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

 

Updated debdiff.  Thoroughly tested:

 * ecryptfs-add-passphrase:
 - tested with no and bad parameters, still shows usage statement
  - regression tested with command line parameters, and using stdin
  - verified that passphrase makes it into the keyring
   . check with "keyctl show"
   . clear with "keyctl clear @u")
 - tested adding arbitrary trailing new line characters and no newline character
   . verifying fgets() is working as expected

 * ecryptfs-wrap-passphrase:
  - tested with no and bad parameters, still shows usage statement
  - regression tested with command line parameters, and using stdin
  - verify that the passphrase get's encrypted
   . cat encrypted file
  - verify that the passphrase can be decrypted with the encryption passphrase
   . ecryptfs-unwrap-passphrase

 * ecryptfs-setup-private
 - tested with good and bad passphrases
 - tested on the command line, and interactively
 - unwrapped the passphrases written by ecryptfs-setup-private
 - mounted/unmounted
 - logged out, mounted/unmounted
 - rebooted, mounted/unmounted


:-Dustin

** Attachment added: "ecryptfs-utils.debdiff"
   http://launchpadlibrarian.net/18823465/ecryptfs-utils.debdiff

-- 
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



References