My app needs to encrypt some data (a user session token). Most examples I see around have a method that generates a Key using a passphrase and a salt, like:
public static Key generateKey(char[] passphrase, byte[] salt) {
...
}
My understanding is that we have three options for generating the passphrase:
- Have the user enter it every time the app starts (annoying to the user).
- Hard-code the passphrase into the app itself. More convenient for the user, but someone can find out what your passphrase is given your app binary.
- Randomly generate a passphrase, but then we have to store the generated Key on disk. Now we've just shifted the problem to having to store the key securely on disk, which also seems impossible. If the attacker finds the generated key, big problem.
Option #1 won't work for me. Options #2 and #3 seem inherently flawed, unless I'm grossly misunderstanding how to go about this (hoping that I am). What's the recommended way to do this if we can't go with #1? Do we put in a bunch of obfuscated hoops for an attacker to jump through and hope for the best?
Thanks