> I realize the key needs to be stored somewhere which is part of the > problem of how to make it a bit more secure. I just don't feel safe if > a password in a flat file in clear text. Ideally the database should > support something like an ssh style public/private Key auth where the > private Key is stored internally to the database.
Where would you store the passphrase to the key? This is a losing battle - at some point, anonymous requests from the outside world are going to have to result in some kind of access to the database. I think you'd be better off accepting the inherent security tradeoffs as a known variable, and working from there: write your code so it's not vulnerable to SQL injection or other attacks, limit the access permissions of the database user, put the file containing the password someplace where the webserver won't divulge its content (apache config or .htaccess is a personal favorite of mine), and (important!) back up your DB regularly so that you can recover from attacks cleanly. -mike. --------------------------------------------------------------------- michal migurski- contact info and pgp key: sf/ca http://mike.teczno.com/contact.html -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
