Re: netrc.el now supports encoded files

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> On Tue, 06 Jan 2004, cmg@dok.org wrote:
>
>> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
>> 
>>>
>>> Yes, I can add it too if you need it.  What would be really nice is
>>> a built-in ELisp cipher, for Windows users for example.  A simple
>>> XOR or ROT-13 based cipher would not be hard - does anyone want
>>> those or should I (or someone else) implement a more complex one?
>> 
>> base64-encode-{region,string} is what mozilla uses by default if you
>> don't use the passphrase stuff.
>> 
>> That's a plus for those times when you can open up
>> .mozilla/user/*/\d+.s and actually get your passwords back out of
>> silly webforms :>
>
> Would it be good to provide security that's very easily broken?
> Simon's rijndael.el seems much better - but I'll implement something
> that's easily reversed if you or someone else actually want it.

Perhaps several levels are useful.  But none of this is enabled by
default, is it?  I mean, users have to request encryption of .authinfo
for it to happen, right?

But I'm not sure I see the advantage of b64 over plain-text.

Anyway, it sounds more and more like this could be a separate package.
"encrypt.el" is available, AFAICT.  Using various hooks, such a
package might be able to work without the cooperation of Gnus at all.
Then you could request automatic encryption/decrypt of ~/.newsrc.eld
by saying (add-to-list 'encrypt-file-alist '("~/.newsrc.eld."
gpg-symmetric)) or something like that.

But that sounds like work, so simply adding gpg support to netrc.el
might be sufficient.