Bug 196224 - Security problem with attributes containing sensitive data
Summary: Security problem with attributes containing sensitive data
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: z_Archived
Classification: Eclipse Foundation
Component: Higgins (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified   Edit
Hardware: All All
: P2 major (vote)
Target Milestone: ---   Edit
Assignee: Jim Sermersheim CLA
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Reported: 2007-07-11 15:55 EDT by Jim Sermersheim CLA
Modified: 2016-11-09 16:27 EST (History)
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Description Jim Sermersheim CLA 2007-07-11 15:55:54 EDT 
We have an existing problem with org.eclipse.higgins.common.AuthNNamePasswordMaterials as it holds a password in a String. String is not mutable, thus its contents are more subject to being discovered because data known to be sensitive can't be zeroed out.
 
It's easy to fix the constructor, but the name and password are stored as IAttributes.  As their values are simple attrributes, their lexical representations are passed around in Strings.
 
Should we change org.eclipse.higgins.idas.api.ITypedValue such that getLexical and getCanonical return char arrays instead of Strings so that when they're known to contain sensitive data, they can be overwritten when no longer used?
Comment 1 Jim Sermersheim CLA 2007-07-12 17:40:25 EDT 
Mike suggests a special attribute type ISecretAttribute
Comment 2 Jim Sermersheim CLA 2007-11-30 20:53:38 EST 
mail thread started at http://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/higgins-dev/msg03462.html