Also one thing i like about these alternate options is they work on my phone. I regularly use Obsidian on my phone to lookup information, jot things down, etc.
With that said i'm still looking (making.. maybe?) my perfect solution which is mostly just Selfhosted + Notes + Spaced Rep in the right UX.
> If you have a secure method of distributing keys, you could also just distribute the encrypted file (or its hash) via that secure method.
Well in my case the central thing is mutable, changing. Ie it's a pointer to the HEAD, in git terms.
So yes, i have to distribute keys but the keys are immutable and can be distributed. The HEAD however can't, or at least can't with assurances that it's trusted.
Which is kinda the root issue i suppose. To answer the question of "the file on S3 is mutable, did i actually write it?". I have to be able to answer that
> Its been a while since i read it, but it was mostly about how to use different crypto primitives properly. It was not about how to design a block cipher or anything like that.
That actually sounds great. Definitely interested, thank you!
> One way to do this is to hash the file and store that hash somewhere you trust, which i think is what the person is suggesting. This approach has somewhat limited applicability, because if you already have a trusted channel, why are you using cryptography? (Yes there are lots of exceptions to that where crrypto still makes sense, but in general the point stands)
Yup. In my case my system is content addressed, so everything is a hash. So one one hand, sign-less encryption will work fine if i know the HEAD hash, as you mentioned. However i also want these backups to work from no local store. Ie i don't know the HEAD, and in that case someone could tamper with my pointer.
Kinda surprising that Age doesn't have a way to handle this. Shame, but good to learn.
Cryptopals is interesting, appreciate the link! I'll also look into that book, thank you! Did you find the book a bit deep? I have no intention of writing my own crypto, i just want to use it reliably and correctly.
Mind describing (to a layman?) how checksums can help Age prevent switcharoo?
I ask because i've been writing a datastore of sorts that's immutable. Ie all content addressed. I plan to add some basic encryption for cloud storage primarily, however if Age could let someone swap file contents then i can't use Age.
I know someone's thinking "if it's content addressed how can someone tamper with the file contents?" - they can't, of course, but that only works if you know the HEAD's to point to. If you don't, say you're doing a full recovery, you slurp in all the content IDs and now have to determine which one is the HEAD. This is where tampering could take place, hypothetically, as they could not just swap the file contents but _also_ change the hashes/content IDs.
In a content addressed system signing the HEAD is really the only thing needed, since everything else can be validated via checksum. However i think it still needs signing, no?
Sidenote, i know next to nothing about crypto practices. I desperately need to find a class which teaches necessary knowledge to use crypto correctly in your own programs.
A contract company with customers. The company would likely "be fine", but 5 years ago it was ~6 people. We've pushed for some larger clients recently, which allows us to employ ~50 people. If rolling out to the larger clients fails, that income source dries up and we go back down to ~10 people or w/e. With a sizable failure on our track record, which will be a bit difficult too.
> IMO, it's just the way it's being handled. They have their people fighting for their lives. Here's what looks like a manager or lead not being able to work with all the stress around it. And all that upper management sees is, fill in the chair.
So in our case i imagine we'd attempt to fill in a chair. I'd advocate for it. But again, i want to keep the rest of the staff employed and fed, myself included. However i would _definitely not_ expect to see those employees let go. I'd raise hell and question my employment if they were treated that way. Just filled in while they're gone, hopefully still paying them as long as we can (which probably wouldn't exceed 6 months i'd guess).
Which is partly why these conversations can be difficult for me. My #1 concern is keeping everyone employed, including the people having a tough time. Which can often mean keeping my head focused on income.
As much as i love WorkReform and worker focused rights, i often feel these conversations are adversarial and don't seem to consider what will happen when the company goes under. But they're also framed against massive corps, like Starbucks or w/e, and the reality is much different for them than it is my company.
Talking about my company in the WorkReform context is really odd these days.
What's expected though? Not that i'm defending mistreatment, but i work with a small team of all remote and we have a few Russian devs. If they go absent for a while due to all this issue, we're not going to fire them or be angry.. but we still need to try and keep the company afloat, no?
Like forget bottom lines and corporate greed for a second. My company is small and if we don't hit an upcoming deadline, we're laying off at least half of our staff. I'm in full support of affected people but i also have to do my best to make sure the people employed by this company have a job tomorrow. This post seems to make that sound.. cold, uncaring?
To be clear i don't own the company nor am that high up on the management chain. We're only ~50 people. But still, i think this way. If an employee goes through really difficult times, of which we've had many, we wish them well and continue to pay them as best we can for as long as we can, but the 49 other people still have families, need food on the table, etc. It's just as important to me that the 49 other people are happy and healthy as it is the 1 person is happy and healthy.
I'm a bit confused by the anti-corporate take sometimes. I think the human lives are all that matter, fuck corporate greed - but when everyone is months away from losing jobs due to runway-like funding models.. it seems unfair.
Am i off base? I imagine you're mostly thinking huge companies?
Also one thing i like about these alternate options is they work on my phone. I regularly use Obsidian on my phone to lookup information, jot things down, etc.
With that said i'm still looking (making.. maybe?) my perfect solution which is mostly just Selfhosted + Notes + Spaced Rep in the right UX.