[Noisebridge-discuss] cryptoparty Tahoe-LAFS workshop

Mitch Altman maltman23 at hotmail.com
Mon Aug 11 05:16:53 UTC 2014


I think that would be a great workshop! 

Thanks, 
Mitch. 

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 03:33:34 +0000
From: dstainton415 at gmail.com
To: noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
Subject: [Noisebridge-discuss] cryptoparty Tahoe-LAFS workshop

 
Dear Noisebridge community,
 
Might there be enough interest in a Tahoe-LAFS workshop to make it worth while?
 
I am happy to talk about Tahoe-LAFS and suggest interesting ways to use it...
and it is in this friendly spirit of sharing and deep admiration for the creation
of Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn and Brian Warner that I write.
 
Do you backup your personal data?
Using Dropbox, AWS storage or Google Drive to backup data is a shameful act...
but we have a choice! We can choose to use verified end to end crypto.
We can choose to be in control of the erasure encoding... of the redundancy level.
 
Additionally the Tahoe-LAFS cryptographic "capabilities model" is essentially a distributed access control system... putting more power into the hands of users; the storage servers do not authorize access to data; instead the possessor of the cryptographic capabilities can choose to share that capability... or "diminish" the cap before sharing; for instance ReadWrite caps can be dimished into ReadOnly caps etc.
 
If there is 5 or more of us interested then I suggest we get together for a Tahoe-LAFS workshop to setup an onion grid!
 
What is an onion grid?
 
An onion grid is a Tahoe-LAFS storage grid which is only accessible via Tor hidden services. This allows the Tahoe storage node operator to hide the location/identity of their server(s). Using Tor hidden services also requires the Tahoe client accessing the grid to use Tor. Furthermore... in a few years when the Tor project deploys new Tor hidden services designs we will benefit from the additional security guarantees (Tor hidden services need some love).
 
 
What is Tahoe-LAFS?
 
Tahoe Least Authoratative File System... is not actually a POSIX compliant filesystem... it is cryptographic distributed key value store with a "filesystem like" interface.
read:
project page:
https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs
and here's my favorite white paper about Tahoe-LAFS:
http://www.laser.dist.unige.it/Repository/IPI-1011/FileSystems/TahoeDFS.pdf
 
 
Tor and Tahoe-LAFS used together is an extermely powerful infrastructure tool that could be used to build many software systems that help censorship resistance, documenting leaking, and fighting violations of human rights and freespeech etc.
 
Here's a more detailed account of my Tahoe-LAFS cryptoparty idea; you can use the Tor browser to read it this onion grid gateway hidden service:
http://vbydyg7rcotccilo.onion/uri/URI:DIR2-RO:y32dtb4drr4gbmgarbqjszh2hi:fg3vcoe25oehdyuevoqtmsjklu7cjdtu46tttyxcr4zzgef67e5q/cryptoparty_oniongrid
 
Operators of Tor relays or Tahoe-LAFS storage nodes might be interested in managing their servers using my Ansible roles:
https://github.com/david415/ansible-tor
https://github.com/david415/ansible-tahoe-lafs
 
Once you gain access to a Tahoe-LAFS grid it's pretty easy to use...
However I'd like to build several GUIs that make Tahoe-LAFS easier to use.
Here's a rough draft Twisted reactor + PyGTK+3 GUI for a Tails + Tahoe-LAFS backup
system designed to help you keep your data confidential whilest travel internationally:
https://github.com/david415/hidden-tahoe-backup
 
 
sincerely,
 
david stainton
 
contact info == https://www.lumiere.net/~mrdavid/contact.txt
 

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