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Merge pull request #845 from public/no-memory-wipe-docs
Document our security limitations
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Known security limitations | ||
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Lack of secure memory wiping | ||
============================ | ||
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`Memory wiping`_ is used to protect secret data or key material from attackers | ||
with access to uninitialized memory. This can be either because the attacker | ||
has some kind of local user access or because of how other software uses | ||
uninitialized memory. | ||
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Python exposes no API for us to implement this reliably and as such almost all | ||
software in Python is potentially vulnerable to this attack. However the | ||
`CERT secure coding guidelines`_ consider this issue as "low severity, | ||
unlikely, expensive to repair" and we do not consider this a high risk for most | ||
users. | ||
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.. _`Memory wiping`: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2013/05/29/10421912.aspx | ||
.. _`CERT secure coding guidelines`: https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/seccode/MEM03-C.+Clear+sensitive+information+stored+in+reusable+resources |