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Forged usernames!

by Russ (Deacon)
on Aug 15, 2000 at 07:09 UTC ( [id://27864]=monkdiscuss: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Have you read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card? Remember how Ender spoofed the security of the battle station's computer system by creating a user named "Bernard  " (notice the space)?

That seems to have happened at Perl Monks. The latest new user list contains such users as <nobr>"  merlyn"</nobr> and <nobr>"  neshura"</nobr> (notice the spaces before the names).

I assume that merlyn and neshura did not create these accounts, so until this is cleared up, we might double-check the veracity of any questionable posts.

(Just looking to protect people's good names, in case there is malicious intent...)

Russ
Brainbench 'Most Valuable Professional' for Perl

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: Forged usernames! (i forged my nick)
by neshura (Chaplain) on Aug 15, 2000 at 07:49 UTC
    Actually, as soon as I saw that there was a hole for creating spoofed names, I created the " neshura" account myself. Not that I think that someone is going to come in and pretend to be me, but just to see if it worked, and what the behavior was when I logged in using that account. I noticed some odd behavior, such as:
    • leading space is stripped some places (e.g. within the Other Users nodelet) but not in others (e.g. the Chatterbox, where the nick shows up as "< neshura>")
    • some pages logged me out when i was trying to use the new nick
    • node=neshura and node= neshura both go to my real home node
    I didn't look too extensively to see what other things I could and couldn't do with a {space}nick, but I'd say based on this behavior that leading spaces should definitely be stripped.

    e-mail neshura

      And to fill out the story, {space}merlyn is me. I was looking at Hot{space}Potatoe, or whomever that is, wondering how to type the space on a /tell in the chatterbox. And then I thought spaces should be illegal in user names (didn't we already decide that, or was it LONG names that are illegal?). I tried creating merlyn{space} and was happy that this was rejected, but then when I created {space}merlyn, woo hoo!

      I think all whitespace should be illegal in names. There's too much stuff around here that counts on a solid name. What a mess if this could continue!

      -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

        It's them damned MS spaces. I think anyone with a space in there name should get it replaced by %20 no matter what. Like " merlyn" would be %20merlyn. That would deter people from doing this plus make them stand out if they tried.

        --BigJoe

        Learn patience, you must.
        Young PerlMonk, craves Not these things.
      Oh, good. I'm much relieved. When I saw it, I nearly panicked.

      /me envisions inflammatory posts in someone else's name
      /me shudders

      I agree with you and merlyn, all spaces should be stripped. There's just too much mischief possible, here.

      Thanks for clearing this up.

      P.S. I think I know this is you, neshie, from the node_id. But, can you prove this is really you? ;-)

      Russ
      Brainbench 'Most Valuable Professional' for Perl

Buzzcutbuddha (Fascinating) - RE: Forged usernames!
by buzzcutbuddha (Chaplain) on Aug 15, 2000 at 16:12 UTC
    They say great minds think alike, and seems to hold true: both Neshura and Merlyn did the same actions to test out Perlmonks....

    Kudos to both of you for thinking that up.
      Heh. Uhhhh...I saw merlyn do it and decided to see what kind of stuff I could do with a {space}username. merlyn gets 100% credit for thinking this one up.

      e-mail neshura

RE: Forged usernames!
by kilinrax (Deacon) on Aug 16, 2000 at 19:06 UTC
    Just noticed the account 'tombstone 28021' has been created. Is this really vroom, or are we beginning to see abuse of this feature?
        Yeah that account is one I created. The leading whitespace or underscore option has been removed from creating an account... I suppose I should do the same with trailing spaces and underscores as well.

        vroom | Tim Vroom | vroom@cs.hope.edu

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