Gnome Keyring

Gnome Keyring 's password management and single sign -on solution for Gnome.

Function

In addition to user names and passwords it takes, for example, also certificates and keys and invites private SSH keys automatically by an integrated SSH agent. The data is stored in password- protected central databases ( " Keyrings " ) with strong encryption. After one-time authentication using a master password applications and services can access it and, for example, automatically authenticate web-services or websites. The first time you access a program the user is asked if he wants to allow access. Unlocking the database (s ) can be done automatically through Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM ) with the user login to the system. The database can be automatically closed after a certain period of time without access ( timeout). You can create multiple password files for each user, the contents of which must be unlocked separately. In addition, there is a volatile session keyring.

Technology

Gnome Keyring uses the AES encryption algorithm to encrypt the data (including the attributes except for an indication of the type of the object ) and SHA-1 as a hash function. For each stored object are stored with descriptive attributes (eg the name of the page, is one of the a login ), via which an interrogating program can find the right information. In the unencrypted header of the password file additionally hashes of the keywords are stored, under which the individual values ​​are stored. As a result, before the decrypt (ie before the user must be prompted for the password ) can be determined if the desired value is present in the file.

Architecture

Gnome keyring consists of a daemon, gnome -keyring -daemon, which handles all encryption. The program library libgnome -keyring ( under LGPL) provides a programming interface, can use the services of the daemon by other applications through an environment variable or via D-Bus. Gnome Keyring Manager ( gnome -keyring -manager) is the front end which provides the user with a graphical interface. In GNOME 2.22 Gnome Keyring Manager has been replaced by Seahorse.

History

In November 2003, the original author Alexander Larsson wrote the first version of GNOME Keyring. On November 27, he put the CVS at this and stopped the first revision. On November 29, he hit everything in front for inclusion in Gnome. On 8 December 2003, the first version 0.1 was released.