6 ms·

Termux is a great project, may it be for cli lovers, hackers, road warriors ... However, I have little trust in mobile devices nowadays and I don't feel safe c

Termux is a great project, may it be for cli lovers, hackers, road warriors ... However, I have little trust in mobile devices nowadays and I don't feel safe copying private ssh/gpg/vpn/credentials data on them anymore. Planned obsolescence, theft risk, vendor/hardware/firmware issues, general feel of lack of control, ... As a consequence, I tend to use my smartphone as anonymously as possible, mostly as a camera, an actual phone and 4G modem, tethering via usb/wifi to my laptop. It's simple, it feels safe and obviously it's not as practical. I'd love postmarketos --or something similar-- to succeed, so I could leverage the privacy/backup strategies I have already set in place on laptops and servers that actually make me feel safe.

jstimpfle 9y ago
Make a separate ssh key for your phone with restricted sftp-only access to a phone-specific backup directory on your server.
- hsivonen 9y ago
  What's a good tutorial for restricting sftp access to a particular directory? (Assuming the same host supports ssh login, too.)
  - jstimpfle 9y ago
    Assuming openssh-server, look for "internal-sftp" in sshd_config(5). And of course, also google a bit around that. It's worth pointing out that this will preclude use of rsync and similar tools that require running a server on the remote machine. I'm not aware of robust alternatives so if anyone else knows one please tell me! (and I consider rsync-restricted shells and similar approaches a hack)
    - gcoda 9y ago
      how about running OpenSSH inside docker with bind mounts?
      - tinix 9y ago
        are y'all talking about chroots?
laggyluke 9y ago
I have a complete opposite feelings: mobile apps are actually sandboxed, modern phones have secure elements in hardware and the attack surface itself is pretty limited. On the other hand, there's virtually no sandboxing on your laptop. As software developers, we pull random code from the internet all the time and it's generally trivial to steal every secret that your user has access to (https://xkcd.com/1200/ https://xkcd.com/1200/) Personally I'm not worried about baseband processor (or Intel ME) owning my device. I'm more worried about some random malware installing a keylogger and/or stealing my whole LastPass database. This would be virtually impossible on mobile, but is relatively trivial on laptop.
- skbohra123 9y ago
  You sir, have very misplaced priorities.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    I'd argue that both risk surfaces are large, not that the priorities are misplaced. There's little of any electronics I trust much these days.
- johnfocker 9y ago
  True there's no sandboxing by default on a typical linux desktop but I think the key difference between the linux distributions and Android security models is that your linux distribution is supposed to run trusted free software whereas your Android device is probably going to run some proprieatary untrusted apps. That's why sandboxing is very necessary on Android and not so much on your linux box. Now I agree you should sanbox everytime you can especially when linux is well capable of it, that's why I use firejail on my desktops so I get all the awesomeness of my favorite distributions AND strong sandboxing with real ease of use. https://firejail.wordpress.com/ https://firejail.wordpress.com/ One cool trick is to hook "sudo firecfg" in your package manager post operations so whenever you install new software it get sanboxed if a firejail profile is available (which is generally true). There may be a smarter way to do just that though? That xkcd post makes a very good point indeed (that's why everybody should lock whenever afk, encrypt and use strong passwords of course) But I also think you should also worry about those backdoor issues: https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intel https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intel
shams93 9y ago
Well rather than using it on a phone, look at the scenario of using this on a chromebook with android app support. Currently to run crouton to do linux development on a chromebook you have to run in the entire insecure developer mode where you're wide open to attack. Using termux on a chromebook under normal mode you can work without having to compromise your chromeos device's default security setup.
whipoodle 9y ago
This is a post about you, not about Termux. Come on.

jstimpfle 9y ago

Make a separate ssh key for your phone with restricted sftp-only access to a phone-specific backup directory on your server.

hsivonen 9y ago
What's a good tutorial for restricting sftp access to a particular directory? (Assuming the same host supports ssh login, too.)
- jstimpfle 9y ago
  Assuming openssh-server, look for "internal-sftp" in sshd_config(5). And of course, also google a bit around that. It's worth pointing out that this will preclude use of rsync and similar tools that require running a server on the remote machine. I'm not aware of robust alternatives so if anyone else knows one please tell me! (and I consider rsync-restricted shells and similar approaches a hack)
  - gcoda 9y ago
    how about running OpenSSH inside docker with bind mounts?
    - tinix 9y ago
      are y'all talking about chroots?

laggyluke 9y ago

I have a complete opposite feelings: mobile apps are actually sandboxed, modern phones have secure elements in hardware and the attack surface itself is pretty limited. On the other hand, there's virtually no sandboxing on your laptop. As software developers, we pull random code from the internet all the time and it's generally trivial to steal every secret that your user has access to (https://xkcd.com/1200/ https://xkcd.com/1200/) Personally I'm not worried about baseband processor (or Intel ME) owning my device. I'm more worried about some random malware installing a keylogger and/or stealing my whole LastPass database. This would be virtually impossible on mobile, but is relatively trivial on laptop.

skbohra123 9y ago
You sir, have very misplaced priorities.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  I'd argue that both risk surfaces are large, not that the priorities are misplaced. There's little of any electronics I trust much these days.
johnfocker 9y ago
True there's no sandboxing by default on a typical linux desktop but I think the key difference between the linux distributions and Android security models is that your linux distribution is supposed to run trusted free software whereas your Android device is probably going to run some proprieatary untrusted apps. That's why sandboxing is very necessary on Android and not so much on your linux box. Now I agree you should sanbox everytime you can especially when linux is well capable of it, that's why I use firejail on my desktops so I get all the awesomeness of my favorite distributions AND strong sandboxing with real ease of use. https://firejail.wordpress.com/ https://firejail.wordpress.com/ One cool trick is to hook "sudo firecfg" in your package manager post operations so whenever you install new software it get sanboxed if a firejail profile is available (which is generally true). There may be a smarter way to do just that though? That xkcd post makes a very good point indeed (that's why everybody should lock whenever afk, encrypt and use strong passwords of course) But I also think you should also worry about those backdoor issues: https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intel https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intel

shams93 9y ago

Well rather than using it on a phone, look at the scenario of using this on a chromebook with android app support. Currently to run crouton to do linux development on a chromebook you have to run in the entire insecure developer mode where you're wide open to attack. Using termux on a chromebook under normal mode you can work without having to compromise your chromeos device's default security setup.

whipoodle 9y ago

This is a post about you, not about Termux. Come on.