Re: hiding passwd in cmdlines that appear in the process list

tg-php@gryffyndevelopment.com wrote: > You'd assume those ENV variables are secure.. or secure "enough". I know > there's no such thing as perfect security, but I still wonder if there's a better way. > > Although at this point, if there was a way to read other process/subprocess ENV variables, > it'd most likely be something an attacker would have to get at by being fairly close to the > system (trojan installed as root and exploiting an OS bug that allowed access to ENV variables from > other processes for example). So I'm guessing this is about as secure as you're going to > get for now. thanks - nice to have a few extra brains executing this 'thought experiment' > > The problem still bugs me though.. hah. yeah it niggles a bit. I keep hunting about now and again to see if I can learn how seasoned shell scripters tackle such security issues - undoubtedly I'm not the first to come accross these issues, I am after a very small hobbit standing on the shoulders of very tall ents. > > -TG > > = = = Original message = = = > > tg-php@gryffyndevelopment.com wrote: >> If you did use ENV to set the username and password, you could always unset it using the >> same method after you ran the mysql command. So it'd only be exposed for a very brief period >> of time and slightly less accessible than just running a process list. >> > > indeed I do the following directly after the relevant call to exec() : > > > putenv('MYSQL_PLESK_PWD=doreallythinkIwouldleavethispwdfloatingaroundinashellenv?'); > >> It still falls under the category of "security through obscurity" which >> isn't a best practice scenario. But I can't think of another way to run mysql under these >> circumstances that's any better. > > but given that the ENV var is only available to the shell php in currently running in (and any > subshells) so > the script is only vulnerable to mistakes/attacks from 'inside' the script - > basically I'm assuming that > whatever is stored in the ENV of a shell is not accessible/visible to other users on the given > system. > > is that assumption correct? > >> -TG > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Sent by ePrompter, the premier email notification software. > Free download at http://www.ePrompter.com. > .