Understanding Data Lifetime via Whole System Simulation
Jim Chow, Ben Pfaff, Tal Garfinkel, Kevin Christopher, Mendel Rosenblum: Understanding Data Lifetime via Whole System Simulation:
We have used TaintBochs to analyze sensitive data handling in several large, real world applications. Among these were Mozilla, Apache, and Perl, which are used to process millions of passwords, credit card numbers, etc. on a daily basis. Our investigation reveals that these applications and the components they rely upon take virtually no measures to limit the lifetime of sensitive data they handle, leaving passwords and other sensitive data scattered throughout user and kernel memory. We show how a few simple and practical changes can greatly reduce sensitive data lifetime in these applications.
[via Justin Mason]