4 ms·

“Only the paranoid survive.” – Qubes OS signature mismatch

60 points by elux 10y ago

loeg 10y ago
Probably just truncated.
lwf 10y ago
There are a bunch of reasons this could've happened -- corrupted downloads are not unheard of on poor connections. Maybe the file was truncated. Or maybe it was the NSA. Without any further analysis, this isn't particularly noteworthy.
- wolfgke 10y ago
  The first step is to detect the wrong signature. The next step is to compare the files to see whether truncation, bitswap etc. happened or whether the manipulation went deeper. Or for the more paranoid people: See what dangerous attack code can be introduced into the software by such an innocent-looking manipulation and whether the modification that happened did introduce such an exploit or not.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  You can those questions in the reply thread (Is it the right file size? Can you mount it?) This will only be interesting if it isn't just a corrupted image. If it isn't a corrupt image, I hope there a follow-up with a diff-tree between the two.
lillesvin 10y ago
There's nothing yet to suggest that it's not just a corrupted download.
- astrodust 10y ago
  Cosmic ray bit flip also a possibility.
quickben 10y ago
Seeking publicity instead of trying to redownload and verify. News today, sigh :(
- 0xCMP 10y ago
  He did redownload and verify via BT. He seems to also be rebuilding from source(?).
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- mfukar 10y ago
  Twitter is not news. At best, it's unfiltered information, and usually just noise and venting.
trdtaylor1 10y ago
Best way to elevate your crypto project, get targeted. Doesn't matter if it actually happened.
daveio 10y ago
Can't speak to targeted interference, but I can fetch the ISO and signature from the mirror he used, and verify it successfully. output: https://gist.github.com/daveio/edac4aaee516cd6a408d5c8e763cef5f https://gist.github.com/daveio/edac4aaee516cd6a408d5c8e763ce...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Gruselbauer 10y ago
Redownload. Check again. I'm on satellite internet with the horrible latencies and frequent timeouts associated with that tech, I recently had the netinstall image for Debian fail integrity checking three times in a row, from the http mirrors. Guy from the link said it himself, download via torrent and all is well. Generally, being on such terrible interwebs I get angry whenever I hear people claim torrents are only for piracy. We all know they're wrong, but my legal torrent use has really never been more intense. Rsync's ability for aggressive retrying is also blessed :)
- simcop2387 10y ago
  Yea that's one thing I really love about torrents. Because of the giant set of hashes they use, it makes it really great to verify integrity of the download. You've got a hash for each block (128k by default) and for the overall download, along with the complete size of the file.
  - masklinn 10y ago
    > each block (128k by default) Depends on the seed creation software, Tixati defaults to 256k for instance, kind-of: it's the default value of the box, but a new default is recomputed based on the amount of data included in the torrent. If I try to seed my local install of Bastion (920MB) it picks 1MB, Atom Zombie Smasher (25MB) yields 64kB, and Shadowrun Hong Kong (9GB) picks 4MB.
    - simcop2387 10y ago
      Interesting. It's been a long time since I've created any of my own (a decade? geeze I feel old) so it's apparently a bit different.
- snvzz 10y ago
  Switch to HTTPS. Debian supports using HTTPS mirrors.
  - Gruselbauer 10y ago
mocko 10y ago
For reference, here's a check of the torrent with the .torrent file I snagged from https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/ https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/ last night. Master signing key checked against the fingerprint published on the mailing list in 2013. Looks legit. Qubes-R3.2-x86_64 moi$ gpg --verify Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso.asc Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso gpg: Signature made Tue Sep 20 18:33:37 2016 BST using RSA key ID 03FA5082 gpg: Good signature from "Qubes OS Release 3 Signing Key" [full]
- mocko 10y ago
  For reference II - downloaded the .iso. Despite a usually robust connection the download was interrupted three times. I have no idea whether this signifies anything. Curl resumed where it left off and in the end... Qubes-R3.2-x86_64 moi$ gpg --verify Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso.asc Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso_WEBDL gpg: Signature made Tue Sep 20 18:33:37 2016 BST using RSA key ID 03FA5082 gpg: Good signature from "Qubes OS Release 3 Signing Key" [full] Of course (skipping merrily off into tinfoil-hat-land) that doesn't eliminate the possibility that the OP's download had been MITM-ed. However this would have to be by someone who: 1) Controls part of the network infrastructure between them and mirrors.kernel.org (i.e. routers, cables or DNS) 2) Can fake a TLS certificate for mirrors.kernel.org So, corrupted download or a targeted MITM attack by a state-level actor? Who the hell knows anymore.
imjustsaying 10y ago
when did download errors become newsworthy? are networks that robust now?

60 points by elux 10y ago

loeg 10y ago

Probably just truncated.

lwf 10y ago

There are a bunch of reasons this could've happened -- corrupted downloads are not unheard of on poor connections. Maybe the file was truncated. Or maybe it was the NSA. Without any further analysis, this isn't particularly noteworthy.

wolfgke 10y ago
The first step is to detect the wrong signature. The next step is to compare the files to see whether truncation, bitswap etc. happened or whether the manipulation went deeper. Or for the more paranoid people: See what dangerous attack code can be introduced into the software by such an innocent-looking manipulation and whether the modification that happened did introduce such an exploit or not.
djsumdog 10y ago
You can those questions in the reply thread (Is it the right file size? Can you mount it?) This will only be interesting if it isn't just a corrupted image. If it isn't a corrupt image, I hope there a follow-up with a diff-tree between the two.

lillesvin 10y ago

There's nothing yet to suggest that it's not just a corrupted download.

astrodust 10y ago
Cosmic ray bit flip also a possibility.

quickben 10y ago

Seeking publicity instead of trying to redownload and verify. News today, sigh :(

0xCMP 10y ago
He did redownload and verify via BT. He seems to also be rebuilding from source(?).
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
mfukar 10y ago
Twitter is not news. At best, it's unfiltered information, and usually just noise and venting.

trdtaylor1 10y ago

Best way to elevate your crypto project, get targeted. Doesn't matter if it actually happened.

daveio 10y ago

Can't speak to targeted interference, but I can fetch the ISO and signature from the mirror he used, and verify it successfully. output: https://gist.github.com/daveio/edac4aaee516cd6a408d5c8e763cef5f https://gist.github.com/daveio/edac4aaee516cd6a408d5c8e763ce...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Gruselbauer 10y ago

Redownload. Check again. I'm on satellite internet with the horrible latencies and frequent timeouts associated with that tech, I recently had the netinstall image for Debian fail integrity checking three times in a row, from the http mirrors. Guy from the link said it himself, download via torrent and all is well. Generally, being on such terrible interwebs I get angry whenever I hear people claim torrents are only for piracy. We all know they're wrong, but my legal torrent use has really never been more intense. Rsync's ability for aggressive retrying is also blessed :)

simcop2387 10y ago
Yea that's one thing I really love about torrents. Because of the giant set of hashes they use, it makes it really great to verify integrity of the download. You've got a hash for each block (128k by default) and for the overall download, along with the complete size of the file.
- masklinn 10y ago
  > each block (128k by default) Depends on the seed creation software, Tixati defaults to 256k for instance, kind-of: it's the default value of the box, but a new default is recomputed based on the amount of data included in the torrent. If I try to seed my local install of Bastion (920MB) it picks 1MB, Atom Zombie Smasher (25MB) yields 64kB, and Shadowrun Hong Kong (9GB) picks 4MB.
  - simcop2387 10y ago
    Interesting. It's been a long time since I've created any of my own (a decade? geeze I feel old) so it's apparently a bit different.
snvzz 10y ago
Switch to HTTPS. Debian supports using HTTPS mirrors.
- Gruselbauer 10y ago

mocko 10y ago

For reference, here's a check of the torrent with the .torrent file I snagged from https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/ https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/ last night. Master signing key checked against the fingerprint published on the mailing list in 2013. Looks legit. Qubes-R3.2-x86_64 moi$ gpg --verify Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso.asc Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso gpg: Signature made Tue Sep 20 18:33:37 2016 BST using RSA key ID 03FA5082 gpg: Good signature from "Qubes OS Release 3 Signing Key" [full]

mocko 10y ago
For reference II - downloaded the .iso. Despite a usually robust connection the download was interrupted three times. I have no idea whether this signifies anything. Curl resumed where it left off and in the end... Qubes-R3.2-x86_64 moi$ gpg --verify Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso.asc Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso_WEBDL gpg: Signature made Tue Sep 20 18:33:37 2016 BST using RSA key ID 03FA5082 gpg: Good signature from "Qubes OS Release 3 Signing Key" [full] Of course (skipping merrily off into tinfoil-hat-land) that doesn't eliminate the possibility that the OP's download had been MITM-ed. However this would have to be by someone who: 1) Controls part of the network infrastructure between them and mirrors.kernel.org (i.e. routers, cables or DNS) 2) Can fake a TLS certificate for mirrors.kernel.org So, corrupted download or a targeted MITM attack by a state-level actor? Who the hell knows anymore.

imjustsaying 10y ago

when did download errors become newsworthy? are networks that robust now?