arkavo-org / arkavo-org/app

Implement Memory Clearing for Sensitive Data

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enhancement
Dominant language
Swift
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

## Priority: Medium

Explicitly zero out memory containing sensitive data to prevent memory dump attacks.

## Current State
- Swift Data structures deallocated normally
- Sensitive data may remain in memory after use

## Implementation

```swift
extension Data {
mutating func securelyZero() {
withUnsafeMutableBytes { bytes in
memset(bytes.baseAddress!, 0, bytes.count)
}
}
}

// Usage:
var sensitiveData = Data(...)
defer { sensitiveData.securelyZero() }
```

## Apply To
- Decrypted message content
- Temporary encryption keys
- User passwords (if cached)
- JWT tokens after processing

## Benefits
- Prevents memory dump attacks
- Reduces attack surface
- Defense in depth

## References
Part of security audit findings

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

The issue proposes a Swift Data extension and identifies decrypted messages, temporary encryption keys, cached passwords, and JWT tokens as targets. Start by locating those data flows in the app; no file or test is named in the issue. Done means sensitive values are explicitly cleared after use across the affected paths.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
swift
Domain
security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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