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Crev: dependency vetting with a web of trust

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Re: Crev: dependency vetting with a web of trust

#41
post #4

Some background on this: Cargo makes it very easy to add dependencies. Rust has the same culture of small, single-purpose libraries as npm (there is https://crates.io/crates/left_pad if you're wondering). This of course raises the question: what if someone puts some malware in a crate? Cargo itself has an OK security (and working on more end-to-end integrity checks), so it's unlikely that someone will inject malware…

Cargo makes it very easy to add dependencies. Rust has the same culture of small, single-purpose libraries as npm This of course raises the question: what if someone puts some malware in a crate? Do decentralized web of trust schemes actually work? What are the precedents? AFAIK, only centralized webs of trust work, and even those still leak around the edges and take some degree of active policing to defend. Basicall…

> only centralized webs of trust work

How can you claim that? Looking at most tech we have today, it becomes readily apparent that most technology needs multiple iterations before achieving wide adoption. Web of trust is no exception.

The lack of a widely-adopted precedent implying that some tech is forever poor is a sloppy conclusion to make.

Re: Crev: dependency vetting with a web of trust

#42
post #4

Some background on this: Cargo makes it very easy to add dependencies. Rust has the same culture of small, single-purpose libraries as npm (there is https://crates.io/crates/left_pad if you're wondering). This of course raises the question: what if someone puts some malware in a crate? Cargo itself has an OK security (and working on more end-to-end integrity checks), so it's unlikely that someone will inject malware…

Moxie Marlinspike came up with the concept of trust agility some time ago. I think it's imperative that the agility of the trust network is guaranteed, because this can be a fast changing situation.

Re: Crev: dependency vetting with a web of trust

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cargo makes it very easy to add dependencies. Rust has the same culture of small, single-purpose libraries as npm This of course raises the question: what if someone puts some malware in a crate? Do decentralized web of trust schemes actually work? What are the precedents? AFAIK, only centralized webs of trust work, and even those still leak around the edges and take some degree of active policing to defend. Basicall…

> only centralized webs of trust work How can you claim that? Looking at most tech we have today, it becomes readily apparent that most technology needs multiple iterations before achieving wide adoption. Web of trust is no exception. The lack of a widely-adopted precedent implying that some tech is forever poor is a sloppy conclusion to make.

The lack of a widely-adopted precedent implying that some tech is forever poor is a sloppy conclusion to make.

Yes, but decentralized webs of trust have been tried before, and the "flat" ones with no centralization fade away or become hipster tchotkes. I think it's a valuable question to ask. Have we done the analyses for why the previous ones didn't work?

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