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Public key servers. Upload your key to 3 different key servers (keyserver.pgp.com, keyserver.ubuntu.com, pgp.mit.edu). Have the user download it from all 3, ve

Public key servers. Upload your key to 3 different key servers (keyserver.pgp.com, keyserver.ubuntu.com, pgp.mit.edu). Have the user download it from all 3, verify they're the same, verify the package signature with the public key. People already do essentially this (but from one key server) when they add custom PPAs to a distro. In order to hack that package, someone would have to either A) steal the signing key from the developer's airgapped laptop, or B) hack github.com and 3 independent key servers.

shawnz 5y ago
The point is not whether it's a solvable problem. The point is that it's not conventional to go to such extents, no matter what kind of packaging you use. This kind of process could be done with either install scripts or deb/rpm packages with nearly the same level of effort, but nobody conventionally does this kind of thing with either (maybe with the exception of stuff that's in a central repo, where you do get SOME protection by default). So it's wrong to say that install scripts are the cause of the problem. The common pattern of "curl | sh" is just as bad as the common pattern of "download a deb and install it". It's not an improvement to simply shun install scripts without solving the actual trust issue.
- throwaway984393 5y ago
  Nobody is shunning install scripts. You can still have an install script. Just don't pipe it into bash from curl. This is not like some kind of "normal" software distribution pattern. Every other modern OS in the world has solved the trust issues by either verifying the software is signed, or requiring you click some button that says "I acknowledge that I am about to totally fuck up my PC with this untrusted software". The Linux distros verify package signatures, Windows verifies exe signatures, Macs do too (afaik?), Android and iOS do. Curling to a pipe is just devs being lazy. The trust issues were solved a while ago. Not that devs being lazy is anything new. Literally the only reason anyone can use Linux at all without spending 2 weeks setting it up by hand is because somebody other than the software developers did the hard work of packaging it correctly. The curl|bash pattern is just the `./configure && make && make install` of modern devs. (But even then you could still verify the tarball signature before untarring it)

shawnz 5y ago

The point is not whether it's a solvable problem. The point is that it's not conventional to go to such extents, no matter what kind of packaging you use. This kind of process could be done with either install scripts or deb/rpm packages with nearly the same level of effort, but nobody conventionally does this kind of thing with either (maybe with the exception of stuff that's in a central repo, where you do get SOME protection by default). So it's wrong to say that install scripts are the cause of the problem. The common pattern of "curl | sh" is just as bad as the common pattern of "download a deb and install it". It's not an improvement to simply shun install scripts without solving the actual trust issue.

throwaway984393 5y ago
Nobody is shunning install scripts. You can still have an install script. Just don't pipe it into bash from curl. This is not like some kind of "normal" software distribution pattern. Every other modern OS in the world has solved the trust issues by either verifying the software is signed, or requiring you click some button that says "I acknowledge that I am about to totally fuck up my PC with this untrusted software". The Linux distros verify package signatures, Windows verifies exe signatures, Macs do too (afaik?), Android and iOS do. Curling to a pipe is just devs being lazy. The trust issues were solved a while ago. Not that devs being lazy is anything new. Literally the only reason anyone can use Linux at all without spending 2 weeks setting it up by hand is because somebody other than the software developers did the hard work of packaging it correctly. The curl|bash pattern is just the `./configure && make && make install` of modern devs. (But even then you could still verify the tarball signature before untarring it)