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From: | Isaac Dupree |
Subject: | Re: [PATCH] read --echo=[yes|no|wildcard] |
Date: | Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:41:35 -0500 |
User-agent: | Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (X11/20071022) |
Robert Millan wrote:
On Sun, Feb 10, 2008 at 08:56:18AM -0500, Isaac Dupree wrote:Robert Millan wrote:I wonder how suitable it is for passwords -- is the memory always erased before jumping to e.g. Linux? (and is it important to hide it from the prying eyes of the root system? Probably...)Adds a parameter to define echoing behaviour in read. Then one can use --echo=no or --echo=wildcard to make it suitable for reading passwords.Why? This suggests that the Linux image you just booted is not trusted, which I find a bit strange.
well, suppose it runs for a few months, doesn't happen to overwrite that memory, and then someone hacks in and gets root access (unpatched security flaws can happen) and then reads the raw memory. Then the local boot **and the password itself** might be unknowingly compromised (rather than just probably a hash of the password). (plus you might be booting Windows ^_^, or anything really.) It's generally good practice, I think... that GnuPG tries to do, for example? (I could be remembering wrong)
-Isaac
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