Reading the discussion comes off as you getting very personal in the attacks while most of the comments were centered around code/crytography.
I also am confused by you stating that 'resorting to best practices can be dangerous.' If they are the best practices, they should be the least dangerous one would think?
I've got no horse in this race but that's my opinion and confusion.
Things that get the "best practices" label slapped on them are not inherently "best". At best, they reflect conventional wisdom in a particular field. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom is often wrong, and rarely challenged.
Eventually, things called "best practices" become the basis of hysterical and utterly worthless Pavlovian responses as occurred en masse here.
I didn't say it was wrong, I said it was useless. Screaming "use bcrypt" is no more helpful than screaming "don't use goto", and being an ass when someone tries to figure out what the actual problem is just turns them off to your "wisdom".
Forest for the trees. This isn't about technical details, it's a question of psychology. Screaming platitudes at people and being a jerk when they ask "Why?" will not result in them following your advice, regardless of its correctness.
I understand your argument and I think I understand why you make it. We're trained to be skeptical (as scientists of one sort or another), but in reality, I really do wonder if most best practices actually have inherent flaws or if its a perception issue because we notice the times its wrong and not the overwhelming number of times it is right?
Comments
Reading the discussion comes off as you getting very personal in the attacks while most of the comments were centered around code/crytography.
I also am confused by you stating that 'resorting to best practices can be dangerous.' If they are the best practices, they should be the least dangerous one would think?
I've got no horse in this race but that's my opinion and confusion.
Things that get the "best practices" label slapped on them are not inherently "best". At best, they reflect conventional wisdom in a particular field. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom is often wrong, and rarely challenged.
Eventually, things called "best practices" become the basis of hysterical and utterly worthless Pavlovian responses as occurred en masse here.
This particular conventional wisdom was not wrong. Your comment, which consists largely of innuendo, is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
I didn't say it was wrong, I said it was useless. Screaming "use bcrypt" is no more helpful than screaming "don't use goto", and being an ass when someone tries to figure out what the actual problem is just turns them off to your "wisdom".
Your comparison is false. "goto" is a stylistic nit. Insecure password hashes are not.
Forest for the trees. This isn't about technical details, it's a question of psychology. Screaming platitudes at people and being a jerk when they ask "Why?" will not result in them following your advice, regardless of its correctness.
I understand your argument and I think I understand why you make it. We're trained to be skeptical (as scientists of one sort or another), but in reality, I really do wonder if most best practices actually have inherent flaws or if its a perception issue because we notice the times its wrong and not the overwhelming number of times it is right?