From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/55408 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 20:03:22 -0500 Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu Message-ID: <87isjxlrxh.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> References: <87vfoa5she.fsf@emptyhost.emptydomain.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1072832468 3366 80.91.224.253 (31 Dec 2003 01:01:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 01:01:08 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ding-owner+M3948@lists.math.uh.edu Wed Dec 31 02:01:06 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 1AbUjS-0001QN-00 for ; Wed, 31 Dec 2003 02:01:06 +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 1AbUjM-0001k4-00; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:01:00 -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 1AbUjI-0001jz-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:00:56 -0600 Original-Received: from sccrmhc11.comcast.net (sccrmhc11.comcast.net [204.127.202.55]) by justine.libertine.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 810C43A0038 for ; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:00:54 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from jay.local.invalid (h00105aa5eefe.ne.client2.attbi.com[24.91.123.131]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc11) with ESMTP id <20031231010052011006ajspe>; Wed, 31 Dec 2003 01:00:52 +0000 Original-Received: by jay.local.invalid (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 75370227F48; Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:03:22 -0500 (EST) Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: (Simon Josefsson's message of "Wed, 31 Dec 2003 01:14:39 +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:55408 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:55408 Simon Josefsson writes: > [snip] > I see (why?). Another reason might be that it is easier to zeroize > obarray memory, the hash table interface seem rather opaque (as it > should be, of course) so I'm not sure if zeroing passwords in a hash > table wipes out all instances of the password. (OTOH, I don't know if > this is the case for obarray's for sure either, nor do I think zeroing > is important...) 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. -- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard