ml.alternet.security

Interface Password

All Superinterfaces:

Destroyable

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractPassword, EmptyPassword, PasswordParam

public interface Password
extends Destroyable

A safe password, stored obfuscate. In order to make difficult to retrieve a password in the memory, the user should use this class for a long-term storage of its passwords. It is recommended to keep a strong reference to the clear password just at the time where it is necessary, and then to throw that strong reference. A password can be created thanks to PasswordManager, that exist in several flavors. To pick one, use the PasswordManagerFactory or supply your own implementation (your own implementation can be set as the default one with the discovery service).

Password creation

 // pick one of the available password manager
 // (replace XXX with the one you prefer)
 PasswordManager manager = PasswordManagerFactory.getXXXPasswordManager();
 Password pwd = manager.newPassword(pwdChars);
 // from this point,
 // pwd is safe for staying in memory as long as necessary,
 // pwdChars has been unset after the creation of the password.
 

Typical usage

 try (Password.Clear clear = pwd.getClearCopy()) {
     char[] clearPwd = clear.get();
     // use clearPwd in the block
 }
 // at this point clearPwd has been unset
 // before being eligible by the garbage collector
 

Author:

Philippe Poulard

See Also:

ml.alternet.security, Password.Clear, PasswordManager, PasswordManagerFactory, DiscoveryService

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes

Modifier and Type	Interface and Description
static interface	Password.Clear This class helps keeping low the period where a password appear in clear in the memory, in order to make it difficult to find when a memory dump is performed.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	destroy() Invalidate this password.
Password.Clear	getClearCopy() Wrap this password in a clear copy.
default boolean	isDestroyed()
static Password	newPassword(char[] password) Obfuscate the given password in a new Password instance.
PasswordState	state() Return the state of this password.

Method Detail

newPassword

static Password newPassword(char[] password)

Obfuscate the given password in a new Password instance. This is a convenient shortcut method that lookup for the default password manager set in the platform (that can be override).

Parameters:

password - The password to obfuscate ; may be null or empty ; that char array is cleared when returning

Returns:

The password

See Also:

EmptyPassword.SINGLETON, PasswordManagerFactory.getDefaultPasswordManager()

isDestroyed

default boolean isDestroyed()

Specified by:

isDestroyed in interface Destroyable

destroy

void destroy()

Invalidate this password.

Specified by:

destroy in interface Destroyable

state

PasswordState state()

Return the state of this password.

Returns:

Empty, Valid, or Invalid

getClearCopy

Password.Clear getClearCopy()
                     throws IllegalStateException

Wrap this password in a clear copy.

Returns:

A working copy of the password.

Throws:

IllegalStateException - If this password has been invalidated.