From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 9 Aug 2001 11:30:17 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 9 Aug 2001 11:30:08 -0400 Received: from h24-64-71-161.cg.shawcable.net ([24.64.71.161]:58616 "EHLO webber.adilger.int") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Thu, 9 Aug 2001 11:29:51 -0400 From: Andreas Dilger Message-Id: <200108091529.f79FTNsc023173@webber.adilger.int> Subject: Re: summary Re: encrypted swap In-Reply-To: <9kt5hh$8fo$1@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu> "from David Wagner at Aug 9, 2001 05:02:41 am" To: David Wagner Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 09:29:23 -0600 (MDT) CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL87 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org David Ford writes: > I keep giving examples where encrypted swap can still be useful even > (or especially) when there is a risk that an attacker might gain access > to the machine occasionally. I like to think my examples should > have been pretty clear, but if not, please ask, and I'll be happy to > elaborate on whichever point you found unclear. Another interesting use for encrypted swap - if you use it in conjunction with tmpfs, then _many_ of the files in /tmp will never even be written to disk (closing another potential security hole), but those that do get written will be encrypted by swap (so are also safer). Finally, there is the related issue of "diskless" machines, which have swap and /tmp on a local disk (for improved performance/reduced network overhead), and everything else is over the network. I know many banks run this way, so stealing one of these systems would not compromise data if swap is encrypted. Cheers, Andreas -- Andreas Dilger \ "If a man ate a pound of pasta and a pound of antipasto, \ would they cancel out, leaving him still hungry?" http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/ -- Dogbert