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Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

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Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#81

Post by packetlost »

jjice wrote: post #78

It would be fantastic if Age (or at least something similar) could become standard on Unix machines. I'd love a more Unix-philosophy following tool than GPG/PGP to be around for encryption. That said, I don't think new standard tools for Unix machines are very common. The closest thing I can think of in the last while is `jq`, but it's not "preinstalled on your machine" kind of standard, just "my script might just us…

Isn't POSIX userspace mostly standardized? We should be pretty conservative with what goes into such a standard, but something like age and jq IMO meet that level of utility to justify it.

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#82

Post by nvy »

ljlolel wrote: post #43
thaumasiotes wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Git' is a preexisting word; it'd be pretty strange to pronounce it with a soft G. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/git#Etymology_1 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/git#Etymology_2 It'd be like naming your software fukr and then insisting "no no no, the R is pronounced 'are', not 'er'."

Or Coq?

Coq is pronounced exactly how it looks. It's the French word for rooster and for the language, comes from part of the guy's name.

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#83

Post by Comma2976 »

eterps wrote: post #16

Age is a much better experience than PGP/GPG, even though it only has a subset of GPG's features. The option and argument handling is intuitive; it makes sense instantly. It gives a more grounded understanding of what's happening with the encryption process, especially because of the short-form recipient format. Also, setting it up with a Yubikey and Passage (a GNU pass alternative for Age) was a breeze.

>$this is a much better experience than $that, even though it only has a subset of $that's features

I concur, and:

sed 's/even though/because'

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#85

Post by upofadown »

jjice wrote: post #78

It would be fantastic if Age (or at least something similar) could become standard on Unix machines. I'd love a more Unix-philosophy following tool than GPG/PGP to be around for encryption. That said, I don't think new standard tools for Unix machines are very common. The closest thing I can think of in the last while is `jq`, but it's not "preinstalled on your machine" kind of standard, just "my script might just us…

Doing one thing and doing it well is all and good, but most people are not interested in having to manually mess around with up to 4 raw keys in the pursuit of that. That's particularly true if you are doing pipes and you don't have any good place to put all those keys.

Most of the time you want to go:

    gpg --sign --encrypt file
... and be done with it.

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#86

Post by upofadown »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #80
vaylian wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age is designed for a single purpose: Encryption and decryption of files. To create digital signatures use another specialized tool like minisign instead. Specialized tools are simpler than one do-it-all tool.

Simpler, but not necessarily as capable! From https://words.filippo.io/dispatches/age-authentication/ >: > If you encrypt and then sign, an attacker can strip your signature, replace it with their own, and make it look like they encrypted the file even if they don't actually know the contents. > If you sign and then encrypt, the recipient can decrypt the file, keep your signature, and encrypt it to a different recipi…

Both cases assume that the user doesn't understand what a signature means. In either case it means that the signer certified the thing signed. Are paper signatures getting so rare that we are collectively starting to forget this?

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#87

Post by upofadown »

wuiheerfoj wrote: post #76
nabla9 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm dense but I can't figure out howto verify/authenticate encrypted files. Is there something missing in the documentation.

Afaik the x25519 recipient uses chacha20poly1305 which is authenticated

Only in the case of symmetrical encryption. Then the authentication is based on the shared secret key.

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#88

Post by jjice »

packetlost wrote: post #81
jjice wrote: post #78

It would be fantastic if Age (or at least something similar) could become standard on Unix machines. I'd love a more Unix-philosophy following tool than GPG/PGP to be around for encryption. That said, I don't think new standard tools for Unix machines are very common. The closest thing I can think of in the last while is `jq`, but it's not "preinstalled on your machine" kind of standard, just "my script might just us…

Isn't POSIX userspace mostly standardized? We should be pretty conservative with what goes into such a standard, but something like age and jq IMO meet that level of utility to justify it.

Yeah POSIX standardizes a bunch of tools, mostly the ones you'd expect (cut, cat, file, etc). I agree with the conservative standardization for the most part, but I selfishly would love these more niche tools to be available on a fresh box. Good point though, I just want to be a little lazier in my script writing I guess :)

I've always used this site as reference: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#89

Post by packetlost »

jjice wrote: post #88
packetlost wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't POSIX userspace mostly standardized? We should be pretty conservative with what goes into such a standard, but something like age and jq IMO meet that level of utility to justify it.

Yeah POSIX standardizes a bunch of tools, mostly the ones you'd expect (cut, cat, file, etc). I agree with the conservative standardization for the most part, but I selfishly would love these more niche tools to be available on a fresh box. Good point though, I just want to be a little lazier in my script writing I guess :) I've always used this site as reference: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/

I guess distros are the next layer over POSIX standard. Distributions have the ability to, mostly arbitrarily, select the default packages they ship in their releases.

Re: Age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library

#90

Post by qyckudnefDi5 »

I know there are specialized backup tools like restic or borg, but I like to keep things simple.

Is using age like this to encrypt my files before uploading them to untrusted cloud storage not ok?

tar > age > cloud

Some comments mention signing with minisign. Should I be doing that like this:

tar > age > minisign > cloud

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