Re: [Monotone-devel] passphrase management

[Timothy Brownawell]

On Sun, 2006-10-29 at 12:52 +1100, Brian May wrote:
> >>>>> "Ulf" == Ulf Ochsenfahrt <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>     Ulf> The passphrase dialog on commit is my biggest problem right
>     Ulf> now. If the passphrase is set in the default monotonerc, then
>     Ulf> I'd rather just use that. If it's not set, I have to ask the
>     Ulf> user. Jon's original code would always ask the user, my
>     Ulf> current code never asks. Both approaches are clearly wrong.
> 
> Why is
> 
> encrypted(private key) + passphrase stored in ~/.monotone/monotonerc
> 
> considered any better then
> 
> private key with no passphrase
> 
> ?
> 
> It has always puzzled me about monotone the fact I can't create a
> private key without a passphrase (at least not last time I tried), but
> I can store the passphrase in clear text in a known and obvious
> location on my hard-disk.

Yeah, it is a bit odd. It *used* to be the case that all keys were
stored in the db, and back then it certainly did make sense; if you went
and gave someone else a copy of your db without cleaning it first,
they'd get a copy of any (encrypted) private keys you had. Now that we
have saner handling of privkey storage, this does make slightly less
sense...

-- 
Timothy

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