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Is my password compromised?

YellowJersey
By YellowJersey
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Here, what's your password so I can check? 

(Joking obviously)

 

AFAIK no. A lot of people do this by accident so if compromising passwords was that easy, tons of companies would be in lots of trouble...

What the horse considers play, the monkey considers business...

But to Tom, it's all foolery. 

 

 

 

 

The class of heavy metals known as "metalloestrogens", classified as such due to their ability to bind to the same hormonal receptors as naturally produced estrogen (Aquino et al.), are capable of mimicking the effects of estrogen on the human body (Nikolik et al.). Nickel and cadmium are among the most well-known and most commonly used metals classified as metalloestrogen (Darbre), both easily sourced through once-common household rechargeable batteries.

Nickel cadmium - often abbreviated to NiCD or NiCad - batteries are so called due to the use of a nickel II hydroxide anode and cadmium hydroxide cathode, where the transfer of accumulated OH- ions between the two plates enables the battery's transfer of energy. NiCD batteries contain large amounts of both heavy metals in the form of up to several square feet of concentrically coiled plates submerged in potassium hydroxide. Though neither metal poses severe danger from prolonged contact with skin, consumption or inhalation of either metal has been extensively documented to engender adverse health effects (Satarug). 

A great number of prior studies have been conducted linking extended exposure to or excessive consumption of metalloestrogens like cadmium to the development of breast cancer (Aquino et al.) - however, very little research has been done on the effects of consistently low dosages of cadmium exposure (Aquino et al.). Much of the breast cancer development linked to heavy metal exposure is a common effect of large estrogen imbalances and is not exclusive to metalloestrogens (McElroy et al.). Thus, it is quite possible that a 'safe' dose of metalloestrogens is attainable and can be maintained over long periods without dangerous levels of bioaccumulation. 

Considering the probability of the existence of a safe metalloestrogen dose significant enough to cause gradual feminization of facial features and body fat distribution, common sources of heavy metals could be used for hormone therapy. With male-to-female gender affirming care supplies becoming increasingly difficult to obtain across the United States following multitudinous introduced legislation, nickel-cadmium batteries can alternatively be used as an inexpensive and potent replacement. 

 

Works Cited

      Aquino NB, Sevigny MB, Sabangan J, Louie MC. The role of cadmium and nickel in estrogen receptor signaling and breast cancer: metalloestrogens or not? J Environ Sci Health C Environ Carcinog Ecotoxicol Rev. 2012;30(3):189-224. doi: 10.1080/10590501.2012.705159. PMID: 22970719; PMCID: PMC3476837.

      Rollerova, E., Urbancikova, N. Intracellular estrogen receptors, their characterization and function (Review). https://www.sav.sk/journals/endo/full/er0400f.pdf.

      Nikolic J, Sokolovic D. Lespeflan, a bioflavonoid, and amidinotransferase interaction in mercury chloride intoxication. Ren Fail. 2004 Nov;26(6):607-11. doi: 10.1081/jdi-200037149. PMID: 15600250.

      Darbre PD. Metalloestrogens: an emerging class of inorganic xenoestrogens with potential to add to the oestrogenic burden of the human breast. J Appl Toxicol. 2006 May-Jun;26(3):191-7. doi: 10.1002/jat.1135. PMID: 16489580.

      Satarug S, Garrett SH, Sens MA, Sens DA. Cadmium, environmental exposure, and health outcomes. Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Feb;118(2):182-90. doi: 10.1289/ehp.0901234. PMID: 20123617; PMCID: PMC2831915.

      McElroy JA, Shafer MM, Trentham-Dietz A, Hampton JM, Newcomb PA. Cadmium exposure and breast cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Jun 21;98(12):869-73. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djj233. PMID: 16788160.

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No. A sys admin of the server of the service you're trying to log into, would need to log every login attempt with the name used and go manually through those... Ain't nobody doing this for a multitude of reasons. Beside, if they have that sort of access, chances are, they can access your account without that.

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2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

No. A sys admin of the server of the service you're trying to log into, would need to log every login attempt with the name used and go manually through those... Ain't nobody doing this for a multitude of reasons. Beside, if they have that sort of access, chances are, they can access your account without that.

I would greatly say that depends.  On smaller sites the might still log bad password attempts (not logging the passwords themselves but the user which is trying).  I normally looked through it to see what forms of SQL injections people were trying...or when looking at why some people were complaining about not being able to log in (as there would be people complaining about it...most of the time they were typing in their username wrong).

 

If you actually wanted to get an username for the entered in password, it would be pretty trivial...wrong username/passwords at least on some are logged with the IP address (so you can see who is doing it).  So you just have to see what IP address matches.  Then again this is a very very unlikely scenario...but the process behind it would be easy to automatically figure out the username associated with a password.  An admin might actually also have access to logs but not the key data, but yea the chances of anything coming from it are small.

 

2 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

Something I've wondered for a while now: is I accidentally type my password into the username field (so it's visible), should I change my password? Does that compromise my password?

I would say it depends.

 

Did you do it on a public PC?  If so, then yes (actually in general I don't trust public PC's and have a habit of switching my password if I have to log in using one)

If it was a private PC, does your browser remember usernames?  If so, then you might want to clear that list (and if other people you don't want to know the password used the PC then change it)

If on a cell phone, does it remember the username as a keyboard word now?  If so clear the word from the memory or change your password.

 

If the answer is no to the above:

Was it a major website?  [Like outlook.com, gmail.com, facebook...etc]  If so then likely not much will come of it

Did you reuse your password on multiple sites?  If so in general you should change your password.

Was it a smaller site?  If so you might want to consider changing your password...especially if it's password reuse.

 

Overall, I would say given the information you have said it's unlikely your password was compromised.  Entering into the username it's not likely anyone will even see it, and if so it's likely just someone looking at the logs...but even if that was the case it would mean that the company who runs the website would have to have hired less than trustworthy people in a decently key role.

3735928559 - Beware of the dead beef

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11 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

I would greatly say that depends.  On smaller sites the might still log bad password attempts (not logging the passwords themselves but the user which is trying).  I normally looked through it to see what forms of SQL injections people were trying...or when looking at why some people were complaining about not being able to log in (as there would be people complaining about it...most of the time they were typing in their username wrong).

 

If you actually wanted to get an username for the entered in password, it would be pretty trivial...wrong username/passwords at least on some are logged with the IP address (so you can see who is doing it).  So you just have to see what IP address matches.  Then again this is a very very unlikely scenario...but the process behind it would be easy to automatically figure out the username associated with a password.  An admin might actually also have access to logs but not the key data, but yea the chances of anything coming from it are small.

 

 

 

Did you do it on a public PC?  If so, then yes (actually in general I don't trust public PC's and have a habit of switching my password if I have to log in using one)

If it was a private PC, does your browser remember usernames?  If so, then you might want to clear that list (and if other people you don't want to know the password used the PC then change it)

If on a cell phone, does it remember the username as a keyboard word now?  If so clear the word from the memory or change your password.

 

If the answer is no to the above:

Was it a major website?  [Like outlook.com, gmail.com, facebook...etc]  If so then likely not much will come of it

Did you reuse your password on multiple sites?  If so in general you should change your password.

Was it a smaller site?  If so you might want to consider changing your password...especially if it's password reuse.

 

Overall, I would say given the information you have said it's unlikely your password was compromised.  Entering into the username it's not likely anyone will even see it, and if so it's likely just someone looking at the logs...but even if that was the case it would mean that the company who runs the website would have to have hired less than trustworthy people in a decently key role.

Nah, just my own PC. It was my bank account, which is why I was wondering.

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34 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

Nah, just my own PC. It was my bank account, which is why I was wondering.

Yea, you should be okay.  Banks should have pretty tight protocols with their logs anyways, so I doubt it really compromises you.

 

With banks, I always like to make sure having 2FA if that is an option as well

3735928559 - Beware of the dead beef

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49 minutes ago, wseaton said:

2FA is a discipline for users. It really has limited security potential because if your PC or phone is compromised 2FA is not much help. 2FA is already being bypassed by malware fairly easily.

It doesn't matter if it's "limited security potential", it still adds to the safety over not having it.

 

A rule of thumb I always use is never use my phone for banking, if my PC gets compromised they can't completely mess up my bank (because I have 2FA for transactions as well).  If my phone gets compromised they don't have access to my password.  So it adds an extra layer of security.

 

It's like saying using a short password has limited security potential because malware will compromise it.  At least in the case of 2FA, it still takes more to compromise it.

3735928559 - Beware of the dead beef

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