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i've been poking round the site and i couldn't see an answer to this question - why do you need to encrypt the communication if the data themselves are encrypte
by andrewcooke 13y ago
i've been poking round the site and i couldn't see an answer to this question - why do you need to encrypt the communication if the data themselves are encrypted? maybe i am misunderstanding, but it seems like each block is encrypted and the pipe between client and server is encrypted. is it because there are additional interesting metadata (if so, what)? or have i misunderstood?
- cperciva 13y agoThere is metadata; whether you consider it interesting is up to you. The tarsnap client has to say "I'm machine X, and I want to store a block of data with tag Y"; and when you extract an archive, "I'm machine X, and I want to retrieve the block of data with tag Y". This could allow someone to figure out (a) that it's the same machine, and (b) that you're extracting an archive which contains data which was stored at a particular point in time. Paranoia means encrypting everything which might be sensitive, even if you can't see any way for it to be abused.
- andrewcooke 13y agothanks. (i understand the point about metadata; to be honest i was more worried i had misunderstood).