Encrypting Web Forms

[Matthias Urlichs]

Hi,

Michael Roth:
> to use GnuPG to encrypt in a pipeline called from a webserver, CGI, or
> something else use:
> 
> 	gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring /somewhere/keyring.gpg  \
> 	    --always-trust --encrypt --recipient bla@foobar.org
> 
> However, it isn't a good idea to sign the message because you must store
> the secret key on a public maschine and/or store the passphrase somewhere
> in the script. This is highly insecure.
> 
You can store the passphrase in a script which prompts for the secret at
system startup. That's somewhat less insecure. You can store the secret in
a program which marks itself as nonswappable. Even less insecure, though 
anybody with root could still attach a debugger to it and watch as it
passes the secret to gnupg. :-(

On a production system, you could recompile the kernel and disable ptrace()...
of course you'd also have to remove /dev/[k]mem, disable kernel module
loading, disable mknod(), ... ugh.

-- 
Matthias Urlichs  |  noris network GmbH   |   smurf@noris.de  |  ICQ: 20193661
The quote was selected randomly. Really.    |      http://www.noris.de/~smurf/
-- 
"Memory serves wise commanders."
		-- Tz'u-hsi, 638 AD