Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#121

Post by h4waii » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:06 AM UTC

throwaway2048 wrote: post #87

user5994461 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> The phone's kernel, in addition to being more important attack surface than the Linux kernel (because of the jailbreak market, among other things), is auto-updated. Most android phones are not updatable at all since manufacturers don't publish any update. That, alone, should be enough to put phones among the most vulnerable devices on the planet.

Not to mention the vast majority of android devices have vulnerable wifi firmware, that will never be updated. Somehow fans of phone security think there is nothing strange about replacing a phone every 12 months to keep receiving updates...

No. There are hundreds of models of Android devices. Only a handful of Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and some lesser known manufacturers used the BCM4339 chipset.

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#122

Post by cynix » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:08 AM UTC

4kevinking wrote: post #2

Hey HN! We've built a way to generate an SSH key on your phone and use it from your computer such that the private key never leaves the phone. We were inspired by the threat model of USB HSMs like the Yubikey and set out to build a free, public source, and easier to use BYOD alternative. Looking forward to your questions!

Can't seem to create both an RSA and an Ed25519 key.

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#123

Post by 4kevinking » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:09 AM UTC

cynix wrote: post #122

4kevinking wrote: post #2

Hey HN! We've built a way to generate an SSH key on your phone and use it from your computer such that the private key never leaves the phone. We were inspired by the threat model of USB HSMs like the Yubikey and set out to build a free, public source, and easier to use BYOD alternative. Looking forward to your questions!

Can't seem to create both an RSA and an Ed25519 key.

Correct, we currently only support one key, but multiple key support is in the works!

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#124

Post by h4waii » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:18 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #50

noja wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to know this too. My computer is patched daily, my phone less often.

Respectfully, this is easy: get a better phone and turn autoupdate on.

Also respectfully, he stated patched daily. Generally, security updates for both iOS and Android devices happen in a monthly roll-up.

If your checklist for being "secure" involves being up-to-date, there is no amount of 'getting a better phone' that will put it on par with a desktop OS that receives daily patches.

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#125

Post by lucb1e » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:21 AM UTC

In terms of possible compromise, I rate the possibility that my phone is compromised way higher than my laptop. Adding a factor is a good idea in terms of security (not in terms of availability and ease of use, but definitely in security), but replacing it entirely... No.

Why'd I even want to remove id_rsa? What's the problem being solved here?

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#126

Post by cynix » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:30 AM UTC

4kevinking wrote: post #2

Hey HN! We've built a way to generate an SSH key on your phone and use it from your computer such that the private key never leaves the phone. We were inspired by the threat model of USB HSMs like the Yubikey and set out to build a free, public source, and easier to use BYOD alternative. Looking forward to your questions!

Any plans to support FreeBSD?

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#127

Post by prewett » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:33 AM UTC

packetized wrote: post #117

tptacek wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It puts those Android phones among the more vulnerable devices. Don't use those Android phones. I recommend iPhones to anyone concerned about security, but you can substitute the Google phone of your choice; I don't want the argument today.

What's cheaper - an iOS phone, or an Android phone + a Yubikey?

Tptacek is telling you that the most secure phone is iOS. If what's most important to you is price (and, therefore not security), yeah, you might find something else to be more compelling. That fact your different value system leads to a different choice has no relevance to the discussion.

If your assumption is that Android + yubikey is as good as iOS, you need to state that. Tptacek disagrees with that elsewhere in this thread, anyway.

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#128

Post by agrinman » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:34 AM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #125

In terms of possible compromise, I rate the possibility that my phone is compromised way higher than my laptop. Adding a factor is a good idea in terms of security (not in terms of availability and ease of use, but definitely in security), but replacing it entirely... No. Why'd I even want to remove id_rsa? What's the problem being solved here?

The problem is that your private key stored in ~/.ssh/id_rsa can be read by any user-level application. The private key is even vulnerable if you passphrase encrypt it. See our deep dive into the threat model: https://blog.krypt.co/why-store-an-ssh-key-with-kryptonite-9...

This is why we move it off the computer and onto a phone. The security is comparable to using a Yubikey. I'm not sure why you say your phone is less secure than your laptop. On the phone, apps are sandboxed and the private key never leaves the Kryptonite sandbox.

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#129

Post by xg15 » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:42 AM UTC

4kevinking wrote: post #74

xg15 wrote: post #65

The faq says there is intentionally no way to extract the private key due to security. But this means I need a second account in case my phone gets lost - the key of which I once again need to secure. How is that more secure than letting me backup the private key in the first place?

The current version is designed for hosted services like GitHub, redeployable infrastructure, and servers to which multiple people have access. We totally understand your use case and are actively working on implementing transferring a key to another device or printing out a paper backup.

That makes sense. Looking forward to the development of your product then!

Re: Show HN: Kryptonite – a new home for your SSH private key

#130

Post by dudus » Tue, May 02, 2017, 5:43 AM UTC

pquerna wrote: post #34

4kevinking wrote: post #2

Hey HN! We've built a way to generate an SSH key on your phone and use it from your computer such that the private key never leaves the phone. We were inspired by the threat model of USB HSMs like the Yubikey and set out to build a free, public source, and easier to use BYOD alternative. Looking forward to your questions!

I love the transparency of having your source on Github, but the license ambiguity isn't ideal when revealing this to the world: We are currently working on a new license for Kryptonite. For now, the code is released under All Rights Reserved. https://github.com/KryptCo/kr#license Soon as I see that, I've got to close the tab, so does anyone who cares about IP. (disclaimer: i'm a co-founder of ScaleFT)

Is proprietary code even allowed on GitHub?