Talk:Protecting Memory Secrets: Difference between revisions

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=== pithier, maybe ===

I had a quick go at writing a rather pithier task description, which I think it covers it, more for discussion and refinement than for wholesale adoption, and I promise not be be even slightly offended if this is completely rejected.

I had a quick go at writing a rather pithier task description, which I think it covers it, more for discussion and refinement than for wholesale adoption, and I promise not be be even slightly offended if this is completely rejected. One term that I quite like but missed is "skimming memory".

There are many forms of sensitive data, such as login credentials/passwords and credit card ~~information~~. An entirely separate matter, outside the scope of this task, is how you might permanently store such on disk. At some point however, a program must read in and possibly decrypt such information for use: what steps might you take to minimise the possibility of another program reading process memory, or scanning error files, core dumps, and log files from discovering such sensitive information? One obvious step is to keep such information in memory for the shortest possible time and ensure it is overwritten with garbage/binary zeroes as soon as possible. Some programming language features, including but not limited to object orientation, data hiding, and closures, may make it rather difficult to be certain that raw binary copies of the data are not left in memory for much longer than desired. For instance, a call such as <code>validate(string password)</code> might well leave string password earmarked for garbage collection but otherwise out in plain sight and unencrypted. It may be sensible to only ever store sensitive information in explicitly programmer managed memory. Discuss any other means available to ensure that you can and have securely wiped all last traces of any such asap after use. --[[User:Petelomax|Petelomax]] ([[User talk:Petelomax|talk]]) 10:06, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

There are many forms of sensitive data, such as login credentials/passwords and credit card details. An entirely separate matter, outside the scope of this task, is how you might permanently store such on disk. At some point however, a program must read in and possibly decrypt such information for use: what steps might you take to minimise the possibility of another program reading process memory, or scanning error files, core dumps, and log files from discovering such sensitive information? One obvious step is to keep such information in memory for the shortest possible time and ensure it is overwritten with garbage/binary zeroes as soon as possible. Some programming language features, including but not limited to object orientation, data hiding, and closures, may make it rather difficult to be certain that raw binary copies of the data are not left in memory for much longer than desired. For instance, a call such as <code>validate(string password)</code> might well leave string password earmarked for garbage collection but otherwise out in plain sight and unencrypted. It may be sensible to only ever store sensitive information in explicitly programmer managed memory. Discuss any other means available to ensure that you can and have securely wiped all last traces of any such asap after use. --[[User:Petelomax|Petelomax]] ([[User talk:Petelomax|talk]]) 10:06, 17 January 2023 (UTC)