Re: [Fwd: Re: plain text passwords [wasRe: [Gaim-devel] libyahoo2 integration?]]

[Luke S. <lsc...@re...>]

On Fri, Jul 26, 2002 at 05:39:46PM -0700, Christian Hammond wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 26, 2002 at 05:27:27PM -0700, Morgan Collins [Ax0n] wrote:
> > 
> > I think that if you encrypted the password, it would be wise to require
> > the user to enter their previous password before changing their password
> > anyways.
> 
> Except that gaim would have to be able to decrypt them before logging
> in. This would require that an encryption scheme be used that provides
> for decrypting. However, this is no different than, say, reversing the
> characters in the password. Anybody could just get to it anyway, by
> simply decrypting it.
> 
> Now you could encrypt the entire .gaimrc file and ask for a password
> on startup, but guess what? You would then need to store THAT password
> somewhere, and suddenly you run into the exact same problem.
> 
> Bottom line: There is no method that will provide the (false) security
> that people are looking for. The most secure thing you can do is to
> chmod 600 ~/.gaimrc, and last I checked, that happens automatically.

actually, that's second most secure Christian ;-). Most secure would be 
taking the DEFAULT (emphasis added for other listeners) option NOT to 
save the password.
luke


> 
> Christian
>  
> -- 
> Christian Hammond         <>  The GNUpdate Project
> ch...@gn...      <>  http://www.gnupdate.org/
>    Some people have a way with words, while others.. erm... thingy.
> 
> 
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