[or-cvs] r23854: {arm} Removing the only reference arm has to the controller passwo (in arm/trunk: . src)

[Damian Johnson]

Author: atagar
Date: 2010-11-22 17:51:02 +0000 (Mon, 22 Nov 2010)
New Revision: 23854

Modified:
   arm/trunk/TODO
   arm/trunk/src/starter.py
Log:
Removing the only reference arm has to the controller password. Python doesn't have a method to directly free this memory so this is the best we can do to get rid of it.



Modified: arm/trunk/TODO
===================================================================
--- arm/trunk/TODO	2010-11-22 17:41:10 UTC (rev 23853)
+++ arm/trunk/TODO	2010-11-22 17:51:02 UTC (rev 23854)
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@
         - pick apart applications like iftop and pktstat to see how they get
           per-connection bandwidth usage. Forum thread discussing it:
           https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=715906
-      [ ] attempt to clear controller password from memory
-        - http://www.codexon.com/posts/clearing-passwords-in-memory-with-python
+      [X] attempt to clear controller password from memory
   * release prep
     * pylint --indent-string="  " --disable=C,R interface/foo.py | less
     * double check __init__.py and README for changes

Modified: arm/trunk/src/starter.py
===================================================================
--- arm/trunk/src/starter.py	2010-11-22 17:41:10 UTC (rev 23853)
+++ arm/trunk/src/starter.py	2010-11-22 17:51:02 UTC (rev 23854)
@@ -254,6 +254,10 @@
   conn = TorCtl.TorCtl.connect(controlAddr, controlPort, authPassword)
   if conn == None: sys.exit(1)
   
+  # removing reference so memory can be freed (unfortunately python does allow
+  # for direct access to the memory so this is the best we can do)
+  del authPassword
+  
   # initializing the connection may require user input (for the password)
   # skewing the startup time results so this isn't counted
   initTime = time.time() - startTime