From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/55415 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Cache passwords Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:52:47 -0500 Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu Message-ID: <877k0dlpn4.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> References: <87vfoa5she.fsf@emptyhost.emptydomain.de> <87isjxlrxh.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1072835442 8876 80.91.224.253 (31 Dec 2003 01:50:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 01:50:42 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ding-owner+M3955@lists.math.uh.edu Wed Dec 31 02:50:38 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AbVVO-0003JH-00 for ; Wed, 31 Dec 2003 02:50:38 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by malifon.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1AbVVG-0002MF-00; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:50:30 -0600 Original-Received: from justine.libertine.org ([66.139.78.221] ident=postfix) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1AbVV9-0002L3-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:50:23 -0600 Original-Received: from sccrmhc13.comcast.net (sccrmhc13.comcast.net [204.127.202.64]) by justine.libertine.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A16EB3A0041 for ; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:50:22 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from jay.local.invalid (h00105aa5eefe.ne.client2.attbi.com[24.91.123.131]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc13) with ESMTP id <2003123101502201600elpc5e>; Wed, 31 Dec 2003 01:50:22 +0000 Original-Received: by jay.local.invalid (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 28A4B227F48; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:52:47 -0500 (EST) Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: (Jesper Harder's message of "Wed, 31 Dec 2003 02:12:54 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.1003 (Gnus v5.10.3) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) Precedence: bulk Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:55415 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:55415 Jesper Harder writes: > Jeremy Maitin-Shepard writes: >> Given that garbage collection is used, and the high-level nature of >> emacs lisp, I that there is good reason to believe that regardless of >> any amount of effort, the password might remain somewhere in memory for >> a while. > I do believe that explicitly overwriting a string, e.g. with > `clear-string', *will* change the bits immediately. That is true, but you don't know how many copies were made while reading it from the minibuffer, etc. > But it's less obvious what the effect of `clrhash' is, as Simon notes. Indeed, this probably does not zero the individual strings. -- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard