From: Brian Warner Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:33:09 +0000 (-0700) Subject: docs/CLI.txt: add a warning about leaking dircaps through argv in add-alias X-Git-Tag: allmydata-tahoe-1.2.0~7 X-Git-Url: https://git.rkrishnan.org/pf/content/%22news.html/frontends/webapi.txt?a=commitdiff_plain;h=3b9aa0b0c9aa773de4822c6ec801b21501072b04;p=tahoe-lafs%2Ftahoe-lafs.git docs/CLI.txt: add a warning about leaking dircaps through argv in add-alias --- diff --git a/docs/CLI.txt b/docs/CLI.txt index e0719851..a822630f 100644 --- a/docs/CLI.txt +++ b/docs/CLI.txt @@ -152,6 +152,25 @@ use the following command to create a new directory and set it as your After that you can use "tahoe ls tahoe:" and "tahoe cp local.txt tahoe:", and both will refer to the directory that you've just created. +==== SECURITY NOTE: For users of shared systems ==== + +Remember that command-line arguments are visible to other users (through the +'ps' command, or the windows Process Explorer tool), so if you are using a +tahoe node on a shared host, your login neighbors will be able to see (and +capture) any directory caps that you set up with the "tahoe add-alias" +command. To avoid this, bypass add-alias and edit the NODEDIR/private/aliases +file directly, by adding a line like this: + + fun: URI:DIR2:ovjy4yhylqlfoqg2vcze36dhde:4d4f47qko2xm5g7osgo2yyidi5m4muyo2vjjy53q4vjju2u55mfa + +By entering the dircap through the editor, the command-line arguments are +bypassed, and other users will not be able to see them. Once you've added the +alias, no other secrets are passed through the command line, so this +vulnerability becomes less significant: they can still see your filenames and +other arguments you type there, but not the caps that Tahoe uses to permit +access to your files and directories. + + === Command Syntax Summary === tahoe add-alias alias cap @@ -178,7 +197,7 @@ tahoe add-alias fun DIRCAP An example would be: -tahoe add-alias fun URI:DIR2:ovjy4yhylqlfoqg2vcze36dhde:4d4f47qko2xm5g7osgo2yyidi5m4muyo2vjjy53q4vjju2u55mfa + tahoe add-alias fun URI:DIR2:ovjy4yhylqlfoqg2vcze36dhde:4d4f47qko2xm5g7osgo2yyidi5m4muyo2vjjy53q4vjju2u55mfa This create an alias "fun:" and configures it to use the given directory cap. Once this is done, "tahoe ls fun:" will list the contents of this