On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 04:00:15PM +0000, Josefin Wahlström wrote:
> We’re currently looking at the security of DSpace and noticed that the 
> database password is supposed to be stored in clear text in local.cfg.
> 
> I’m wondering what the motivation for this is, and if anyone has an 
> alternative solution to saving the password in clear text?

Any approach that does not require manual intervention to supply key
material is plaintext-equivalent.  If the system can start itself
unassisted, then somewhere in the system there is at least one
plaintext secret, and thus anyone with unrestricted read access to the
filesystem can eventually decrypt any encrypted secrets.

What's your threat model?  Is it feasible in your application to have
a human operator standing by to unlock the system?

-- 
Mark H. Wood
Lead Technology Analyst

University Library
Indiana University Indianapolis
755 W. Michigan Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-274-0749
library.indianapolis.iu.edu

ORCiD:  0000-0002-9558-3768

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