A desktop "secrets" API [LWN.net]

A desktop "secrets" API

Posted Jul 31, 2009 20:31 UTC (Fri) by dps (subscriber, #5725)
Parent article: A desktop "secrets" API

Given the need for secrets in other contexts, like private keys in NIS+ and the server side of SSL, I am unsure that the desktop is the right place for this sort of functionality.

I would instead propose that some form of kernel secret storage, which also has the advantage of being immune to things like ptrace(2). Given some mm work it might be possible to mark pages as sensitive and never allow direct user space any access to sensitive pages.

The user space API could be a sepccial file system with more security features. Implementing an OO style API in terms of such a file system should not be rocket science.

There is already an (expensive) version of this available now and it is called a hardware security module. At least one vendor supports Linux.

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A desktop "secrets" API

Posted Jul 31, 2009 20:58 UTC (Fri) by johill (subscriber, #25196) [Link]

There already is a kernel key storage. However, I don't agree that it's always the best thing to do -- things like smartcards don't really have or need kernel drivers. And I wouldn't think a secrets API implementation needs to be part of a desktop either.