Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Keybase launches encrypted Git

keybase.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 277 posts

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#111

Post by rorosaurus »

seanlane wrote: post #91
chishaku wrote: post #22

In case you're wondering... > ~ Anticipated q's ~ > What if we're living in a simulation? > Keybase offers no guarantees against sophisticated side-channel attacks by higher-level entities.

It appears that this may no longer be an open question: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/physicists-confirm... There was a Hacker News post about this a few days ago, likely from a different source, but I can't find it.

Doesn't this simply suggest that the reality that is simulating our universe would have to be fundamentally different than our own?

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#113

Post by timvdalen »

kazinator wrote: post #100

These benefits can be obtained by sharing a remote encrypted filesystem , in which sits an ordinary git repo. Then simply check out that git repo using a file://path/to/repo reference, creating a clone on a local drive out of the encrypted volume. The encrypted filesystem can then reside on an untrusted server in the cloud. Ultimately, this is a cleaner solution than the whack-a-mole approach of hacking every applica…

As I understand it, that's pretty much was Keybase has done here. They have their encrypted filesystem, and this is a git remote helper for accessing that in a nice way (with access control built in on the fs layer).

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#114

Post by jredmond »

j7ake wrote: post #8

Hi 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 ?

That depends - is that data encrypted on your system? Since git is decentralized, there's a chance that any plain-text copy (such as a clone on your system) could be compromised. Keybase even addresses this in the FAQ, to an extent:

> What if my computer is compromised?

> Your work is only as safe as your endpoints, so we can't help you there.

This applies regardless of host or protocol, BTW, and it isn't even specific to computing. (It doesn't matter how many locks you have on your front door if you leave the back door propped open.)

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#116

Post by zeroxfe »

eslaught wrote: post #68
zeroxfe wrote: post #6

I'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/gi…

It certainly depends on the threat model, but in this case I have to agree with Github---adding at-rest encryption would be unlikely to make their product significantly more secure, and it would certainly be nowhere as secure as Keybase. With Keybase, the data is encrypted on the client, and the keys stay on the client. Assuming the crypto is done right, there is fundamentally no way for Keybase to read the data, and…

> Even if it is encrypted again before it's put onto the disk, fundamentally the key lives on the server (and has to in order to provide Github's feature set) and so an attacker who had compromised the machine would simply grab the key before going after the files on disk. The actual additional security you get is really not that significant.

It's not just compromised machines that you have to worry about -- that's what the higher layers of security are for:

It's also:

- poor disk decommissioning (e.g., your staff throws away disks without properly erasing them.) - poor machine management -- machines assigned to one owner, then moved to a new one. - bugs in storage management systems that leak data (e.g., block replicators, etc.)

Also, note that the keys don't have to be on disk. Most cloud providers configure hosts to get keys via PXE boot, for exactly this reason.

To be clear -- I don't disagree with you about thinking about the threat model, and in many cases it's not necessary to do this. But I do think that GitHub is now a very large player in an enterprise market, so I can't let them off so easily. :-)

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#117

Post by timerol »

kazinator wrote: post #100

These benefits can be obtained by sharing a remote encrypted filesystem , in which sits an ordinary git repo. Then simply check out that git repo using a file://path/to/repo reference, creating a clone on a local drive out of the encrypted volume. The encrypted filesystem can then reside on an untrusted server in the cloud. Ultimately, this is a cleaner solution than the whack-a-mole approach of hacking every applica…

This question has a FAQ entry near the bottom of TFA:

> Why not just make a bare repo in KBFS?

The Keybase filesystem journals changes and syncs them after writes, kind of like Dropbox. Which means you and another team member could be fighting each other and make a conflicted HEAD, where there'd be 2 copies side by side. Similarly, you shouldn't put git repos in Dropbox.

Keybase's git prevents this by locking.

Also: it's nicer to use the Keybase app to discover and manage your teams' repositories.

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#118

Post by _spoonman »

malgorithms wrote: post #2

Keybase 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,…

Congratulations on the launch. I'm a Keybase user myself and I think you all have done a fantastic job.

When the SHA-1 collision was calculated earlier this year, Linus commented on git and SHA-1. No further questions, just sharing it here if you happened not to see it: https://marc.info/?l=git&m=148787047422954

Again, thanks for all the hard work. Best of luck.

Re: Keybase launches encrypted Git

#120

Post by NikolaeVarius »

eridius wrote: post #108
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #13

My first initial gut thought is, could this be as a good ol cross platform method of password management? I've never been able to properly manage keepass due to syncing between different platforms being a pain.

I've had nothing but good experiences using 1Password.

No official/stable support for linux
Post reply on HN