention, especially considering how our governments act nowadays, but I seriously think that our privacy laws should be a lot more useful and a lot more severe.

I don't even know what this company was thinking, what goes through someone's brain to not stop for 20 seconds and think that storing this information unencrypted and just behind a simple login screen is a bad idea? Isn't it just blatantly obvious that they should've used e2e encryption? Require people to generate a key before they send their sample? Or if you want to make it moron proof, was it really impossible to write a unique seed phrase on each box and require users to type that to see their PRIVATE GENETIC INFORMATION?

I'm not anti capitalism, but the audacity of certain companies especially in the us is a sight to behold

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

they wouldn't be able to give info to the feds if it was encrypted

[–] mintakka 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We desperately need data privacy laws like the EU. I think a lot of people are totally ignorant w/ respect to what bad actors (whether they’re hackers or private companies) can actually do with their data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

GDPR is honestly not that good, it's a step in the right direction but it's not even close to being a decent solution.

We should consider implementing penalties harsh enough to actually incentivize behavioral change. Ideally, we’d see a system where a failure to reform would result in fines doubling each subsequent month, ensuring that even a giant like Google feels the sting, otherwise nothing is gonna change.

[–] ultranaut 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I contacted them to find out if my account was hacked and their automated system claimed they have not experienced a breach and then tried to connect me with an actual person.

[–] LordOfTheChia 23 points 1 year ago

Verify they're a person by having them read you the last 4 base pairs of their DNA.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Well they weren’t technically hacked, so that’s probably why they responded the way they did.

They literally used people’s passwords to login.

If you re-use your passwords across multiple sites then that is what would put you at risk for this.

Just change your 23andMe to a unique password and you should be good.

[–] ultranaut 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's been a few hours of "waiting for an agent" without progress so I'm giving up for the day. I think 23andme must be very busy with unhappy customers, or is massively understaffed.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Both? Both!

[–] elbarto777 2 points 1 year ago

Why not?

[–] bappity 15 points 1 year ago

and nobody was suprised

[–] willywonkawashere 6 points 1 year ago

It has already been handed over to the governments of the world

[–] ShooBoo 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Perfect example as to why you don't use the same password for every account you create on the internet. And use the same email address for everything you do. And like to use the same username on every site you sign up for.

[–] Lightsong 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah is it so hard to have like 50+ different email addresses as well as passwords for them?

[–] olympicyes 2 points 1 year ago

I know that’s a joke but even Apple offers that in iCloud. I for sure use different passwords but forget that obscured email is even an option.