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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)

#141

Post by stevenicr »

xyst wrote: post #109
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…

> But the second a human steps into my garden and starts approaching the house in the night, all the perimeter floodlights are activated, in-house lights turn on, a fake-yet-loud barking dog MP3 starts playing and I get pushover notifications on my phone that won't stop until I ACK them etc (to wake me up). Wow this setup seems like overkill for a residential setup. I have lived in “bad” neighborhoods before and have…

when I lived closer to the city I ended up with a few cameras covering the street, the driveway, front door..

I caught around a dozen or so car break ins, random trespasses 'looking around' - and a few other things..

Not one of those recordings was going to get police to do anything.

And now that ring / nest etc are everywhere, most people walking the old neighborhood are wearing a hoody covering their head and a 'it's normal now that we had a pandemic mask' of some sort.

Frankly I think it's best to deter with multiple lights and sounds like op mentioned, otherwise you just catch a recording of a minor crime, and it might make you feel good that you could recongnize the person in the video at the corner gas station or bar down the street, but it doesn't let you stop them or do anything to them.

in my small data point experiences, I understand after a hurricane, some parts of Florida had a different police priority announcement, and places like Texas allow the use of force including deadly force to stop a theft of property,

but here having cameras and weapons is not enough, it's actually expected by the 'bad guys'

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

#143

Post by yieldcrv »

krisoft wrote: post #139
yieldcrv wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of video, what if our bodies and property emitted points clouds all the time where visual representation can be recreated, similar to how LiDar does it I’m not sure if thats more or less data to store, but it can show the depth and direction of intrusions into your space

> Instead of video, what if our bodies and property emitted points clouds all the time If instead of practical and widely available technologies we are discussing scifi concepts which have no realistic prospect of materialising then why not wish for a force field impervious to trucks? Or even better, lets skip the whole middleman and wish for point to point teleportation for all cargo eliminating all dangers and exte…

because I believe there is a realistic prospect of materializing and it would increase accountability for many actions where its currently impossible even with the burgeoning ubiquity of video

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

#144

Post by hedora »

h317 wrote: post #41

If you need an open-source hardware+fw design for a camera with a motion sensor: https://github.com/maxlab-io/tokay-lite-pcb or can be purchased at: https://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/Maxlab/TOKAY-LITE-01?qs=...

Here’s a challenge: Get that thing to record license plates at night.

All the closed source ones I’ve seen set the aperture/exposure based on the average exposure of the frame, so the plate comes out as a pure white rectangle.

Have it sweep through bright and dark when recording at night.

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

#145

Post by pzduniak »

euroderf wrote: post #115
arrdalan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use Home Assistant in an isolated local network with no Internet access, you will have good privacy. However, I needed to be able to use my camera remotely from my phone. That's when using strong end-to-end encryption becomes critical. Home Assistant seems to provide two options for remote access: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/securing/ One option is to expose your instance to the Internet a…

No mention of Tailscale ? It's dead simple.

Right? All of this seems like trying to solve the wrong issue. Solve VPN routing with a routing solution, solve stream collection and processing with something like Frigate. I run ML models locally on a GPU and get a notification through MQTT/HA/Tailscale to my phone when the local stray cat arrives for dinner. What else do you really need?

I don't buy the cheap storage argument, trading an upfront cost of maybe $100 for all that complexity. And you can still keep archives - and even a reasonable UI - with some off the shelf FUSE driver. Or, less janky, a cron script running rclone or whatever.

Cool project, I just don't see people migrating to it.

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

#146

Post by vineyardmike »

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).

I don’t think it’s confusing or misleading. If you’re writing hub software with a corresponding client, then being encrypted e2e between hub and client sounds accurate for the “e2e” moniker. Especially when adding the context of using untrusted servers and notification services.

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

#147

Post by coppsilgold »

Using a KEM[1] to create a sealed_box[2] type construct would allow for privacy even in a situation where the camera hardware is physically seized. You could also use ML-KEM (aka Kyber), McEliece-KEM and ECDH or RSA-KEM together to provide post quantum resistance.

The traditional symmetric approach (which also has post quantum resistance) in such systems requires the camera hardware to possess the long-lived symmetric key which can be extracted after seizure. Using a ratcheting mechanism (hashing the key every t time) can help - but have no self healing and be vulnerable to recovery from persistent storage (past keys may not be securely erased).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_encapsulation_mechanism>

[2] https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/public-key_cryptography/sea...>

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

#148

Post by arrdalan »

scottlamb wrote: post #140
arrdalan wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't designed Privastead for continuous recording/streaming. It's mainly to receive motion/event-triggered videos and occasional live streaming. The usage model is more like Ring cameras.

That didn't answer my question.

Sorry, which question did I miss?

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

#149

Post by Klonoar »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #114
ranger_danger wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best time to have security cameras is yesterday. Same for a dash cam. Please protect yourself and your loved ones.

Dashcams (including bikecams and helmetcams) are a great idea and AFAIK there's not much of a privacy concern with them as they record to local storage and usually in a common video standard (e.g. mp4). Hopefully as more people use them, there should be more chance of video footage being available from other vehicles if you're involved in a RTC and don't have one yourself. There's also the protective effect of people…

A number of dash cams now use cloud storage. If anything, when I last purchased I had to go out of my way to find one with decent enough video that also stays local.

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

#150

Post by windexh8er »

arrdalan wrote: post #37
windexh8er wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using locally hosted NVRs going on two decades now and so I definitely appreciate another local NVR option. But given the current lack of common requirements (e.g. more than 1 camera), curious if you're seeing any usage outside of your own? As others have mentioned Frigate is filling a nice gap for many, currently. I can only connect to it via a VPN I control and I can easily get notifications via Home Assi…

Your local setup plus VPN/wireguard is a good design. For me, port forwarding on my router was a no-go due to the increased attack surface. Therefore, I wanted to use the cloud to route the videos and hence I decided to use a strong end-to-end encryption scheme (MLS). Regarding the limitation you mentioned: I plan to address them. The next task on my plate is to support multiple cameras. :-)

I actually don't do any port forwarding for my VPN. I end up back hauling over a public termination point on existing tunnels. All tunnels originate outbound in this manner.

Looking forward to seeing your project progress!

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