Ouch ! The security proble so well explained by William turns out to be a 
much larger "social" problem...

Worth atacking ?

--
Emmanuel Charpentier

Le mercredi 25 octobre 2017 21:45:37 UTC+2, Volker Braun a écrit :
>
> Pretty much anybody can host a download mirror by sending Harald an email, 
> so requiring https to download files doesn't mean much. 
>
>
> On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 6:32:26 PM UTC+2, William wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 9:12 AM Emmanuel Charpentier <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> During the [discussion](
>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sage-devel/fE45025Wphs/mKdCAeNhAgAJ) of 
>>> the inclusion of OpenSSL, a few remarks were mafdeabout the security of our 
>>> distribution infrastructure.
>>>
>>>
>>> It has been noted that http is ridiculously easy to hijack 
>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sage-devel/fE45025Wphs/3dfTByrIAQAJ>,  
>>> and some have remarked 
>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sage-devel/fE45025Wphs/FheYtjBWAAAJ> 
>>> that this potential threat also applied to the  http downloads from our 
>>> mirrors.
>>>
>>> *I think we should consider this issue, an plan to post (Real Soon Now) 
>>> a call for discussion about this.* What is the relevant list ?
>>>
>>> Others remarked 
>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sage-devel/fE45025Wphs/podOAX89AAAJ> 
>>> that a non-SSL-enabled pip, which impedes, for example, downloading from 
>>> Pipy, sort-of enhanced security by suppressing a possible source of attack. 
>>> No comments...
>>>
>>> I have a few questions :
>>> * Would it be difficult/onerous/cumbersome to ask our mirrors to switch 
>>> to https-only service ?
>>> * Would such a measure significantly lower the possibility of attacks of 
>>> a Sage user/developer machine via "http hijacking" ?
>>> * what is the likelihood of such an attack ?
>>>
>>
>> I would estimate the likelihood that some Sage users is attacked in this 
>> way at 99.99%. It's probably already happened. Done right it would not be 
>> detected.   There are many extremely smart people whose jobs are related to 
>> crypto, and Sage is one of the standard tools of choice for cryptographers, 
>> which makes it a very natural target.  If your fulltime job involved 
>> gathering intelligence about cryptanalytic techniques, with bonus points 
>> for anything not publicly known, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine 
>> you might like access to all private files on the computers of cryptography 
>> researchers (e.g., papers/research in progress/private ideas).  All it 
>> would take would be one slightly modified "sage -i" to install something on 
>> a sage-user's computer, and you would own all their data.
>>
>> It is irresponsible of us (me) to distribute Sage without full 
>> https/openssl support, at a minimum.   I really appreciate everybody's help 
>> to resolve this...
>>
>> William
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Your inputs, please...
>>>
>>> --
>>> Emmanuel Charpentier
>>>
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>> -- 
>> -- William Stein
>>
>

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