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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ZOOKEEPER-3197?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=16729138#comment-16729138
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Brian Nixon commented on ZOOKEEPER-3197:
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Password is probably the wrong term for this variable (though it does suggest
some potential future work). It's more of a checksum that's used in
reconnection, carries no security weight, and is treated internally as if it
carries no security weight.
[~breed] might be the only one left who knows the full story (it's telling that
the secret decodes to "Ben is Cool").
> Improve documentation in ZooKeeperServer.superSecret
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: ZOOKEEPER-3197
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ZOOKEEPER-3197
> Project: ZooKeeper
> Issue Type: Task
> Reporter: Colm O hEigeartaigh
> Priority: Trivial
>
> A security scan flagged the use of a hard-coded secret
> (ZooKeeperServer.superSecret) in conjunction with a java Random instance to
> generate a password:
> byte[] generatePasswd(long id)
> { Random r = new Random(id ^ superSecret); byte p[] =
> new byte[16]; r.nextBytes(p); return p; }
> superSecret has the following javadoc:
> /**
> * This is the secret that we use to generate passwords, for the moment it
> * is more of a sanity check.
> */
> It is unclear from this comment and looking at the code why it is not a
> security risk. It would be good to update the javadoc along the lines of
> "Using a hard-coded secret with Random to generate a password is not a
> security risk because the resulting passwords are used for X, Y, Z and not
> for authentication etc" or something would be very helpful for anyone else
> looking at the code.
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