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An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

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21–30 of 51 posts

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#21
post #10
post #9

If you claim this airdrop, best practice would be to save the key, and then first rotate your github keys before claiming. In this way any potential security risk is averted.

Yeah but if you use the same key for server management, then you may be in a bad situation :(

I mean rotating keys periodically is always good practice.

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#22

How has github _not_ shut this down? I'm not giving away any credentials for anything.

You don't have to, it works by signing a message with your PGP or SSH key. All GitHub users' public keys are already available from their API, that's how the airdrop works.

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#23

How has github _not_ shut this down? I'm not giving away any credentials for anything.

    we do not allow standard PGP signatures on the consensus layer.
    This is done for simplicity and safety.
    This means that a regular call to
    $ gpg --sign will not work for handshake
    airdrop proofs.
    As far as SSH keys go, people typically do
    not sign arbitrary messages with them.
    
    Because of this, we require a special tool
    to do both the signing and merkle proof creation.
I like how they say, simplicity and safety.

The right solution: Give me a random block of text, I'll sign it using my private RSA/DSA key and you can verify that I am the owner of the public key, send me the money, and everybody is happy.

Alleged simplicity: Two hours I'm trying to redeem the airdrop without giving away the private key and the passphrase (hint, it's not implemented, despite the documentation somewhat references it here: https://github.com/handshake-org/hs-airdrop#fallback-for-hsm... ).

Alleged safety: after installing dozens of NPM packages and code from whoever who, and running an algorithm that we don't know (even the developers) if it's reversible or not.

I see horrible consequences: https://github.com/handshake-org/hs-airdrop/issues/31

User has key safely inside HSM, gets the key out to get free money that A16Z is supposedly giving.

Reminds me the "Elon Musk gives Bitcoin on Twitter, just send YOUR PASSWORD"

On the practices overall:

It's unclear what the private key derivation process does and if the developers themselves truly understand it.

If the developers would understand the full security implications, they would not say it's safe to do it on an air-gapped machine.

The process could just multiply by two or base64 encode the private key, it would be near invisible since the whole code and theory is a big soup.

All that, supposedly for privacy benefits, when at the end, you have to give your real identity and ID documents to actually withdraw/exchange the coins.

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#24

How has github _not_ shut this down? I'm not giving away any credentials for anything.

You don't have to, it works by signing a message with your PGP or SSH key. All GitHub users' public keys are already available from their API, that's how the airdrop works.

No. It's not like that at all. Otherwise there would be no controversy.

The airdrop tool takes your private key and your passphrase, does some overcomplicated (and unconventional) magic with it and asks you to post the resulting data to the public.

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#25
post #8

I find it a bit strange: Pro-tip: Learn why the airdrop tool needs to use your private key. So someone will give you 2000 USD if you feed your private SSH key into their software ?

I believe you can have the airdrop tool [0] output the raw bytes that you need to sign with your private key. Still not fool proof but makes it more transparent what you're actually doing with the key. [0] https://github.com/handshake-org/hs-airdrop

Yeah that's how the airdrop tool works and the instructions use that tool too (the first step in the instructions just shows how to install the tool).

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#26
post #16

As I understand it developers have to submit a government ID to withdraw their tokens. https://help.namebase.io/article/usgrydy7da-kyc-restrictions This is a bit concerning, and it practically negates the privacy claims of the airdrop, unless people only use the tokens to bid on Handshake names. Could you share more details about the documents you're requesting? Which company handles the personal data?

You're correct. Unfortunately due to regulatory restrictions in the US, we're required to verify accounts before enabling withdrawals and selling HNS for BTC (we're not happy about it either). We work with Cognito and Jumio, which are the vendors that Coinbase, Brex, Airbnb, and many other companies use — so if you've used any of those products you've already used Cognito and Jumio before.

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#27
post #9

If you claim this airdrop, best practice would be to save the key, and then first rotate your github keys before claiming. In this way any potential security risk is averted.

The main goal of the Handshake airdrop was to get developers interested in using Handshake, but one of the sub-goals was to help incentivize good security practices. The airdrop process involves running a script on your private key[1], so you should naturally rotate your key after claiming your coins.

[1] https://namebase.io/airdrop

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you can have the airdrop tool [0] output the raw bytes that you need to sign with your private key. Still not fool proof but makes it more transparent what you're actually doing with the key. [0] https://github.com/handshake-org/hs-airdrop

Yeah that's how the airdrop tool works and the instructions use that tool too (the first step in the instructions just shows how to install the tool).

Can you ask one of your developers to try using the bare mode only ? (a concrete case, only the public key and extracting the raw bytes).

Several hours, flipping the code in many ways, such option doesn't seem to exist (and for sure isn't documented)

Re: An airdrop that preserves recipient privacy [pdf]

#29
> As a final addition, Hacker News accounts which are linked with Keybase accounts are included in the tree [1]

How do I claim the airdrop with keybase? If I have a HN/keybase account and a github account, can I claim the airdrop twice?

[1] https://github.com/handshake-org/hs-airdrop

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