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Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

malai.sh

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Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#61

Post by amitu »

tkj922 wrote: post #57

This is insane. I dug and the site led me to another site, which led me to another site, which is supposedly a video conferencing suite. All code is skeleton, e.g. how on earth is that supposed to work? -- import: fastn -- fastn.package: lets-talk-template.fifthtry.site -- fastn.dependency: lets-talk.fifthtry.site provided-via: lets-talk-template.fifthtry.site/lets-talk -- fastn.dependency: design-system.fifthtry.sit…

Looks like you got sucked into the fastn world. It's an open source full stack web development programming language we have created: fastn.com. We are building some fastn powered full stack, reusable apps, that you can plug in any fastn powered website at https://github.com/fifthtry-community.

The website, kulfi.app and malai.sh, and fastn.com itself, and FifthTry.com as well are all built using fastn.

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#62

Post by amitu »

ryao wrote: post #48

> It can be used to secure your SSH service, or securely share your database server. SSH is one of the most secure network daemons ever devised. This is not to say that there is never any need to harden SSH, but given that people usually secure services behind SSH, I find the words “secure your SSH service” strange. That said, I am no stranger to bastion/jump hosts, but those usually involve accessing one ssh host th…

You are on the right track, this is bastion like setup, but without needing another ssh host. This is one layer on top of SSH, so all SSH security applies for ssh over kulfi, but you get extra benefits like not having to expose SSH port to public, or not having guessable identifier (the IP address).

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#63

Post by amitu »

snihalani wrote: post #28

what problem does this solve over ngrok/tailserve?

It's open source. Or not depending on any company[1]. The overall malai/kulfi project is quite different than these projects, malai itself can be compared with these two maybe.

[1]: we are built on top of https://www.iroh.computer so their caveats apply, and while we do run a http-over-kulfi over http-over-tcp bridge, you do not have to use it, you can run your own, and soon when kulfi browser is ready, you will not need the bridge. Checkout this work in progress kulfi browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw_GmbtxCHw

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#64

Post by amitu »

lxgr wrote: post #31
amitu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kulfi is the official name of the project, and the name of the "peer to peer internet" "id52/identity based internet", so kulfi net. Kulfi App is going to be a browser like Google Chrome, available on various app stores, and it will speak both http over tcp and http over kulfi. Kulfi app acts like client (but is also a server, so on your iPhone tomorrow you can install Kulfi, which will let you access any http over k…

What's id52? I feel like I'm missing a lot of context to understand what's being shared here.

We are built on top of https://www.iroh.computer/blog/iroh-dns, and iroh uses the public key as the node identifier. Unfortunately the iroh id is 64 char long, which can not be used in subdomains, subdomains have a char limit of 63, so we are using dnssec base32[1], which comes to 52 chars, and we use that 52 char string as the primary identifier (instead of IP:port, which is used the "old school net" (tongue firmly in cheek), and we call it id52.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5155/

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#65

Post by amitu »

hamburglar wrote: post #38

This desperately needs a “how the hell does this work” page for either malai or kulfi (preferably both) because the vibe I’m getting is “it’s magic! Trust us and sign up for an account.”

We are using iroh, so you can start with https://www.iroh.computer/blog/iroh-dns, and checkout their docs to understand how iroh itself works.

The malai stuff is relative not very interesting (we write some HTTP/TCP services/proxies that forward their calls over iroh connection, and write the other side to bridge back to HTTP/tcp). Code should help, or come to our discord: https://malai.sh/discord/ (currently it will say fastn, we are in the process of changing it to FifthTry server or something, we do not want to maintain multiple discord servers, and thinking of putting all FifthTry open source stuff on a single discord server).

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#66

Post by amitu »

devrandoom wrote: post #44

Feedback: This crowd likes technical docs. These docs are nothing like that, and raise more questions than they answer.

Completely agree, unfortunately the cool stuff is done by iroh team, so right now you can browse their docs: https://www.iroh.computer/blog/iroh-dns.

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#67

Post by replwoacause »

amitu wrote: post #59
replwoacause wrote: post #58

Malai website says it is created by FifthTry. On the FifthTry website is says you are backed by Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/fifthtry But it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the current company? Are you a Notion-like editor still? Because the editor section of the site says “coming soon” even though your YC page says you were in the Winter 2021 batch. I guess I’m not really clear on any…

So let's see, I am Amit Upadhyay, I am the (solo) founder and CEO of FifthTry, which is YC W21 company (we also have some other seed investment). We started with a documentation tool, the Notion like you mentioned, caveat: it was not WYSWYG, it was always based on a "language". The language was initially called ftd (FifthTry Document), and eventually fastn.com. fastn started as markdown++, but became a full stack web…

Yes it does, thanks for explaining.

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#68

Post by tkj922 »

amitu wrote: post #61
tkj922 wrote: post #57

This is insane. I dug and the site led me to another site, which led me to another site, which is supposedly a video conferencing suite. All code is skeleton, e.g. how on earth is that supposed to work? -- import: fastn -- fastn.package: lets-talk-template.fifthtry.site -- fastn.dependency: lets-talk.fifthtry.site provided-via: lets-talk-template.fifthtry.site/lets-talk -- fastn.dependency: design-system.fifthtry.sit…

Looks like you got sucked into the fastn world. It's an open source full stack web development programming language we have created: fastn.com. We are building some fastn powered full stack, reusable apps, that you can plug in any fastn powered website at https://github.com/fifthtry-community . The website, kulfi.app and malai.sh, and fastn.com itself, and FifthTry.com as well are all built using fastn.

Yes indeed I got intrigued because this is borderline between scam and legit with indicators towards both. I will admit my mistake if proven wrong, but for the time being, I argue that this kulfi thing is a rip off of the iroh socket PoC/example that you seem to not fully understand how and why works

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#69

Post by tkj922 »

replwoacause wrote: post #67
amitu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's see, I am Amit Upadhyay, I am the (solo) founder and CEO of FifthTry, which is YC W21 company (we also have some other seed investment). We started with a documentation tool, the Notion like you mentioned, caveat: it was not WYSWYG, it was always based on a "language". The language was initially called ftd (FifthTry Document), and eventually fastn.com. fastn started as markdown++, but became a full stack web…

Yes it does, thanks for explaining.

I think I see what you did there in your comment, but it needs testing

Re: Show HN: Malai – securely share local TCP services (database/SSH) with others

#70

Post by tkj922 »

amitu wrote: post #63
snihalani wrote: post #28

what problem does this solve over ngrok/tailserve?

It's open source. Or not depending on any company[1]. The overall malai/kulfi project is quite different than these projects, malai itself can be compared with these two maybe. [1]: we are built on top of https://www.iroh.computer so their caveats apply, and while we do run a http-over-kulfi over http-over-tcp bridge, you do not have to use it, you can run your own, and soon when kulfi browser is ready, you will not…

Given that I just clicked a link on HN leading to a YT video that has 3 views somehow tells me, that I reached the end of Internet and should revert to watching cats. But I wish you all the best, really
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