4 ms·

They've invested a lot of resources in what they call "diskless infrastructure", as in everything's in server's RAM. I presume it wouldn't be difficult to argu

They've invested a lot of resources in what they call "diskless infrastructure", as in everything's in server's RAM. I presume it wouldn't be difficult to argue that as soon as you shut off a server to transfer it away, things they're looking for would be lost.

password4321 4y ago
HotPlug allows hot seizure and removal of computers from the field https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=982930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=982930 (2009) https://wiebetech.com/products/hotplug-field-kit/ https://wiebetech.com/products/hotplug-field-kit/
- rekoil 4y ago
  I guess their OS could defend itself from something like this by actively deleting any potentially compromising customer data as soon as it loses it's connection to the internet. No idea if it does though.
  - cge 4y ago
    The design of their diskless architecture (where everything is provisioned to RAM on boot, and no data needs to be stored at all), and the nature of their service, likely means that they could be even more sensitive, eg, reboot on a minimal acceleration from an internal accelerometer, minor power irregularities, momentary internet outage, etc.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  Implement a deadman switch over X10.
- j16sdiz 4y ago
  I guess they don't have them on hand today? They will come back another day with a pile of batteries.
- dathinab 4y ago
  yes but requires the Police to have the right warrants and tools and the server to not detect it due to e.g. network disconnect, or you not giving it the latest versions of rooling keys etc.
  - Scoundreller 4y ago
    I’d go with something MEMS based. Always safely shutdown your hardware if you sense an earthquake!
- AnthonyMouse 4y ago
  This is assuming the point of not having disks is to keep the confidential data in RAM. The problem with disks is they're hard to securely erase. Some NAT mapping gets written to a log or swap file and then you overwrite it but the device silently reallocated that sector and the old one is still there. DRAM doesn't do that. Then if you e.g. power cycle the machine once a day, it never contains data more than a day old.
- yencabulator 3y ago
  Mullvad's RAM-based architecture is more of a "look, we can't accidentally log things, we don't have disk to log things on" than "there's no way to capture the secrets this particular server holds".

password4321 4y ago

HotPlug allows hot seizure and removal of computers from the field https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=982930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=982930 (2009) https://wiebetech.com/products/hotplug-field-kit/ https://wiebetech.com/products/hotplug-field-kit/

rekoil 4y ago
I guess their OS could defend itself from something like this by actively deleting any potentially compromising customer data as soon as it loses it's connection to the internet. No idea if it does though.
- cge 4y ago
  The design of their diskless architecture (where everything is provisioned to RAM on boot, and no data needs to be stored at all), and the nature of their service, likely means that they could be even more sensitive, eg, reboot on a minimal acceleration from an internal accelerometer, minor power irregularities, momentary internet outage, etc.
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
Implement a deadman switch over X10.
j16sdiz 4y ago
I guess they don't have them on hand today? They will come back another day with a pile of batteries.
dathinab 4y ago
yes but requires the Police to have the right warrants and tools and the server to not detect it due to e.g. network disconnect, or you not giving it the latest versions of rooling keys etc.
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  I’d go with something MEMS based. Always safely shutdown your hardware if you sense an earthquake!
AnthonyMouse 4y ago
This is assuming the point of not having disks is to keep the confidential data in RAM. The problem with disks is they're hard to securely erase. Some NAT mapping gets written to a log or swap file and then you overwrite it but the device silently reallocated that sector and the old one is still there. DRAM doesn't do that. Then if you e.g. power cycle the machine once a day, it never contains data more than a day old.
yencabulator 3y ago
Mullvad's RAM-based architecture is more of a "look, we can't accidentally log things, we don't have disk to log things on" than "there's no way to capture the secrets this particular server holds".