When I use pidgin to login to an account, such as my Yahoo account on a public unencrypted wifi hotspot, is my password secure or is it subject to being stolen?
Thanks!
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Over the wire, your password is as secure as the authentication mechanisms the protocols support are (and the mechanisms that pidgin is capable of using). This differs between protocols, and I am not at all familiar with the yahoo protocol. That being said, I would imagine that most of the protocols are reasonably secure, but am making no specific assurances.
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"over the wire" is an expression meaning during transmission over your internet connection, regardless of what that connection is. And as I said in my original response, the password is as secure as the security mechanism the protocol uses, and I have no idea what Yahoo uses (and what pidgin uses for Yahoo, as many of the protocols support more than one method).
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Assuming pidgin and the official Yahoo! client use the same password mechanism, yes. I can't guarantee that we use the same mechanism as the current official client, but we definitely use the same mechanism as some version of the official client. As I said before, some of the protocols accept more than one password securing mechanism (from different versions of the official client, for example) and pidgin may or may not be using the 'best' or most 'up-to-date' method, though we generally try to do so.
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OK -- thank you. I appreciate your answering me. I once lost my icq account when using an outdated version of gaim on a linux box. The password was changed and I could never use that account again. I assumed this was because I was not using the current version of gaim. I guess as long as I stay current, I'm safe -- relatively speaking. Thanks again.
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ICQ was known to have numerous issues with people being able to steal accounts, issues which for a very long time when unaddressed, I haven't heard about it happening in a while so it is possible that AOL has fixed them during the purchase/update/merge/etc.
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When I use pidgin to login to an account, such as my Yahoo account on a public unencrypted wifi hotspot, is my password secure or is it subject to being stolen?
Thanks!
Over the wire, your password is as secure as the authentication mechanisms the protocols support are (and the mechanisms that pidgin is capable of using). This differs between protocols, and I am not at all familiar with the yahoo protocol. That being said, I would imagine that most of the protocols are reasonably secure, but am making no specific assurances.
"Over the wire".... OK -- but I am using wifi in a coffee house. Would it be secure then?
"over the wire" is an expression meaning during transmission over your internet connection, regardless of what that connection is. And as I said in my original response, the password is as secure as the security mechanism the protocol uses, and I have no idea what Yahoo uses (and what pidgin uses for Yahoo, as many of the protocols support more than one method).
Ah... OK.
So I am as safe using pidgin "over the wire" as I would be if I was using yahooim?
Thanks!
Assuming pidgin and the official Yahoo! client use the same password mechanism, yes. I can't guarantee that we use the same mechanism as the current official client, but we definitely use the same mechanism as some version of the official client. As I said before, some of the protocols accept more than one password securing mechanism (from different versions of the official client, for example) and pidgin may or may not be using the 'best' or most 'up-to-date' method, though we generally try to do so.
OK -- thank you. I appreciate your answering me. I once lost my icq account when using an outdated version of gaim on a linux box. The password was changed and I could never use that account again. I assumed this was because I was not using the current version of gaim. I guess as long as I stay current, I'm safe -- relatively speaking. Thanks again.
ICQ was known to have numerous issues with people being able to steal accounts, issues which for a very long time when unaddressed, I haven't heard about it happening in a while so it is possible that AOL has fixed them during the purchase/update/merge/etc.
Thanks -- I really appreciate your taking time to answer my question.