The mysql client docs describe an ad hoc way to get rid of this (of course, this client does not force you to use the command line option for the password either). It simply deletes @ARGV right after initialization! 
@ARGV=();

[download]
after you've extracted the relevant information of course- or just copy it to a different array. (I give no personal guarantees that this works with Perl, though, since I only know this to work under C.) Of course, this still may leave a millisecond or too where Bob Schnob can still execute ps aux and get your passwd, but the chances that he'll be able to synchronize are slim. FYI, FIPS (1989) explicitly prohibits unprivileged users to see ANY other users' ps table- but we all know that a ps aux is all it takes to see that Bob Schnob is downloading porn again. In fact, I see this as a security risk (obviously, others don't) and I would love to see a kernel with at least an option to hide the process tables from prying eyes. Unfortunately, Linux kernel code hacking would turn my head inside out, so I'll leave it to the folks who know what's going on. If I've missed yet another kernel update in which this is implemented, I'd be much obliged to be informed. Thanx.
AgentM Systems nor Nasca Enterprises nor Bone::Easy nor Macperl is responsible for the comments made by AgentM. Remember, you can build any logical system with NOR.

In reply to Re: Handling passwords and sensitive data by AgentM
in thread Handling passwords and sensitive data by zzspectrez

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