Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 27 Aug 2001 22:18:30 -0400
From:      Mixtim <mixtim@mixtim.homeip.net>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: encrypted swap
Message-ID:  <20010827221830.A92367@mixtim.homeip.net>
In-Reply-To: <01082721591401.26623@i8k.babbleon.org>; from bts@babbleon.org on Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 09:59:14PM -0400
References:  <20010827090337.21931.qmail@web10406.mail.yahoo.com> <01082721591401.26623@i8k.babbleon.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 09:59:14PM -0400, Brian T . Schellenberger wrote:
> But I wonder why you want to encrypt swap, anyway; it would be dreadfully 
> slow.

OpenBSD has had it for some time now. Its not slow at all.

> First, memory is cheap these days.  Buy enough memory to truly meet your 
> needs and then simply disable swap altogether.  No memory is persisted, no 
> worries.

FreeBSD acts funky with no swap. Even if you have 2G of RAM you usually
end up with a little swap just to please the kernel gods.

> Remember, anybody who can read swap on the live machine must have root
> access, in which case they can read /dev/kmem, in which case,
> encrypting swap won't protect you.

They can remove your hard drive and stick it into a machine where they
do have root. So yes, encrypted swap does protect you.

> Why not just add some code to the shutdown sequence, after the swap is
> turned off, to re-write the swap space with zeros or something?

And if the bad guy just pulls the power cable before removing the hard drive?

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010827221830.A92367>