After discussing with Seif, I realized that there's a major issue that seems to be unspoken. Zeitgeist is meant to be cross-platform "myware" program - it helps you to use your computer.
There's a problem with the implementation though - some platforms are not really privacy protecting or user friendly by default; they may not all offer disk encryption or real data protection of any kind. So in effect, when Zeitgeist is running, you have no idea if you're safe in certain threat models. This is the flip-side to any myware program: when the data collected falls into the wrong hands, Zeitgeist becomes spyware that is harmful to the user. If Zeitgeist doesn't encrypt the database by default, the answer to "am I secure if my device is lost?" is at best, a maybe and by default, a no. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Zeitgeist Framework Team, which is subscribed to Zeitgeist Framework. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/787868 Title: Encryption of database Status in Zeitgeist Framework: New Bug description: I think that Zeitgeist should encrypt databases in ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/* for anti-forensics reasons. While someone may happen to use an encrypted disk, Zeitgeist may serve as the ultimate accidental spyware to an unsuspecting user. One possible mitigation is to randomly generate a reasonable key, tie it into the login keychain and then use that key with something like http://sqlcipher.net/ rather than straight sqlite. In theory, a user will never know that this encryption/decryption is happening - no underlying assumptions about the disk need to be made to maintain any security guarantees. This should prevent anyone from learning the contents of the database without also learning the login password. Modern Ubuntu machines disallow non-root ptracing ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/Roadmap/KernelHardening#ptrace ) and if the gnome keyring is locked, an attacker would have a much harder time grabbing meaningful Zeitgeist data without interacting with the user or bruteforcing the login keychain. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~zeitgeist Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~zeitgeist More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
