如果我的假设是错误的,请随意纠正我,但让我解释为什么我问。
取自MSDN,一个SecureString:
表示应保密的文本。在使用时,文本会被加密以保护隐私,当不再需要时,会从计算机内存中删除。
我明白了,在系统上的SecureString中存储密码或其他私人信息是完全有意义的。字符串,因为您可以控制它实际存储在内存中的方式和时间,因为System。字符串:
is both immutable and, when no longer needed, cannot be programmatically scheduled for garbage collection; that is, the instance is read-only after it is created and it is not possible to predict when the instance will be deleted from computer memory. Consequently, if a String object contains sensitive information such as a password, credit card number, or personal data, there is a risk the information could be revealed after it is used because your application cannot delete the data from computer memory.
然而,对于GUI应用程序(例如ssh客户端),SecureString必须从System.String构建。所有文本控件都使用字符串作为其底层数据类型。
因此,这意味着每当用户按下一个键时,旧的字符串就会被丢弃,并构建一个新字符串来表示文本框内的值,即使使用密码掩码也是如此。我们无法控制何时或是否将这些值从内存中丢弃。
现在是时候登录到服务器了。你猜怎么着?您需要在连接上传递一个字符串进行身份验证。让我们把SecureString转换为System.String....现在我们在堆上有一个字符串,没有办法强制它进行垃圾收集(或将0写入缓冲区)。
我的观点是:无论你做什么,在某个地方,那个SecureString会被转换成一个系统。字符串,这意味着它至少在某个时候存在于堆上(没有任何垃圾收集的保证)。
我的观点不是:是否有方法可以避免向ssh连接发送字符串,或者避免让控件存储字符串(创建自定义控件)。对于这个问题,您可以将“ssh连接”替换为“登录表单”、“注册表单”、“支付表单”、“你要喂你的小狗但不是你的孩子的食物表单”等等。
So, at what point does using a SecureString actually become practical? Is it ever worth the extra development time to completely eradicate the use of a System.String object? Is the whole point of SecureString to simply reduce the amount of time a System.String is on the heap (reducing its risk of moving to a physical swap file)? If an attacker already has the means for a heap inspection, then he most likely either (A) already has the means to read keystrokes, or (B) already physically has the machine... So would using a SecureString prevent him from getting to the data anyways? Is this just "security through obscurity"?
如果我的问题问得太过分了,对不起,我只是被好奇心控制了。请随意回答我的任何或所有问题(或者告诉我我的假设是完全错误的)。:)