Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Encryption Key Question


From: Zaven <zaven () sonic net>
Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:20:57 -0800

David Heise wrote:

Here's my question:
What is the best method of storing this passphrase internally in the
application such that it would be as secure as possible?

AFAIK, you can't store the passphrase anywhere securely. You should think in terms of requiring the user/other process/whatever to input the passphrase in to authenticate, and then storing only the hash digest.

If anyone knows how (e.g., Apple Keychain Manager) manages to diaplat the plaintext of stored passwords, I'd like to know, because it makes me nervous :)

Zaven


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