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[Bug 287908] [NEW] ecryptfs-setup-private potentially exposes passwords in the process table

 

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: ecryptfs-utils

ecryptfs-setup-private potentially exposes passwords in the process
table.

There are two calls in ecryptfs-setup-private to helper utilities:
 * ecryptfs-wrap-passphrase
 * ecryptfs-add-passphrase
that use passwords on the command line.

There is a small yet real possibility that these passwords could be
exposed on the process table momentarily.

To fix this problem, we need to:
 a) patch both ecryptfs-wrap-passphrase and ecryptfs-add-passphrase to take passphrases on stdin
 b) modify the callers to use a dash/bash builtin function (such as echo or printf) to send this passphrases to those utilities on standard in

Thanks to Jamie Strandboge for the bug report.

:-Dustin

** Affects: ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Critical
     Assignee: Dustin Kirkland (kirkland)
         Status: In Progress

** Changed in: ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Critical
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Dustin Kirkland (kirkland)
       Status: New => In Progress

-- 
ecryptfs-setup-private potentially exposes passwords in the process table
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/287908
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Status in “ecryptfs-utils” source package in Ubuntu: In Progress

Bug description:
Binary package hint: ecryptfs-utils

ecryptfs-setup-private potentially exposes passwords in the process table.

There are two calls in ecryptfs-setup-private to helper utilities:
 * ecryptfs-wrap-passphrase
 * ecryptfs-add-passphrase
that use passwords on the command line.

There is a small yet real possibility that these passwords could be exposed on the process table momentarily.

To fix this problem, we need to:
 a) patch both ecryptfs-wrap-passphrase and ecryptfs-add-passphrase to take passphrases on stdin
 b) modify the callers to use a dash/bash builtin function (such as echo or printf) to send this passphrases to those utilities on standard in

Thanks to Jamie Strandboge for the bug report.

:-Dustin



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