From 23d09f0c5d3eedfd5fc399fb83788768f18664a1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Adrian C. (anrxc)" Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:03:20 +0100 Subject: README: added the Security section --- README | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+) (limited to 'README') diff --git a/README b/README index 1a0ef97..28488e0 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -123,6 +123,36 @@ great for saving power. inconsistent data. +Security +-------- +At the moment only one widget type (Gmail) requires auth. information +in order to get to the data. In the future there could be more, and +you should give some thought to the issue of protecting your data. The +Gmail widget type by default stores login information in the module it +self, and you are advised to make sure that file is only readable by +the owner. Other than that we can not force all users to conform to +one standard, one way of keeping it secure, like in some keyring. + +First let's clear why we simply don't encrypt the login information +and store it in ciphertext. Answer is simple, that is no more secure +than having it stored in plaintext. By exposing the algorithm anyone +can reverse the encryption steps. Some claim even that's better than +plaintext but it's just security trough obscurity. + +Here are some ideas actually worth your time. Users that have KDE (or +parts of it) installed could store their login information into the +Kwallet service and request it via DBus from the widget type. It can +be done with tools like "dbus-send" and "qdbus". The Gnome keyring +should support the same, so those with parts of Gnome installed could +use that keyring. + +Some users move their login into an external file and read it from +there. Not much different than keeping it in the module, but what if +you encrypt the file with your GPG key? Users of the GPG Passphrase +Agent could decrypt the file transparently while their session is +active. + + Widget types ------------ Widget types consist of worker functions that take the "format" -- cgit v1.2.3