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Re: RFC: Encrypting ~/.subversion/auth on Windows

From: Max Bowsher <maxb_at_ukf.net>
Date: 2004-11-12 23:27:01 CET

kfogel@collab.net wrote:
> Branko Čibej <brane@xbc.nu> writes:
>> We all know that storing passwords in cleartext in ~/.subversion/auth
>> is not nice, but that a portable solution will take some
>> doing. However, there's an easiy way to protect that dir even from
>> superusers on Windows 2000 and newer, when the user's config dir is on
>> an NTFS volume: Simply encrypt the directory when it's created. In
>> order to do this in newly-created config directories, all it takes is
>> an additional system call (well, taking care that it doesn't barf on
>> older systems).
>>
>> Would it make sense to do something like that? I think it would be a
>> huge improvement, at least on the PR front.
>>
>> We could also recommend to users to encrypt existing auth directories,
>> it's a single command:
>>
>> cipher /E /A "%APPDATA%/Subversion/auth"
>
> +1
>
> Is this encryption based on the user's password or something?

No, it's based on some mysterious key material stashed in the guts of
Windows. Presumably that key material is encrypted with the password,
though, as an administrative password reset destroys all possibility of
access to the encrypted data.

Max.

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Received on Fri Nov 12 23:27:24 2004

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