wget.info: Security Considerations

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9.2 Security Considerations
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When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
through the network, which may present a security problem.  Here are the
main issues, and some solutions.

  1. The passwords on the command line are visible using ‘ps’.  The best
     way around it is to use ‘wget -i -’ and feed the URLs to Wget’s
     standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by ‘C-d’.
     Another workaround is to use ‘.netrc’ to store passwords; however,
     storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.

  2. Using the insecure “basic” authentication scheme, unencrypted
     passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.

  3. The FTP passwords are also in no way encrypted.  There is no good
     solution for this at the moment.

  4. Although the “normal” output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
     debugging logs show them, in all forms.  This problem is avoided by
     being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send
     them to me).