News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by erlkonig on Sunday May 26, 2013 @12:49PM (#5771576)
Many sites rate usernames as public information, with SSH keys and passwords being private. Getting a list of users is not typically considered a security issue. If you chose (or were forced to choose) a username the was based on your real name, that could be a privacy issue (as well as a namespace collision problem), but not really a security issue.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by dmortin on Sunday May 26, 2013 @12:47PM (#5771567)
Why don't you tell Godaddy about it, instead of posting here? At least write to the forum and ask the support guys if they know about this issue:

http://support.godaddy.com/groups/web-hosting/forum/

Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by peterchon on Sunday May 26, 2013 @04:55PM (#5772400)
Because Godaddy usually ignores these type of concerns, unless its brought to light via other credible sources.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by SEJeff on Sunday May 26, 2013 @12:43PM (#5771553)
Even if it does, a username alone isn't a security breach. You would think they'd use ssh chroots or something, but there are no security issues with seeing a username
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by ams6110 on Sunday May 26, 2013 @12:50PM (#5771579)
Not a breach in and of itself, but it does give an attacker something they didn't have before: a list of attackable login names.

Now they can start trying common passwords on logins that they know exist, rather than having to guess at that too.

Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by peterchon on Sunday May 26, 2013 @12:44PM (#5771559)
I realize that it isn't a security breach, but I'm not so comfortable sharing my username with everyone else.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by zoidb on Sunday May 26, 2013 @03:52PM (#5772207)
Nothing new and in fact it's an extremely common hack to do a recursive find over the upper directory to see if there are any directories with the global write bit set, then drop a php file to get access to their file system. In general, you should never put anything on a shared server that you don't want to world to see.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by fractalcat on Tuesday May 28, 2013 @05:44AM (#5779079)
You are absolutely correct. You can also type `who` for a list of users who are currently logged in. You can even `cat /etc/passwd` for uids and home directories. That's how UNIX security works (not via obscurity). If your password's not strong enough to resist a bruteforce, change it and/or get a VPS (which, incidentally, commonly get pwned by Chinese botnets if you insist on using a weak password and don't switch to pubkey-only auth).
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by pasbesoin on Monday May 27, 2013 @07:23PM (#5777122)
Adding to the other comments, I've encountered similar on shared hosts. The first time, when I encountered something similar through a PHP program, I reached out; I did get a response from support (who were responsive and did on their own escalate to a higher level), along the lines of, "We know. It's not ideal, but it's the best we can do within the current systems design."
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by 2bluesc on Sunday May 26, 2013 @01:01PM (#5771618)
Usually all you need to do is read /etc/passwd to get all the usernames on the system. Without access to /etc/passwd, commands like ls would be able to resolve UID -> username.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by chrisgoman on Sunday May 26, 2013 @01:28PM (#5771719)
If you know how to do this, why don't you use pay $5/mo to DigitalOcean and get your own VPS... Shared hosting just implies that you are not really serious about security
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by peterchon on Sunday May 26, 2013 @04:54PM (#5772392)
I'm not a black hat or anything even close to that nature. I just happened to see it and it concerned me greatly. I am really starting to think about running a vps through linode or something.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by plorkyeran on Sunday May 26, 2013 @12:57PM (#5771599)
This has been the case on every shared host I've used. Most of them even defaulted to your files being world-readable.
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by timmillwood on Sunday May 26, 2013 @01:08PM (#5771640)
Isn't this normal on many shared hosts?
Re:WTF Godaddy SSh access to shared server exposes everyones... by devb0x on Sunday May 26, 2013 @02:36PM (#5771980)
its shared hosting and so you're probably looking at /home.

its should be okay. Just make sure you have a strong password