Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
Commit 358166bc authored by akwizgran's avatar akwizgran
Browse files

Don't try to erase secrets from memory.

1. The things we're really trying to protect - contact identities,
message contents, etc - can't be erased from memory because they're
encapsulated inside objects we don't control.

2. Long-term secrets can't be protected by erasing them from memory
because they're stored in the database and the database key has to be
held in memory whenever the app's running.

3. If the runtime uses a compacting garbage collector then we have no
way to ensure an object is erased from memory.

4. Trying to erase secrets from memory makes the code more complex.

Conclusion: Let's not try to protect secrets from an attacker who can
read arbitrary memory locations.
parent f316d64a
No related branches found
No related tags found
Loading
Showing
with 97 additions and 286 deletions
Loading
0% Loading or .
You are about to add 0 people to the discussion. Proceed with caution.
Finish editing this message first!
Please register or to comment