Re: do we need secure removal function for keys in low level API?

On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Mountie Lee <mountie@paygate.net> wrote:
> when key is generated,
> I think how we can remove keys securely.
>
> key is sensitive data.
> when remove, it should be unrecoverable.
>
> any comment?
> --
> Mountie Lee
>
> PayGate
> CTO, CISSP
> Tel : +82 2 2140 2700
> E-Mail : mountie@paygate.net
>
> =======================================
> PayGate Inc.
> THE STANDARD FOR ONLINE PAYMENT
> for Korea, Japan, China, and the World
>

This seems to be an implementation detail for UAs, not something that
needs to be exposed to applications.

The UA is responsible for deciding what keys are exposed and how key
storage is maintained. The application does not have any intrinsic
guarantees on the nature of keys or their storage - nor can it, given
the way the web works, short of out-of-band knowledge (either of the
UA and how it is implemented or of the keys, such as pre-provisioned
keys).

Further, there's no point specifying an API for secure erasure of key
material, since the UA has plenty of opportunity to leak it within its
implementation. Applications that are particularly sensitive to the
set of regulatory frameworks that "require" secure erasure are thus
equally dependent on the UAs operating in a mode compatible with those
requirements, so there's nothing the application can or should do.

So -1.

Received on Thursday, 25 April 2013 18:49:53 UTC