Re: Showing gnome-keyring passwords in Seahorse [was: Proposal for Seahorse inclusion in GNOME 2.18]

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Mon, 2006-09-11 at 22:05 +0000, Nate Nielsen wrote:
> Alexander Larsson wrote:
> > On Sun, 2006-09-10 at 23:40 +0000, Nate Nielsen wrote:
> >> In particular I'd like to modify gnome-keyring-daemon so that there is a
> >> a 'mode' of accessing items without accessing the secrets themselves,
> >> and therefore not needing one of those nasty 'this application wants to
> >> access this password' prompts for every single password in the users
> >> gnome-keyring keyring.
> > 
> > Interesting. However, isn't there a small security value in protecting
> > just the fact that you have a password stored for a particular target?
> 
> Yes possibly, but I'd assume it's of very minor value. Your typical
> system is littered with clues as to what URIs, network shares, email
> accounts, etc... have been accessed.
> 
> > And anyway, you need to unlock the keyring at least, because all that
> > information is stored encrypted.
> 
> Yes, so one password prompt rather than a waterfall of prompts. There
> are of course multiple ways to solve this problem:
> 
>  - Make the keyring manager processes 'privileged' with regard
>    to accessing secrets without a prompt. (IMO nasty, scary)
>  - Make the keyring manager process not access the actual
>    secrets unless needed, thus not incurring the prompt.
> 
> Personally I prefer the latter from a security and a 'just makes sense'
> perspective. Until someone has a better idea...

I agree, this is the best idea I've heard about this.

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 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a notorious neurotic cyborg haunted by an iconic dead American confidante 
She's a foxy out-of-work angel who don't take no shit from nobody. They fight 
crime!