Keybase launches encrypted Git
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Keybase launches encrypted Git
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Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#2Keybase team member here. Interesting fact: git doesn't check the validity of sha-1 hashes in your commit history. Meaning if someone compromises your hosted origin, they can quietly compromise your history. So even the fears about data leaks aside, this is a big win for safety.
From an entrepreneurial perspective, this is my favorite thing we've done at Keybase. It pushes all the buttons: (1) it's relatively simple, (2) it's filling a void, (3) it's powered by all our existing tech, and (4) it doesn't complicate our product. What I mean by point 4 is that it adds very little extra UX and doesn't change any of the rest of the app. If you don't use git, cool. If you do, it's there for you.
What void does this fill? Previously, I managed some solo repositories of private data in a closet in my apartment. Who does that? It required a mess: uptime of a computer, a good link, and dynamic dns. And even then, I never could break over the hurdle of setting up team repositories with safe credential management...like for any kind of collaboration. With this simple screen, you can grab 5 friends, make a repo in a minute, and all start working on it. With much better data safety than most people can achieve on their own.
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#3Keybase team member here. Interesting fact: git doesn't check the validity of sha-1 hashes in your commit history. Meaning if someone compromises your hosted origin, they can quietly compromise your history. So even the fears about data leaks aside, this is a big win for safety. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this is my favorite thing we've done at Keybase. It pushes all the buttons: (1) it's relatively simple,…
While talking about git and security:
Signing tags are not as affective as you'd think. refs are never actually signed, it's the objects they are pointing at that are signed. This opens up to interesting attacks where you can move refs around to previous vulnerable versions.
Git also never checks if the metadata the tag points at is correct!
Interesting paper: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurit...
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#4Keybase team member here. Interesting fact: git doesn't check the validity of sha-1 hashes in your commit history. Meaning if someone compromises your hosted origin, they can quietly compromise your history. So even the fears about data leaks aside, this is a big win for safety. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this is my favorite thing we've done at Keybase. It pushes all the buttons: (1) it's relatively simple,…
For your first point, can't you verify the signature for the commit? In order to to compromise the origin, they must also compromise the secret key of whoever is signing commits.
I say that in full realization that 99% of people probably don't even know that you can sign commits, but the first point doesn't seem valid, as you can ensure integrity of commit history.
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#5Keybase team member here. Interesting fact: git doesn't check the validity of sha-1 hashes in your commit history. Meaning if someone compromises your hosted origin, they can quietly compromise your history. So even the fears about data leaks aside, this is a big win for safety. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this is my favorite thing we've done at Keybase. It pushes all the buttons: (1) it's relatively simple,…
> hurdle of setting up team repositories with safe credential management...like for any kind of collaboration
Identity continues to be the key selling point of keybase. I'm excited by this.
I can keep clones of my private repositories here. Things like dotfiles and configurations. That sounds like a good start. And I can also easily share code to people who need to see it.
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#6I'm really happy about this. I have private repos for personal information (e.g., tax spreadsheets going back a decade) that I keep synchronized across machines, and have to jump through hoops to get an encrypted authoritative remote source. Right now I do that with an encrypted partition on a private VM.
And, it really sucks that GitHub does not encrypt data at rest:
--- SNIP from https://help.github.com/articles/github-security ---
We do not encrypt repositories on disk because it would not be any more secure: the website and git back-end would need to decrypt the repositories on demand, slowing down response times. Any user with shell access to the file system would have access to the decryption routine, thus negating any security it provides. Therefore, we focus on making our machines and network as secure as possible.
--- SNIP ---
Encrypted disks are now the norm across various cloud providers, as is HTTPS. The crypto overheads are really low, and their benefits significantly outweigh the risks of leaving clear-text data on disks.
Also, defense-in-depth is always worth pursuing. The claim "it would not be any more secure", is so far from true, it's almost insulting to their target audience.
Keep killin' it, Keybase! Great job!
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#7Keybase team member here. Interesting fact: git doesn't check the validity of sha-1 hashes in your commit history. Meaning if someone compromises your hosted origin, they can quietly compromise your history. So even the fears about data leaks aside, this is a big win for safety. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this is my favorite thing we've done at Keybase. It pushes all the buttons: (1) it's relatively simple,…
This looks sweet. I bounce between using Bitbucket or Dropbox for private repos depending on my needs. Bitbucket has lots of features but is a little annoying to set up a new project. Dropbox is really easy but doesn't always work well (e.g. git push ends up being effectively async). Your version of it looks to be just as easy as Dropbox, maybe even easier, but without any of the downsides. And it's encrypted!
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#8Hi security newbie here, I have private bitbucket repo for storing my pass data. One problem is that pass often leaks some metadata like headers of directories. From security standpoint does this mean it is more private to host the git repo on keybase versus bitbucket ?
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#9This is pretty cool. I've used git-crypt before to encrypt parts of a repo, but this approach seems much easier to manage.
Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git
#10Keybase team member here. Interesting fact: git doesn't check the validity of sha-1 hashes in your commit history. Meaning if someone compromises your hosted origin, they can quietly compromise your history. So even the fears about data leaks aside, this is a big win for safety. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this is my favorite thing we've done at Keybase. It pushes all the buttons: (1) it's relatively simple,…
So I love Keybase unconditionally and if you guys weren't rolling in physical offices (and not one in Boston) I'd have been beating down your door to come work there--I think what Keybase is doing is important and it's something I'd love to work on. But I have a serious question that maybe you can answer, and it's something everybody who I've showed this to has asked me:
How is Keybase gonna make money? How am I assured that this, and everything else in my Keybase storage, is going to be there in six months? Like, I still have a private server in a closet in my apartment that syncs all the stuff I trust Keybase with because I don't know what the business-side failure case is.
You guys should be taking my money, is what I'm saying. Also probably hiring me. But definitely taking my money.