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Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

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Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#91

Post by smitelli »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #87
thelittleone wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking at a similar setup. Mind sharing which cameras you went with?

I have a bunch of Amcrest brand cams, indoor and outdoor, plus one Reolink combination floodlight/camera. I like these PoE outdoor ones best: IP5M-T1179EW Indoor PTZ ones: IP4M-1041W Old wifi outdoor one: IP4M-1026E I got some with the plastic dome around them but they do not work well at night, especially in weather. I also have a ridiculous industrial PTZ camera that I put on my roof to watch birds, planes, and boa…

Those Amcrest cameras are rebranded Dahua products with the logos changed. Right down to the firmware bugs and confusing UI. They’re actually great cameras for the money, but man do I loathe their quirks sometimes.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#92

Post by wkat4242 »

mattlondon wrote: post #70
wkat4242 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the human detection isn't an issue. I only have cameras indoors anyway, i have one outside but it's equipped with a highly zoomed lens so it can see the faces of the people in front of my door. It won't trigger on animals because they don't get up that high. But in your case I could recommend Frigate, it's got decent detection that can be accelerated with a Google coral TPU. It also integrates really well with…

For me I use Nest cameras with Home Assistant. I went through various brands of cameras and the Nest ones were the only ones that I could actually rely on. I didn't spend Megabucks but even mid-range local IP cams were very unreliable for RTSP (randomly going offline, super-sketchy partially translated apps for set up/config, frozen streams etc) I am not concerned about Google's use of my data. I'm not important enou…

Hmm I don't trust Google at all to be honest. I don't even use a Google account on my android phone anymore.

I do have some ring cameras but they're only looking at my front door and I've cut the microphones out of them (they're incredibly sensitive, I could literally hear myself word for word two rooms away).

Most of my cams are TP-Link used in local mode with internet access blocked.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#93

Post by wkat4242 »

michaelt wrote: post #89
mattlondon wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me I use Nest cameras with Home Assistant. I went through various brands of cameras and the Nest ones were the only ones that I could actually rely on. I didn't spend Megabucks but even mid-range local IP cams were very unreliable for RTSP (randomly going offline, super-sketchy partially translated apps for set up/config, frozen streams etc) I am not concerned about Google's use of my data. I'm not important enou…

> And even if someone did manage infiltrate Google, they'd very likely target someone high-value before me The risk isn't just an evil insider infiltrating Google. It's also that a lot of home security companies are in the business of having a friendly relationship with the authorities. So if the cops were investigating a fender-bender down the street and they ask Google for your videos? Better hope that living room…

Yeah ring had a dirty habit of doing this too.

But they've stopped apparently: https://www.wired.com/story/ring-police-rfa-tool-shut-down/

Still, I've disabled the microphones in mine and they only see my front door anyway.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#94

Post by arrdalan »

SahAssar wrote: post #85

I'd assume that end-to-end encryption would mean the traffic is encrypted between the camera and the app, which it isn't. That would require an app in the camera to support the system (which could be done on many cameras).

The traffic is encrypted between the hub and the app. The camera is connected to the hub.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#95

Post by arrdalan »

nubinetwork wrote: post #78

I was thinking about using Pi's for some cameras, but your readme says something about using a Google firebase for passing messages... would email to sms make more sense (if your provider still supports it)? Also, if I were to set this up behind a firewall, would I need to port forward something so I can access it on the road?

Using Pi's to run the hub is technically feasible (and I do plan on trying it on my end). Port forwarding is not needed. The Pi only needs to be able to initiate a connection to the server.

Google FCM is used for delivering notifications to the app. The server asks FCM to do so when needed.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#96

Post by SahAssar »

arrdalan wrote: post #94
SahAssar wrote: post #85

I'd assume that end-to-end encryption would mean the traffic is encrypted between the camera and the app, which it isn't. That would require an app in the camera to support the system (which could be done on many cameras).

The traffic is encrypted between the hub and the app. The camera is connected to the hub.

Right, but the "ends" in end-to-end encryption are typically the device producing the content and the device consuming the content. In this case that is the camera and the app.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#97

Post by arrdalan »

mattlondon wrote: post #44

Having had cameras and a couple of breakin attempts for a while now my biggest must-have for these sort of things is: - reliable human detection (not just motion) - integration via some sort of API or MQTT etc. This project appears to have no "smarts" in terms of human detection nor APIs which is a shame. Just pure motion detection on its own is ok, but you're going to pick up all sorts of things that you don't care…

Privastead relies on event detection by the camera itself. The Amcrest camera that I've used so far only does motion detection (which is all I needed on my end). There are IP cameras, however, that do human detection. I've purchased one of those and plan to integrate it, which would then allow Privastead to provide human detection too.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#98

Post by arrdalan »

hamandcheese wrote: post #50
arrdalan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fully isolated setup on a dedicated network can certainly provide good privacy. A key benefit of Privastead is that it can send the videos to your smartphone remotely using a strong (MLS-based) end-to-end encryption. And I share your excitement about Rust. :-)

FWIW, e2ee is a feature that mostly matters to me when I don't own the infrastructure, and my bytes are flowing over someone else's platform. If I do own all the infra, it seems like a lot of extra effort and complexity in the application which could be farmed out to other solutions (I.e. wireguard).

That's right. My assumption is that the server is untrusted and that's why I use end-to-end encryption. This allows me to use any server, possibly even one operated by a third-party service in the future.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#99

Post by arrdalan »

goodpoint wrote: post #67
arrdalan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fully isolated setup on a dedicated network can certainly provide good privacy. A key benefit of Privastead is that it can send the videos to your smartphone remotely using a strong (MLS-based) end-to-end encryption. And I share your excitement about Rust. :-)

How is video streamed to the apps? Push notification services are not meant for real time video streaming.

Push notifications are for notifying the apps of events (e.g., motion). The actual encrypted video (either motion-triggered video or livestreams) are transferred through the server.

Re: Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

#100

Post by arrdalan »

SushiHippie wrote: post #86
arrdalan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not too concerned with that. As far as I know, almost all Android apps that need to send notifications to the device use FCM. If Google pulls the plug on it, many apps will stop working as intended.

The open source/degoogled alternative to that is UnifiedPush, did you take a look at this? https://unifiedpush.org/ https://ntfy.sh/

I did not, but I will. I would just point out that Privastead assumes the the push notification infrastructure is untrusted anyway.
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