Hi,
Alexander Ritter wrote:
> It's all said by the title: I would prefer a new option box in the save
> dialog where the user can specify to take the old password to save the
> document with instead of typing a new one or even the same old password
> twice again. A nice tool for versioning e.g. confidential documents!
>
> Precondition - of course - would be that the actual document was already
> saved using a password. Otherwise the option box has to be disabled.
That would be a nice feature to achieve needs that you mention.
To securely implement it, we might need additional feature such as handing with
a master pass-phrase to encrypt the password that a user types to open the
document file.
It comes from a technical reason.
1. A user tries to open a password protected document file.
2. An application prompts the user to enter a password.
3. The application opens the file with the password.
4. The application memorizes the password somewhere.
5. The user revises the document.
6. The user tries to save the document.
7. The application retrieves the password which has been kept somewhere.
8. The application save the document with the password.
9. The user close the document.
10. The application erases the password.
The password could be leaked during the step 2 to 10 since the password should
be physically stored in a system memory, disk device or something else. If the
password is stored without encryption, it could be leaked.
You might have experienced this type of behavior of one operating system.
1. The operating system (OS) finds that an application crashes.
2. The OS asks the user if the OS can send data to their laboratory
via the Internet for investigation.
3. If the user answer 'Yes' to the OS, the OS sends data which might
includes the password stored in the memory.
If the password is stored in a disk device, there would be a chance to directly
read it using a special tool, although the file is protected with a permission
managed by the OS.
I guess, that would be the primary reason why most application do not have the
feature that you are proposing.
Any good idea?
Regards,
Tora
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