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Re: postgresql.key secure storage

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nmset@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ("Saleem EDAH-TALLY") writes:
> OK guys, I would never have thought about modifying libpq to steal confidential 
> data, and I have never used debuggers in this respect at all. 
>
> So super gurus can yet do the bad thing.

Since this thread was published, anyone capable of writing a bit of C
code into libpq (which wasn't written to be opaque to development) can
readily search for this message thread and discover the approach.

> Nevertheless 99% of users are not super gurus who could do such nasty things 
> but a few of them could use an unencrypted private key. These few at least 
> would have been frustrated if libpq could manage an encrypted private key. The 
> server can manage such a key and the admin starting the server is prompted for 
> the password. Ironically, it is generally accepted that it's better that the 
> server private key be unencrypted so that any admin can start the server 
> anytime.

If we added such an interface into libpq, then it would become a
valuable thing for someone to add a libpq "extension" to capture the
data in unencrypted form, and publish it publicly enough to make it
accessible to rather more than the "1% of supergurus."

If you're trying to design something, intending it to be
tamper-resistant, then you *have* to consider the "supergurus,"
particularly because they might blaze a trail for others to follow...
-- 
(reverse (concatenate 'string "ofni.sailifa.ac" "@" "enworbbc"))
Christopher Browne
"Bother,"  said Pooh,  "Eeyore, ready  two photon  torpedoes  and lock
phasers on the Heffalump, Piglet, meet me in transporter room three"

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