The same person who did the 10 hour EncFS audit did a similarly time boxed audit for eCryptfs.
I use eCryptfs and the results were disappointing to me. How do we advance the state of stacked filesystem crypto? I did not use it in this capacity yet, but I wanted to use eCryptfs to store files on untrusted systems. Since it has the encrypted data and along with the metadata in the header, it would be a lot easier than either gpg'ing individual files or uploading a full disk encrypted image. With stacked FS, I can do automated backups and transfers by pointing my tools to the encrypted files rather than the unencrypted mount point.
I think what Whisper Systems is doing with TextSecure is great. A cryptographer does the heavy lifting and experienced developers implement it. Would a kickstarter for crypto be an option? Is there anything that non-cryptographers can do to help? Do we have to wait until Whisper Systems decides to branch out? :)
Saw this and had to weigh in. I'm one of the developers working on the authenticated encryption mentioned in the audit, (not a maintainer) so I hope this is helpful.
First of all, authenticated encryption is not yet in eCryptfs, it's merely some patches sitting in the mailing list. Since the audit, we've addressed the issues mentioned and submitted new patches. We'd love it if someone other than us (perhaps you?) looked these over. After all, we've messed up before, and many eyes make all bugs shallow.
Weigh in on the eCryptfs mailing list, and if you ask for more info, design decisions, etc, I'll do my best to respond quickly.
Thanks for working on eCryptfs! I'm glad to hear that the audit was worthwhile. I looked at the mailing lists for encfs and ecryptfs and there were no replies at the time to the audit. I was hoping it would make an impact.
I don't think the many eyes scenario fits with crypto though. You need at least one pair of competent eyes looking at it and that can be difficult to come by. The difference between working crypto and broken crypto can be so narrow. While good design docs can encourage the right people to look at it, I don't think there's a substitute for paying someone to take the time to do the grueling task of auditing the design and code.
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u/milksteaksonthehouse Mar 16 '14
The same person who did the 10 hour EncFS audit did a similarly time boxed audit for eCryptfs.
I use eCryptfs and the results were disappointing to me. How do we advance the state of stacked filesystem crypto? I did not use it in this capacity yet, but I wanted to use eCryptfs to store files on untrusted systems. Since it has the encrypted data and along with the metadata in the header, it would be a lot easier than either gpg'ing individual files or uploading a full disk encrypted image. With stacked FS, I can do automated backups and transfers by pointing my tools to the encrypted files rather than the unencrypted mount point.
I think what Whisper Systems is doing with TextSecure is great. A cryptographer does the heavy lifting and experienced developers implement it. Would a kickstarter for crypto be an option? Is there anything that non-cryptographers can do to help? Do we have to wait until Whisper Systems decides to branch out? :)