Linux.conf.au 2014 – Day 4 – Session 2

Is it safe to mosh? by Jim Cheetham

  • Replacement for ssh remote terminal connectivity, uses udp
  • http://mosh.mit.edu/
  • Remote terminal applications, changing IPs, intermittent connectivity, more robust and responsive than ssh
  • It is safe? It depends…
  • Use cases differ, requirements differ
  • Highpoints
    • No “disconnect” when roaming/sleeping
    • SSP remains responsive; Control-C works when cat’ing a large file or big “find”
    • Instant predictive local echo
    • Very clean UTF-8 terminal
    • In all the main distros
    • Run from userspace
  • Demo “Luckily one of the things I need is an unreliable network”
  • Cloud at cost – cloudatcost.com – $35 VM for life
  • connect via ssh, run mosh-server, disconnects and reconnects back via mosh
  • Problems
    • Terminal scrollback is not yet implimented
    • “If you want scrollback, go get tmux. If you’ve got screen, go get tmux”
    • Logging is not mature
    • Server may live after client has died
  • SSP transport
    • diff and patch are the two main methods
    • RTT times are tracked
    • delayed acks reduce traffic requirements
    • 3s heartbeats keep the session alive
  • SSP Datagram
    • PAyload from transport layer is opaque
    • AES-128 protects the payload
    • UDP – receives packets from anywhere
    • Timestamps everything – maintain RTT estimates
  • SSP authentication
    • 63 bit monotonically increasing, unencrypted
    • out of order packaets discarded
    • at 2PB the session dies
    • Payload must decrypt – not realistic to brute-force
  • SSP allows roaming
    • The server knows where the client was
    • But doesn’t care – utmp is updated though
    • Other protocols are “protected” by having fixed network endpoints – which can be spoofed
  • Roaming
    • IP shouldn’t have tied IPs to location, but too late now
    • SSP is designed to ignore IP address
  • What is safety
    • Risk = Likelihood * damage
    • If client or server is compromised then session can always be taken over
  • What is unsafe
    • Connections from known-bad locations – known in advance
    • Connections from known-comprimised users – detected by behaviour
    • Connections to insecure software – Prohibited by administrator
  • Good and bad habits
    • ssh password vs keys
    • Detached terminal sessions with privilege
  • YES for home users and Small business
  • POSSIBLY  for Enterprise users

 

Below The Line: Fixing The Voting Process With Technology by Benno Rice

  • Australian Senate
  • So many people vote above the line because it is only one tick, below the line up to 100 seperate votes
  • If you vote above the line then you accept the order of preferences from the people you voted for
  • Can get party preference lists from Australian Electoral comission
  • Create a custom “how to vote card”
  • Site ideas
    • Store nothing
    • Just do it
  • First site 2010
    • Python
    • javascript, jquery, sortable
    • ballot renderer – python, reportlab, WSGI, truly awful code
    • Hosted on dreamhost
    • Melted on polling day
    • Typed in the data by hand, it was not fun
  • 2013 version of site
    • Got data in csv from AEC
    • Also did lower house (Geo lookup to find electorate)
    • Store and share ballots
    • Can shuffle parties as well as candidates
    • Links to party websites
    • Ruby
    • Javascript – Angular , ui.sortable
    • Ballot renderer – Python – reportlab
    • Geolocation – AEC has division boundaries mapped and availbale
    • PostGIS, Python, Google Maps API
    • Storing and sharing – python, redis
    • Ballot rendering in html – ruby, Haml, Reactive via bootstrap
    • Ballots stored under a random identifier that was never reused
    • Rackspace hosting – free hosting
    • Cloudflare as CDN
  • 2600 concurrent users
  • 165,000 unique visitors
  • 34,000 PDFs
  • Conclusion
    • The senate voting system is broken
    • You too can change the world
    • Just do it
  • 20+ people in the room used the site to vote below the line

 

 

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