[CentOS] Learned something today

Mon Jan 11 16:44:50 UTC 2016
Valeri Galtsev <galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu>

On Mon, January 11, 2016 9:38 am, Gordon Messmer wrote:
> On 01/11/2016 06:50 AM, Always Learning wrote:
>> Why not, on start-up, create a 'ram disk' and do your sensitive work in
volatile RAM or is this what 'tmpfs' implies ?
>
> I think that's what OP expected tmpfs to be, but it should be noted that
tmpfs *can* be swapped to disk, so it should not be used for data that you
don't want to ever hit non-volatile storage (unless you have no swap
space).

One thing just asks to be added: "volatile" memory is not that volatile,
so relying purely on keeping sensitive stuff in plain text in volatile
memory may be not too good idea. Still, it is much more secure that the
case when sensitive data may hit the hard drive. What I mention, is best
explained here (the whole paper is very instructive, for RAM go directly
to chapter 8):

https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html

Valeri

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Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
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