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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Making kwallet more secure
From:       Thiago Macieira <thiago () kde ! org>
Date:       2008-08-23 18:18:54
Message-ID: 200808232019.05754.thiago () kde ! org
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Michael Pyne wrote:
>You would have to ensure that the kwallet daemon runs as a different
> user as a minimum I would think.  I wonder how ssh-agent and gpg-agent
> handle it though, maybe I'm thinking this through wrong and there's a
> syscall that can lock memory even away from different pids owned by the
> same user.

GPG is setuid root. And it locks a region of memory so that it doesn't get 
swapped out. (otherwise passwords could be recovered by scanning the 
swap)

This of course requires that the system be trusted. If any root-level or 
kernel-level malware is running, no security will help you. 

Physical security is also important: you can yank memory modules from a 
running computer and plug it to another to read the contents before they 
are lost.

-- 
  Thiago Macieira  -  thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org
    PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint:
    E067 918B B660 DBD1 105C  966C 33F5 F005 6EF4 5358

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