Mozilla says 'minimal risk' after leaving addons database on public server

Mozilla says 'minimal risk' after leaving addons database on public server

2010-12-29 15:17:40 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- Mozilla on Tuesday admitted to have accidentally left a partial database of addons.mozilla.org user accounts on its public server earlier this month.

Mozilla was notified by a security researcher about the incident on December 17, reporting the issue via its web bounty program. However, the company said the incident has a "minimal risk."

"We were able to account for every download of the database," Chris Lyon, Director of Infrastructure Security, said. "This issue posed minimal risk to users, however as a precaution we felt we should disclose this issue to people affected and err on the side of disclosure."

The database included 44,000 inactive accounts using older, md5-based password hashes, Mozilla explained, saying that they erased all the md5-passwords, rendering the accounts disabled.

Lyon explained that all current addons.mozilla.org accounts use a more secure SHA-512 password hash with per-user salts. SHA-512 and per user salts has been the standard storage method of password hashes for all active users since April 9th, 2009.

"It is important to note that current addons.mozilla.org users and accounts are not at risk. Additionally, this incident did not impact any of Mozilla's infrastructure," Lyon added. "This information was also sent to impacted users by email on December 27th."

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