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RE: [fetchmail]fetchmail newbie | ClearText passwords?

2004-04-13 08:55:25
-----Original Message-----
From: fetchmail-friends-admin(_at_)lists(_dot_)ccil(_dot_)org 
[mailto:fetchmail-friends-admin(_at_)lists(_dot_)ccil(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of 
Evan Cooch

I suspect this is an FAQ of sorts, but couldn't find an 
explicit answer to 
this one (if it exists, please set flame-throwers to 'singe only').

I'm pretty sure this is a FAQ, however...

poll machine.goes.here with proto pop3
         user xyz123 is xyzabc here
         no rewrite
         password "blah blah blah"
         ssl
         mda "/usr/bin/procmail -f -"


This works fine, but I'm wondering about the security of 
having my password 
sitting in plaint text in my .fetchmailrc file. Are there 
obvious things I 
could do to eliminate the need to do this? Some way to 
interface fetchmail with pgp, or some such?

The short answer is, no.

The longer answer is - you can't win this one.  If you go with PGP
you'll need to embed the pass phrase (or use a null one), which gains
you nothing.  If you use reversible encryption, the code is in the
source and writing a decryptor would be trivial.

All you can do is trust those with access to the root account as only
root or the owner of the file can read it.


PLEASE - keep list traffic on the list.  Email sent directly to me may
be ignored utterly.

-- 
Rob | What part of "no" was it you didn't understand?