Hi
Why not just automatically rewrite with rubbish all variables used to
calculate the seeds before exiting a program?
Peter McMurray
"Ed Sheehan" <NOedsSPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:frujf4$bs$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "Kevin Powick" <kpowick@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:d6bca0fc-008b-438c-925a-7ee6d59dd10a@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> On Mar 17, 5:11 pm, Tom Phillips <squ...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>>> PS: Did y'all read about the college folks that bypassed laptop hard
>>> disk encryption by cooling the cpu chip - and reading it's memory with
>>> another machine? It seems that the user password was laying around in
>>> memory in it's original state.
>>
>> Yes, but I believe it was the memory that they cooled, not the CPU.
>>
>> http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/02/21-0
>>
>> The technique successfully subverted all major encryption engines out
>> there. Other groups have now shown that with a common can of freon,
>> memory chips could be cooled, removed from one machine, then put in
>> another, where they could then be interrogated for data (password)
>> retrieval.
>>
>> This is a big problem for encryption software as unencrypted keys must
>> reside in RAM as long as the encryption software runs. Also consider
>> that most software is unlikely to erase memory buffers after handling
>> data. So although you may have encrypted a sensitive MS Word
>> do***ent, ****tions of that do***ent will remain in RAM, in an
>> unencrypted state.
>>
>> There is no simple "fix" for these problems, as it would require a
>> fundamental change to how RAM works.
>>
>> --
>> Kevin Powick
>
> How about a "secure shutdown" mode, whereby, after all programs are
> unloaded, a hardware circuit would write ones and zeroes or other
patterns
> throughout all ram, thereby removing all traces of previous data. As
long
> as people want instant access to their unattended computers, there will
be
> a need to physically secure them.
>
> There are security protocol standards which may need to be updated,
given
> this new information.
>
> Ed
>
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