[Klug-general] password / security question / coding

[MacGyveR]

On Saturday 18 Oct 2008, Mike Evans wrote:
> > obviously storing in plain text is not ideal so looking for the most
> > secure solution so let me know, i am not a security expert myself so
> > looking for others opinions / ideas.
>
> Putting passwords in plain in a stored file is not only less than ideal
> it is folly.  Don't ever (and I mean ever) do it.  Even holding them in
> the memory of a computer in plain should be done for as short a time as
> possible.  This can be done by decrypting as late as possible, and once
> used ensuring that the memory used by the variable is overwritten.
>
> If possible I would also suggest that connectivity and authentication
> between a server manager and managed servers should be done using tried
> and tested security mechanisms, such as ssh validated by certificates in
> both directions.  Remember that once a hostile party has access to any
> machine on the network packet sniffing is trivial.
>
> Mike
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kent mailing list
> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent

if we are just talking about one password, the i would not store it in the app 
at all, as you could easily write a generic popup to request the users to 
enter the password when required (say on reconfiguring some service). the kde 
root password required pop up is an example of this. i personally would not 
allow this to be cached during the user's session, but this may annoy users, 
so you might have a system setting and warning dialog for this option.

if you need credentials for lots of users i would store the passwords in the 
required encrypted forms for all the services that need them, eg crypt for 
system accounts and mysql format for mysql accounts. when a new account is 
added the user will be prompted for the plain password and all the encrypted 
passwords created. if you add a new service that needs a different encryption 
type then the user will be prompted as necessary. i cant see that linux based 
services will use that many different password formats as most support 
multiple authentication backends.

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