> The solution is to fix Gnome Keyring :). I've spoken with Stef, the > main developer of GKR, and he confirmed that the only reason GKR > MITMs GPG Agent is so that it can intercept prompts for the password > to supply any cached value.
This doesn't seem like a good reason. It never has. If I configure gpg-agent to cache for 20 minutes, but forget to configure gnome-keyring-daemon, then it's possible that 25 minutes later I'll do something requiring a passphrase, gpg-agent will ask me for my passphrase, but gnome-keyring-daemon will silently intercept it and use the cached value, etc., etc., leaving me wondering why gpg-agent isn't respecting the timeout I've given it. This also means passphrases are cached in two places, not one -- in gpg-agent and in gnome-keyring-daemon. In my day job I work in digital forensics, with a good bit of memory forensics work in my past. Speaking as a forensicist, if you keep two copies of a sensitive passphrase in memory you're making things much easier for me. I don't understand GKD's choices here. I never have. They've always seemed foolish. If GKD wants to implement gpg-agent's protocol and run as a replacement gpg-agent, that's one thing... but the current setup just does not strike me as wise. > The solution is to enhance pinentry so that if GKR is available it > caches the password with GKR. I'm sorry, but I don't think this is a good solution. GNOME is asking for privileges other desktop environments haven't asked for and don't get. KDE doesn't get KDE-specific functionality added to pinentry. Nor does XFCE, nor does Enlightenment. If GNOME gets to have GNOME-specific enhancements folded into GnuPG, then what's to prevent KDE, XFCE, Enlightenment, Windows, OS X, and all other desktop environments from demanding the same?
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