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Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:29:13 -0500
From: Andrew Clausen <clausen@...n.upenn.edu>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: announcing libwipe

Hi all,

I have written a program called "libwipe" for GNU/Linux to wipe memory
as soon as it is not being used.  I am releasing it under the GPL3
licence, and you can download it here:

http://www.econ.upenn.edu/~clausen/computing/libwipe.tar.gz

Any suggestions are appreciated.  In particular, I would like feedback on
* which memory mappings should be erased on exit
* which project this could be included in (secure-delete?)

OVERVIEW

This library is designed to make programs respect users' privacy by wiping
information when it is no longer needed.  It does not require any modifications
to the original programs.  To use it for all programs in a single shell
session, set the LD_PRELOAD environment variable with the shell command

        export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/libwipe.so

To use it system-wide, add /usr/local/lib/libwipe.so to the /etc/ld.so.preload
configure file.

The program uses two mechanisms:
(1) when memory is deallocated with free(3), it is zeroed out.
(2) when the process terminates, the entire memory is zeroed out.

Cheers,
Andrew

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