Keychain : How Secure?

[Yaja123]

just wondering how secure the keychain app. im thinking of moving all my stuff from splashID, a palm app, as ive moved from palm os but im still using the desktop version of the app.

if i kept my personal keychain file on an external usb drive how secure is it independent of my powerbook?
anyone got a link for details on levelof encryption etc.? ive looked but could find it

many thanks

 

[Blackheart]

Keychain Access uses 168 bit encryption.

See: http://images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/Mac_OS_X_Security_TB.pdf

All of the password data in the keychain is protected using the Triple Digital Encryption
Standard (3DES).

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_DES

Key size(s): 112 (2TDES) or 168 bits (3TDES)

 

[Yaja123]

what i get is that its not best out there but probably good enough for my usage requirements.

thanks.

 

[MrSmith]

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but encryption and security in general is one thing that never bothered me until I had my computers stolen from work (running 8.6, so not much hope there). Even so, it's only recently that I set my home machine to require a password to wake from sleep. With as much encryption as Apple could stuff in, my system was until then still completely vulnerable if someone broke in and stole my machine (unlikely at my home - it's not prison, but built similarly). So unless I set that one password the machine will assume it's me and let the user have full access to my keychain. In other words, as advanced as the encryption is, it depends on me setting a password to wake on sleep. I'm not faulting the system, but it seems like a weakest link thing to me. The alternative - requiring my password at every attempt to use a keychain item - defeats the whole object, I realize. Just my thoughts I thought I'd throw out to those who know more than me.