Comment 83 for bug 137247

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 12:08:22PM -0000, Bogdan Butnaru wrote:
> You know, I've been hearing this ever since NM appeared, and I still
> don't understand why. SSH keeps *private*keys* in plain text files,
> protected by nothing but file & folder permissions (it allows users to
> enter a passphrase, but doesn't even protest if they don't).
>
> I don't see why WPA network keys are that much more secret than private
> keys that doing the same would be *very* quick and dirty, especially
> since they're almost always shared between several people.
>

the dirtry hack is not that it would be insecure.

the dirty part is that users have to dive into the mutt of .pref
directories in their home directory to find the right place to edit
their keys - or the app has to provide a complete key management
frontend ... which usually is too heavy weight all but a few apps.

 - Alexander