zlacker

>>feross+(OP)
Just the other day I suggested using a yubikey, and someone linked me to the Titan sidechannel where researchers demonstrated that, with persistent access, and a dozen hours of work, they could break the guarantees of a Titan chip[0]. They said "an attacker will just steal it". The researchers, on the other hand, stressed how very fundamentally difficult this was to pull off due to very limited attack surface.

This is the sort of absolutism that is so pointless.

At the same time, what's equally frustrating to me is defense without a threat model. "We'll randomize this value so it's harder to guess" without asking who's guessing, how often they can guess, how you'll randomize it, how you'll keep it a secret, etc. "Defense in depth" has become a nonsense term.

The use of memory unsafe languages for parsing untrusted input is just wild. I'm glad that I'm working in a time where I can build all of my parsers and attack surface in Rust and just think way, way less about this.

I'll also link this talk[1], for the millionth time. It's Rob Joyce, chief of the NSA's TAO, talking about how to make NSA's TAO's job harder.

[0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/01/hacke...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJb8WOJYdA

>>static+Di
From the Ars reference: "There are some steep hurdles to clear for an attack to be successful. A hacker would first have to steal a target's account password and also gain covert possession of the physical key for as many as 10 hours. The cloning also requires up to $12,000 worth of equipment and custom software, plus an advanced background in electrical engineering and cryptography. That means the key cloning-were it ever to happen in the wild-would likely be done only by a nation-state pursuing its highest-value targets."

"only by a nation-state"

This ignores the possibility that the company selling the solution could itself easily defeat the solution.

Google, or another similarly-capitalised company that focuses on computers, could easily succeed in attacking these "user protections".

Further, anyone could potentially hire them to assist. What is to stop this if secrecy is preserved.

We know, for example, that Big Tech companies are motivated by money above all else, and, by-and-large, their revenue does not come from users. It comes from the ability to see into users' lives. Payments made by users for security keys are all but irrelevant when juxtaposed against advertising services revenue derived from personal data mining.

Google has an interest in putting users' minds at ease about the incredible security issues with computers connected to the internet 24/7. The last thing Google wants is for users to be more skeptical of using computers for personal matters that give insight to advertisers.

The comment on that Ars page is more realistic than the article.

Few people have a "nation-state" threat model, but many, many people have the "paying client of Big Tech" threat model.

>>o8r3oF+Ht
Yes, if you don't trust Google don't use a key from Google. Is that what you're trying to say? If your threat model is Google don't buy your key from Google. Do I think that's probably a stupid waste of thought? Yes, I do. But it's totally legitimate if that's your threat model.

>>static+Dv
"But it's totally legitimate if that's your threat model."

Not mine. I have no plans to purchase a security key from Google. I have no threat model.

Nothing in the comment you replied to mentioned "trust" but since you raised the issue I did a search. It seems there are actually people commenting online who claim they do not trust Google; this has been going on for years. Can you believe it. Their CEO has called it out multiple times.^1 "[S]tupid waste of thought", as you call it. (That's not what I would call it.) It's everywhere.^2 The message to support.google and the response are quite entertaining.

1. For example, https://web.archive.org/web/20160601234401/http://allthingsd...

2.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/thread/14123369/what-i...

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/google-is-absolutely-listenin...

https://www.consumerwatchdog.org/blog/people-dont-trust-goog...

https://www.wnd.com/2015/03/i-dont-trust-google-nor-should-y...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/03/google-ex...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2018/10/10/this...