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Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System

From Christian Seiler <christian@iwakd.de>
Newsgroups linux.debian.user
Subject Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System
Date 2016-02-24 15:30 +0100
Message-ID <r5IBX-5Pl-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
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On 02/24/2016 01:48 PM, Nicolas George wrote:
> Le sextidi 6 ventôse, an CCXXIV, Christian Seiler a écrit :
>> Yes, I know what an HMAC is. But an HMAC is _utterly_ useless for a
>> digital signature.
> 
> Please stop commenting the finger when I try to show you the moon.

The problem is that you were being extremely vague. And if you are
not actually discussing the merits of the issue itself, but talking
about different use cases with different threat models, then you
can't come back and complain that you don't get your points across.

> You want an actual example of attack that a proper signing protocol
> prevents?

Yes, precisely. That is what I was asking for in the first place.

> 1. Alice generates harmless.iso and harmful.iso with a hash collision.
> 2. Bob generates harmless.iso.sha and signs it as harmless.iso.sha.sign.
> 3. Alice replaces harmless.iso by harmful.iso.
> 4. Eve checks the signature, the signature is valid.
> 
> Compare to:
> 
> 2. Bob signs harmless.iso as harmless.iso.sign.
> 3. Alice replaces harmless.iso by harmful.iso.
> 4. Eve checks the signature, the signature is invalid, the attack is foiled.
> 
> The principle is that a proper signing protocol needs to include in the
> hashed message parts that the attacker can not control.

Thank you. Why didn't you say so from the beginning?

Yes, under that threat model (attacker controls what is signed)
using a simple hash is problematic.

And yes, preimage attacks are harder than collision attacks (as
we've seen with MD5).

Still, I don't think that's reason enough to discourage people from
signing hash lists, because:

 1. In practical terms there's no known _feasible_ collision attack
    for the SHA-2 family out there.

 2. Current software doesn't actually do what you are suggesting.
    For example, the only data added before hashing by GnuPG that's
    _slightly_ difficult to predict is the timestamp. (OpenPGP
    doesn't actually specify a subpacket type for something like a
    salt.) The rest of the stuff added to the hash function is
    completely predictable. (And it's appended, so as per your
    comment about MD5, for at least that hash and possibly others,
    it's also useless against such an attack.)

Yes, doing it differently (e.g. also signing each individual file)
would improve the security properties, but I don't think relying on
collision attack resistance for a decent hash function is _that_
problematic. (And it's not like there weren't warning against MD5
long before the known attacks were published; that people were still
using MD5 on such a widespread basis, even after it was expected to
be broken in the not too distant future, is a different problem.)

But to be more constructive:

Let's say one creates a tool akin to sha256sum that does the
following (let's call it ssha256sum):

 - Generate two sufficiently large random numbers S1, S2
   (Let's say 128bit each.)
 - Output first line: those random numbers
 - For each file generate output similar to sha256sum, but do
   SHA256(S1 || filecontents || S2) instead

If one just signs the resulting file, in your opinion, would that
offer the same guarantees for the contents of all of the files as
signing the individual files themselves?

Regards,
Christian

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Thread

 Warning �~@~T Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System) Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2016-02-22 19:10 +0100
  Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-22 20:30 +0100
    Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored  Operating System Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2016-02-22 20:40 +0100
      Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-22 21:00 +0100
        Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Charlie Kravetz <cjk@teamcharliesangels.com> - 2016-02-22 22:00 +0100
        Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Stuart Longland <stuartl@longlandclan.id.au> - 2016-02-25 03:40 +0100
    Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Dalios <dalios@eumx.net> - 2016-02-22 23:00 +0100
      Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-22 23:20 +0100
        Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de> - 2016-02-22 23:40 +0100
          Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 00:00 +0100
            Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> - 2016-02-24 10:30 +0100
              Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-24 13:50 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2016-02-24 14:10 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> - 2016-02-24 14:20 +0100
                OT: ownership of Mega.co.nz (was Re: Warning Linux Mint Website  Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System) Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2016-02-24 15:00 +0100
    Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Gener Badenas <gener.ong.badenas@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 02:40 +0100
      Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System Glenn English <ghe@srv.slsware.net> - 2016-02-23 05:20 +0100
      Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 08:10 +0100
      Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> - 2016-02-23 11:00 +0100
        Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 11:30 +0100
          Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 12:10 +0100
            Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 12:10 +0100
              Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 13:10 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 13:20 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 16:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 16:10 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 17:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 17:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System arian <debian@semioptimal.net> - 2016-02-23 17:50 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System arian <debian@semioptimal.net> - 2016-02-23 17:50 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 18:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System arian <debian@semioptimal.net> - 2016-02-23 18:10 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 21:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-24 11:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-02-27 06:30 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2016-02-25 15:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2016-02-25 15:10 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2016-02-25 15:20 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Christian Seiler <christian@iwakd.de> - 2016-02-25 16:20 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-25 21:10 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 16:40 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 17:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 17:50 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 18:40 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Christian Seiler <christian@iwakd.de> - 2016-02-23 19:20 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 20:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Christian Seiler <christian@iwakd.de> - 2016-02-23 20:40 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-24 11:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Christian Seiler <christian@iwakd.de> - 2016-02-24 12:40 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-24 13:50 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Christian Seiler <christian@iwakd.de> - 2016-02-24 15:30 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2016-02-24 10:50 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-24 11:00 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2016-02-24 11:10 +0100
              Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-02-23 17:30 +0100
                Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 17:40 +0100
            Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System jdd <jdd@dodin.org> - 2016-02-23 12:10 +0100
            Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 12:40 +0100
              Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2016-02-23 13:30 +0100
            Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 13:00 +0100
            Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with  Backdoored Operating System Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> - 2016-02-24 10:40 +0100
        Re: Warning Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2016-02-23 11:50 +0100

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