[Mailman-Developers] GSOC Project idea: OpenPGP integration

[Stefan Schlott]

On 27.04.2013 06:45, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>  > 2. Your list has elevated security requirements. In this case, you can
>  > use gpg-agent to manage the secret key (and its passphrase).
> 
> I don't understand what threat you propose to address in this way.
> It's true that you can prevent the attacker from getting access to the
> key (using agent forwarding or a token, it need not be on the exposed
> host at all), but we're assuming he has access to the host and the
> Mailman process.

The gpg-agent approach protects you from all storage-related attacks:
- unencrypted backups
- physical access to the harddrive
- etc.

It does not protect from attackers who have access to the contents of
the computer's RAM:
- raw memory access and scanning for the secret key (requires root)
- memory dump via DMA-enabled interfaces (firewire, pc-card, ...)
- cold boot attacks


Stefan.