| Known security limitations |
| -------------------------- |
| |
| Lack of secure memory wiping |
| ============================ |
| |
| `Memory wiping`_ is used to protect secret data or key material from attackers |
| with access to uninitialized memory. This can be either because the attacker |
| has some kind of local user access or because of how other software uses |
| uninitialized memory. |
| |
| Python exposes no API for us to implement this reliably and as such almost all |
| software in Python is potentially vulnerable to this attack. The |
| `CERT secure coding guidelines`_ assesses this issue as "Severity: medium, |
| Likelihood: unlikely, Remediation Cost: expensive to repair" and we do not |
| consider this a high risk for most users. |
| |
| .. _`Memory wiping`: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20130529-00/?p=4223/ |
| .. _`CERT secure coding guidelines`: https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/c/MEM03-C.+Clear+sensitive+information+stored+in+reusable+resources |