store them in a local file that only the process that needs them has read permissions for That is not a bad idea but it may get messy if you have to update the file: either you give more users access to the file or you must switch to become the user that has sole access or --horror-- you become root to access the file, a sure way to mess things up badly.Most databases allow fine-grained access levels to the data: reading, writing, deleting, updating, ... all or some can be given or not to specific users. For man years I run a claims database that once was acccessible through a web-page. The webserver only had a read access to the main data-tables, but could add/update/delete records in tables that stored comments. I never had any corruption of the main data tables, but regularly had to "clean" the tables holding the comments. As the OP already has a database-server running, it will be no big effort to add a small table with the password data.
CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics
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