Re: [gentoo-user] tips on running a mail server in a cheap vps provider run but not-so-trusty admins?

[james]

On 8/28/20 3:54 PM, Poison BL. wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 12:51 AM Caveman Al Toraboran
> <toraboracaveman@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>>
>> hi.  context:
>>
>> 1. tinfoil hat is on.
>> 2. i feel disrespected when someone does things to
>>     my stuff without getting my approval.
>> 3. vps admin is not trusty and their sys admin may
>>     read my emails, and laugh at me!
>> 4. whole thing is not worth much money.  so not
>>     welling to pay more than the price of a cheap
>>     vps.  moving to dedicated hardware for me is
>>     not worth it.  my goal is to make it annoying
>>     enough that cheap-vps's admins find it a bad
>>     idea for them to allocate their time to mingle
>>     with my stuff.
>>
>> thoughts on how to maximally satisfy these
>> requirements?
>>
>> rgrds,
>> cm.
>>
>
> I'm rather late to the game with this, but at the end of the day, mail
> coming *into* a mail server isn't typically encrypted (and even that
> is only the body, the headers can still reveal a great deal, and are
> necessary for the server to work with it). A packet dump at the switch
> will turn over every piece of mail you receive along the way. Email's
> not designed for end to end security by default. Secondly, any hosting
> on hardware you don't control is impossible to fully secure, if the
> services on that end have to operate on the data at all. You can
> encrypt the drive, encrypt the mail stores themselves, etc, but all of
> those things will result in the encryption key being loaded into ram
> while the VPS is running, and dumping ram from the hypervisor layer
> destroys every illusion of security you had. Dedicated hardware in a
> locked cabinet is as close as you get to preventing physical attacks
> when you're hosting in someone else's DC, and that's not nearly in the
> same market segment, price-wise, as a cheap VPS. At best, if you have
> sensitive email that you're sending or receiving, work with the other
> end of the communication and then encrypt the contents properly. Even
> better, go with a larger scale, paid, solution in which your email
> isn't even remotely worth the effort to tamper with for the hosting
> company's employees, and hope the contractual obligations are
> sufficient to protect you. If you have any sort of controlled data
> going in and out of your email, step up to a plan that adheres to the
> regulatory frameworks you're required to adhere to and make very sure
> the contracts for it obligate the vendor to secure things properly on
> their end (aws, azure/o365/etc mostly all have offerings for, at
> least, US Gov level requirements).
>

Hmmmmm. How about paying for codes the US F. Feds do not have, like Real 
Random. Supposedly, they are legally pissing of the F. Feds. Do your own 
evaluation. A US corp in good standing the F. Feds do not want anyone to 
know. About. Why? For the F. Feds to challenge what they do, they have 
to PUBLICLY disclose their p. p.

https://www.realrandom.co/wp/

yes it's commercial. But for Gentoo, I'd push for a deep discount. They 
have totally awesome technology, and I know a sales guy there. Any 
solution, should have open source codes, and options for non-publish 
commercial codes. Are there back doors? Dunno. Ask. Make your own 
decision. But rumors are the F. Feds are pissed at these guys, cause 
they have real technology solutions right now. Not bullshit-AI jibberish.


Sure, by executive order Trump could single action them out of 
existence, but rumor has it, he has already decided NO, on that pathway. 
My postulate is US Citizens, in good legal standing, with NO felony 
convictions, have superior rights to privacy, than the F. Feds. It's 
constitutionally bake in by our for fathers. We just need to stand up 
and demand this. F. these scumbag lawyers, judges and corrupt (sold out) 
politicians.

The rest of the work is on their own. But, if we organize and stand up, 
we can put this 'demon' back into the darkness (abyss). I have no fear 
of the F. Feds. Others would be wise to self examine, before joining up 
with such an effort.



James Horton, pe