There is nothing to discuss: as BIRD needs access to the plain-text password, best way is to store it in plain-text. If BIRD would encrypt passwords, in any case it will store key in local filesystem, or it will be hardcoded in its sources.

Cisco, for example, stores that passwords in so-called "type 7" passphrases. Go to Google, type "cisco type 7 password decrypt" and volia - you can easily get password from cisco's running-config: just type encrypted one into the form.

2015-04-25 20:04 GMT+03:00 Alex Bligh <alex@alex.org.uk>:

On 25 Apr 2015, at 17:25, Christopher Jay Manders <cjmanders@gmail.com> wrote:

> It is a security issue to have a password stored in clear-text.

bird needs to obtain the password in plain text.

If bird can decrypt the stored value, so can anything else with file permissions
to read the file.

--
Alex Bligh