From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Sascha Wilde Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Fix needed for communication with gpg-agent Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:41:34 +0100 Message-ID: References: <87irdzs6pp.fsf@stupidchicken.com> <87fy91g1pl.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <87wt2dk2rv.fsf@stupidchicken.com> <873b4yt7xx.fsf@stupidchicken.com> <87ps82ukz8.fsf@wheatstone.g10code.de> <87slcynii0.fsf@stupidchicken.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1172274121 20736 80.91.229.12 (23 Feb 2007 23:42:01 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 23:42:01 +0000 (UTC) Cc: wk@gnupg.org, cyd@stupidchicken.com, miles@gnu.org, ueno@unixuser.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Feb 24 00:41:53 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HKk2y-0002bz-Lc for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:41:52 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HKk2y-0002Sa-E9 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:41:52 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HKk2n-0002SF-DR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:41:41 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HKk2l-0002S2-4Z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:41:40 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HKk2l-0002Rz-25 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:41:39 -0500 Original-Received: from ns.km1136.keymachine.de ([62.141.58.119] helo=km1136.keymachine.de) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1HKk2i-0000I8-Ny; Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:41:37 -0500 Original-Received: from kenny.sha-bang.de (xdsld234.osnanet.de [212.95.103.234]) (authenticated bits=0) by km1136.keymachine.de (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l1NNfRkG023173; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:41:28 +0100 Original-Received: from wilde by kenny.sha-bang.de with local (Kenny MUA v.0409034.42) ID 1HKk2g-0002IB-E0; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:41:34 +0100 In-Reply-To: (Richard Stallman's message of "Fri\, 23 Feb 2007 17\:09\:31 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.93 (gnu/linux) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:66716 Archived-At: Richard Stallman wrote: > I think this suggestion is based on a misunderstanding -- the security > problems in the current implementation (when not using gpg-agent) has > nothing to do with caching, it comes form the fact, that emacs writes > the the passphrase to an temporary file (which is then feed to gpg). [...] > If all we have to do is avoid passing it thru a temporary file, > there must be lots of other ways to avoid that. Could it be passed > through a pipe or a socket? > > Someone says it already is: [...] > Does this mean the problem is already fixed? Yes. This problem was already solved (as said in another mail, I forgot it was). But there are still some more subtle security problems left, which IIRC were discussed in the original thread, too: If emacs caches the passphrase there is no way to protect the passphrase from being written to swap, when the system decides to swap out parts of emacs. pgp-agent and pinentry on the other hand are trying hard to prevent the passphrase from getting swaped out or written to hd by any other means. So in conclusion: the main security problem was solved, but it is still preferable to use gpg-agent. sascha -- Sascha Wilde : VI is to EMACS as masturbation is to making love: : effective and always available but probably not your : first choice...