Re: [gentoo-dev] disabling password authentication on dev.gentoo.org

[Hallgrimur H. Gunnarsson]

On 02.12.2003 Lisa Seelye <lisa@g.o> wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-12-02 at 09:45, Ian Leitch wrote:
> > On Tue, 2003-12-02 at 16:14, Alex Veber wrote:
> >
> > > I am not sure its a good Idea, I work on Gentoo from home and from school
> > > uploading and downloading files all the time, the computers at school are
> > > public and I can't put my key in there (If I forget to logout or something).
> >
> > You could ssh to home, then ssh to dev... if its not too much trouble.
>
> That's what I do.  And I've gotten so good at typing my "strong"
> password I can do it even with people watching and they won't get it. ;)

What about those who're watching you from inside the computer? Their
eyes are keen and their memory is long-lasting. Disabling password
authentication is a security measure, but it is no panacea. By forcing
developers to use keys you eliminate the problem of using passwords
in general, such as weak passwords or the use of the same password for
multiple places.

But some people complain, they say that a key is more inconvenient
than a password, for example, the key isn't as portable as a password,
you can't use it anywhere. My reply is, you shouldn't be using it
anywhere. You should never access a valuable resource from a computer
that you don't trust.

To force the use of keys exposes those who go around giving their
password to any computer they see. If you don't trust a computer well
enough to keep your key permanently on it, you shouldn't access gentoo
from that computer.

But it is true, sometimes security brings inconvenience. But I think
the idea of "ssh to home and then to gentoo" as a remedy for accessing
gentoo from an untrusted place is really bad. You've just given the
attacker your home computer in addition to gentoo.

-- hhg

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