No more 12345: devices with weak passwords to be banned in UK
No more 12345: devices with weak passwords to be banned in UK
Makers of phones, TVs and smart doorbells legally required to protect devices against access by cybercriminals
Don't worry, this law doesn't affect luggage.
I have 2fa for my luggage.
Something I have: my luggage
Something else I have: bolt cutters
It's an expensive system but it works for me.
Brands have to publish contact details so that bugs and issues can be reported, and must be transparent about timings of security updates.
The non headline part of the law sounds great to me.
Yeah I read the headline and thought what, then read the article and it actually seems pretty reasonable.
Devices should not come with a username of 'admin' and a password of 'admin', it's a disaster waiting to happen.
12345? Thats amazing, I have the same combination on my luggage!
Ha, mine is 10 times more secure!
123450?
Usually, an impact study is made before such type of laws are made:
- if this law is enacted, how much will it cost to the manufacturers to update their factory settings?
- how will this be impacted on the device cost in the UK compared to other markets?
- how many users will get stuck when losing the unique ID of the device, what are the recovery procedures, how costly is it to end users?
- how many users will be protected by the measure and what cost for society does it represent?
- how many users will set a dumb password anyhow and what is the cost for society?
I’d be curious to see the impact study, as many of those are actually botched.
Most routers already have non-standard passwords by default. At least in EU. I’m not sure which devices besides routers and IoT peripherals are affected by this bill.
All of them I've seen do use non-standard passwords for the web access portion, however it's been a mixed bag for the admin controls on the router OS itself. It's often just admin/admin.
Which is crazy. I could, if I were inclined, log into the router in someone's house/business if they haven't changed the admin password, but they have provided me with a password to access the web. Most people don't bother changing the admin password.
a user set weak password is infinitly more strong than a known default.
admin
adminThat makes a strong password a million times infinite strong.
I wonder about raspberry pi - it's the image you download that has the known user and password.
It might mean that you can't sell one with a pre-imaged, pre-installed sdcard unless you customised the image.It's very easy to remove that and ask for a password on first boot. It could literally be one line in a shell script. They could put it in a text menu if they want to get fancy.
More professional (non-hobby) RP based devices probably aren't using stock vanilla Raspbian anyway.
You can already use a tool in the rpi imager to set the default login for your image.
I hope when they say TVs, they don't mean the parental controls pin.
In fact... What password is needed on a TV?
I assumed each device would be programmed with the top 5,000 most common passwords which it would refuse.
And the device would nag the administrator to change the password away from the default as soon as possible, please.
Is the flying squad going to kick down my door if I use 12345 as a password?
I use "4cab".
They'll never guess that.Only four of them?
This should already be in place with a lot of products due to a California law effective in 2020.
I like the easy default passwords for when I'm setting stuff up. If the end user doesn't change it, that's on them. This is one of those laws that just inconveniences the 90% to protect the lazy/stupid 10%.
I feel like there's a level of easy, that's still secure. I used to be the kind of person who used the same password for everything. Now, I've changed that password on everything and I'm particular about using a password manager even for most local uses. But when I'm performing first time set up, I use a variation on that easy to type, burned into my brain old password. It's not incredibly secure, but it's not 4 digits or my birthday or anything of the like.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Tech that comes with weak passwords such as “admin” or “12345” will be banned in the UK under new laws dictating that all smart devices must meet minimum security standards.
It means manufacturers of phones, TVs and smart doorbells, among others, are now legally required to protect internet-connected devices against access by cybercriminals, with users prompted to change any common passwords.
Rocio Concha, a director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “The OPSS [Office for Product Safety and Standards] must provide industry with clear guidance and be prepared to take strong enforcement action against manufacturers if they flout the law, but we also expect smart device brands to do right by their customers from day one and ensure shoppers can easily find information on how long their devices will be supported and make informed purchases.”
The science and technology minister, Jonathan Berry, said: “As everyday life becomes increasingly dependent on connected devices, the threats generated by the internet multiply and become even greater.
“From today, consumers will have greater peace of mind that their smart devices are protected from cybercriminals, as we introduce world-first laws that will make sure their personal privacy, data and finances are safe.
The laws are taking effect as part of the product security and telecommunications infrastructure (PSTI) regime, which aims to strengthen the UK’s resilience against cybercrime.
The original article contains 350 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 36%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
How they know what password we use in our device ? Do they scan our device without our permission ?
The law is for devices that come out of the box with a weak default. Like buying a wifi hotspot where the default is "admin123" would be bad. The default being random and printed on a label in the device is probably what this is aiming to usher in.
Did you really just share an article without actually reading it?
It's for manufacturer passwords, not ones set by users.
The legislation is to help regulate the manufacturers of IoT devices, not the users themselves.
Probably just default passwords
From what I see on the article, it looks like it mostly applies to manufacturer set passwords - though it does look like the devices are now required to prompt the user if they try to set a weak or common password (though I can't remember the last time I wasn't prompted)
Nah they scan your brain
🤔
No, others do that for them: insecam.org
That's not what this law is about, but yes actually they do!
I'm not even in the UK and my domains get hit by UK authorities that claim to be scanning for vulnerabilities