Description of Problem: Whenever gpg is used, it gives the warning: gpg: Warning: using insecure memory! This "problem" can be "corrected" by installing gpg setuid root so that it can lock memory into core, preventing it from being swapped out. Is there a reason that RedHat's gpg installation does not make the gpg binary setuid root? One could argue that the risk of stealing gpg secrets because of gpg using insecure memory is less serious than the risk of a possible root exploit resulting in a security hole in a setuid root executable, but one could also argue that a program that handles secrets should be allowed to use secure memory... Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): gnupg-1.0.7-5 However, this situation has been true as long as gpg has been issuing this warning. I'm certain that RedHat 7.2 and 7.3 at least give this error. I don't remember about 7.1, and I don't have anymore 7.1 machines kicking around.... How Reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. run gpg Actual Results: You see the warning message Expected Results: You decide -- either you shouldn't see the warning message, or this is by design....
I posted this 7 months ago. I'm just wondering why there's been on activity at all. I don't want to nag; I just want to make sure this isn't overlooked, even if it is fairly unimportant.
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This issue is still present in FC5. Well, actually, the warning was removed from gnupg a long time ago, but I it still remains the case in Fedora Core 5 that gnupg is installed without the setuid bit and therefore uses insecure memory. Debian installs gpg setuid root. I certainly understand why people might be reluctant to install something setuid unnecessarily, but it should be safe to do so. On the other hand, the chances of password information actually getting written to a swap file are pretty slim, and anyone who would have access to mine through a swap file would also have acess to install a trojan gpg, so maybe this is just worth closing with WONTFIX.
(In reply to comment #3) > This issue is still present in FC5. > > Well, actually, the warning was removed from gnupg a long time ago, but I it > still remains the case in Fedora Core 5 that gnupg is installed without the > setuid bit and therefore uses insecure memory. This is not correct. The warning is still in place in GnuPG. The reason the warning does not show up under FC5 is that FC5 allows for a non-root process to lock (a small amount of) memory. Thus on FC5, GnuPG does not need to be setuid root. I don't recall which FC began to allow non-root memory locking, but it was certainly present in FC3.
Closing, then.
Thanks, you're right. According to the mlock manual page, this was added in kernel 2.6.9.