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by mariusblaesing 4616 days ago
You can still tell what exactly happens. Two separate processes might be used: one for crypto + network which is open source, the one manages synchronisation (which is the secret sauce of all cloud-sync services, if it works really good).

Updated the FAQ: https://boldshare.com/?lang=en#faq
2 comments
parley 4616 days ago
I think there's plenty of room for the larger discussion about how much we actually (ought to) trust a lot of our closed source software that runs free and non-jailed on our computers day in and day out - and recent events haven't affected that viewpoint very much in either direction. However, data synchronization software gets tougher love from everyone these days for apparent reasons.

I read the updated FAQ and saw the note about blocking network I/O for the closed source process. If the closed source process in your client were locked down in such a way that it was only ever invoked from the open source process and had no way of doing any I/O whatsoever (network or otherwise) except with the open source process (where what goes in and comes out can be audited), then I'd agree this sounds quite interesting.

I'll be waiting as well, and sincerely hope you deliver something nice!

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StavrosK 4616 days ago
You won't know if the other process is transmitting your key, though.
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mariusblaesing 4616 days ago
Communication between open and closed source processes runs via IPC. Since all the IPC functions are declared in the open source part, you can exactly check what data is exchanged between the processes -> You can see that keys are not transmitted.
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StavrosK 4616 days ago
How can you check that the closed-source process won't ever read the key from the disk without elaborate contortions?
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mariusblaesing 4616 days ago
What should it do with it? It can't send it anywhere: Block network access for that process if you don't trust it.

Key won't be accessible on disk anyway, only in RAM during crypto and will be destroyed immediately afterwards.

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StavrosK 4616 days ago
You can make it so that it will only store the key in RAM, but then you'd have to enter the key every time it launches, making automatic backups impossible.

Although, I agree, if you only allow the open source network access, AND can ensure that the key won't somehow be smuggled in the data the closed source process sends, you're probably fine.

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