Saint Trivial Authentication, Who Let You In Without Asking

Patron of SSH clients, login prompts repainted by the server, and people who type the password before looking at who is asking.

Life

In June 2021 it emerged that PuTTY and other SSH clients carried on with a session even though they had never sent a substantive authentication response. So a hostile server could wave the user through and then show a fake password prompt, capturing the credentials at leisure. The name describes the misplaced trust: an authentication too easy to be true.

Prayer

O Saint Trivial Authentication, who opens the door before checking the key, teach our clients to distrust servers that are too kind. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by updating PuTTY and the other clients, and remembering that a password prompt can come from one who should not be asking.

A door that opens by itself is a trap that comforts you.