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Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

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Sean P. DeNigris

Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

Administrator

https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings. Is
that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?

-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

Cheers,
Sean

NorbertHartl

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

> Am 31.08.2017 um 03:32 schrieb Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]>:
>
> https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
> configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
> seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings. Is
> that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?
>
>
Not at all! And that's why I nagged Esteban so much until ssh agent work properly. It is a really bad idea to put passwords in the image but I can see that there is a lack of decent support for this and be able to use the password can be considered last resort.

Norbert
>
> -----
> Cheers,
> Sean
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

Peter Uhnak

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 8:45 AM, Norbert Hartl <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Am 31.08.2017 um 03:32 schrieb Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]>:
>
> https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
> configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
> seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings. Is
> that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?
>
>
Not at all!

Just about as safe as storing credentials for SmalltalkHub. (and to be fair, STHub is even worse in that the connection is not encrypted. Imagine someone observing traffic on PharoDays/ESUG conf.)

If you are not giving your work image to anyone else, I don't see what difference it would make. And if you are worrying about malicious code extracting it from your settings... I would be more worried about full access to your system...

Peter

NorbertHartl

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

Am 31.08.2017 um 09:30 schrieb Peter Uhnák <[hidden email]>:

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 8:45 AM, Norbert Hartl <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Am 31.08.2017 um 03:32 schrieb Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]>:
>
> https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
> configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
> seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings. Is
> that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?
>
>
Not at all!

Just about as safe as storing credentials for SmalltalkHub. (and to be fair, STHub is even worse in that the connection is not encrypted. Imagine someone observing traffic on PharoDays/ESUG conf.)

I didn't say something different. But having one bad solution makes another bad solution not better. Both are no-gos!

If you are not giving your work image to anyone else, I don't see what difference it would make. And if you are worrying about malicious code extracting it from your settings... I would be more worried about full access to your system…

So you do not put passphrases on your ssh keys? Because you don't give the private key away why protect it? So imagine you have development process that includes a jenkins that needs to build the source and therefor needs access to the repository. What do you do?

And it is not only for access to git repos and such. If we want to develop decent systems we need a way to store credentials safe and external to the image.

Norbert

Denis Kudriashov

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

In reply to this post by Sean P. DeNigris

But ssh agent not working for you?

I work with Iceberg without extra configuration in image. No problems for me. But I am on Mac.

So image now only keeps github password for pull requests.

(Only problem with latest Mac update is that I am now manually add ssh keys after any reboot: ssh-add -A).

2017-08-31 3:32 GMT+02:00 Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]>:

https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings. Is
that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?

-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

EstebanLM

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

you are all confused :)

Sean talks about storing the passphrase for SSH, not the HTTPS user/pass.

Nevertheless both, passphrase and user/pass needs to be stored on Pharo and then they are not safe.

Now, how can we reliable store passwords in Pharo?

This is a good thing we need to solve before blame Iceberg :P

So far, we can do just two things to avoid this problem:

- do not store the passwords on Pharo, which means we need to introduce them each time we use it (not very confortable… and btw this can be not working on ssh mode, I didn’t test).

- use ssh keys without password protection. I have to be honest: since I never used password protection of ssh keys in my life, I never seen this problem until Norbert pointed it to me :P

I will be glad to have a general solution for password storing in Pharo.

But that would be like creating a keychain, isn’t?

Also, the openness of our system makes the problem even harder… :S

cheers,

Esteban

On 31 Aug 2017, at 10:29, Denis Kudriashov <[hidden email]> wrote:

But ssh agent not working for you?

I work with Iceberg without extra configuration in image. No problems for me. But I am on Mac.
So image now only keeps github password for pull requests.

(Only problem with latest Mac update is that I am now manually add ssh keys after any reboot: ssh-add -A).

2017-08-31 3:32 GMT+02:00 Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]>:
https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings. Is
that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?

-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

Peter Uhnak

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

In reply to this post by NorbertHartl

So you do not put passphrases on your ssh keys?

Not always.

Because you don't give the private key away why protect it? So imagine you have development process that includes a jenkins that needs to build the source and therefor needs access to the repository. What do you do?

I give it a password-less ssh key, encrypted in some manner. (I do not know what Jenkins offers, but both Travis and GitLab(Runner) support file/data encryption.)

Adding the build server a password on top of the key would make no difference. If you have access to one, you have the access to the other.

Peter

Tim Mackinnon

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

To further her add to what Peter is saying - in GitLab you can add secret variables (which are encrypted) and can be referenced only during the build process.

So you can call your image with the value of one of these variables. Which is fine if you don't persist the value.

I'm wondering if we have a concept of "transient" variables that don't persist on image save? Then iceberg could use one of those, and expect you to pass that value through on the command line of Pharo? I was toying with the idea of having an encrypted vault in my image (to hold multiple values for convenience) and I would then pass an unlock value on the command line - but I would need some way to ensure that value isn't persisted? Is this where a plugin might help? Something to save a value transiently only during image execution?

Tim

Sent from my iPhone

On 31 Aug 2017, at 12:52, Peter Uhnák <[hidden email]> wrote:

So you do not put passphrases on your ssh keys?

Not always.

Because you don't give the private key away why protect it? So imagine you have development process that includes a jenkins that needs to build the source and therefor needs access to the repository. What do you do?

I give it a password-less ssh key, encrypted in some manner. (I do not know what Jenkins offers, but both Travis and GitLab(Runner) support file/data encryption.)
Adding the build server a password on top of the key would make no difference. If you have access to one, you have the access to the other.

Peter

NorbertHartl

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

In reply to this post by Peter Uhnak

Am 31.08.2017 um 12:52 schrieb Peter Uhnák <[hidden email]>:

So you do not put passphrases on your ssh keys?

Not always.

Because you don't give the private key away why protect it? So imagine you have development process that includes a jenkins that needs to build the source and therefor needs access to the repository. What do you do?

I give it a password-less ssh key, encrypted in some manner. (I do not know what Jenkins offers, but both Travis and GitLab(Runner) support file/data encryption.)
Adding the build server a password on top of the key would make no difference. If you have access to one, you have the access to the other.

So deal with it outside of the image. It is the same situation as a sandbox and key chain access. Exactly what I was meaning.

Norbert

Sean P. DeNigris

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

Administrator

In reply to this post by Peter Uhnak

Peter Uhnák wrote
> Just about as safe as storing credentials for SmalltalkHub. (and to be
> fair, STHub is even worse in that the connection is not encrypted. Imagine
> someone observing traffic on PharoDays/ESUG conf.)

-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

Cheers,
Sean

Sean P. DeNigris

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

Administrator

In reply to this post by Peter Uhnak

Oops, misfire. Let me try that again…

Peter Uhnák wrote
> Just about as safe as storing credentials for SmalltalkHub. (and to be
> fair, STHub is even worse in that the connection is not encrypted. Imagine
> someone observing traffic on PharoDays/ESUG conf.)

That is exactly why I originally moved all my projects to GitHub and have
tried to fork as many of the outside projects I use there as well (of course
the fork part is practically impossible to keep up).

-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html

Cheers,
Sean

Stephane Ducasse-3

Re: Bloc: Safe to Store SSH Passphrase in Pharo?

In reply to this post by EstebanLM

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 11:23 AM, Esteban Lorenzano <[hidden email]> wrote:

> you are all confused :)
>
> Sean talks about storing the passphrase for SSH, not the HTTPS user/pass.
> Nevertheless both, passphrase and user/pass needs to be stored on Pharo and
> then they are not safe.
>
> Now, how can we reliable store passwords in Pharo?
> This is a good thing we need to solve before blame Iceberg :P
>
> So far, we can do just two things to avoid this problem:
>
> - do not store the passwords on Pharo, which means we need to introduce them
> each time we use it (not very confortable… and btw this can be not working
> on ssh mode, I didn’t test).

can we store them in the starting preferences?

> - use ssh keys without password protection. I have to be honest: since I
> never used password protection of ssh keys in my life, I never seen this
> problem until Norbert pointed it to me :P
>
> I will be glad to have a general solution for password storing in Pharo.
> But that would be like creating a keychain, isn’t?
> Also, the openness of our system makes the problem even harder… :S
>
> cheers,
> Esteban
>
> On 31 Aug 2017, at 10:29, Denis Kudriashov <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> But ssh agent not working for you?
>
> I work with Iceberg without extra configuration in image. No problems for
> me. But I am on Mac.
> So image now only keeps github password for pull requests.
>
> (Only problem with latest Mac update is that I am now manually add ssh keys
> after any reboot: ssh-add -A).
>
> 2017-08-31 3:32 GMT+02:00 Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]>:
>>
>> https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/blob/master/README.md suggests to
>> configure Iceberg with the "Use Custom SSH Keys" setting, part of which
>> seems to include pasting one's SSH Key Passphrase into Pharo's settings.
>> Is
>> that a good idea (i.e. is that safe)?
>>
>>
>>
>> -----
>> Cheers,
>> Sean
>> --
>> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html
>>
>
>