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authorLars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>2021-02-11 08:06:10 +0000
committerLars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>2021-02-11 08:06:10 +0000
commit627dbe11e861ece3b049789c435ef9e1ac7aa0af (patch)
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parent5b8c0317e214308f2115f81354cc13e906e70ba5 (diff)
parent4b2308803177330579bc850283a79b58f19be6d6 (diff)
downloadobnam2-627dbe11e861ece3b049789c435ef9e1ac7aa0af.tar.gz
Merge branch 'threat-zero' into 'main'
doc(obnam.md): add the start of threat modeling Closes #65 See merge request larswirzenius/obnam!94
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[Subplot]: https://subplot.liw.fi/
+# Threat model
+
+This chapter discusses the various threats against backups. Or it
+will. For now it's very much work in progress. This version of the
+chapter is only meant to get threat modeling started by having the
+simplest possible model that is in any way useful.
+
+## Backed up data is readable by server operator
+
+This threat is about the operator of the backup server being able to
+read the data backed up by any user of the server. We have to assume
+that the operator can read any file and can also eavesdrop all network
+traffic. The operator can even read all physical and virtual memory on
+the server.
+
+The mitigation strategy is to encrypt the data before it is sent to
+the server. If the server never receives cleartext data, the operator
+can't read it.
+
+Backups have four kinds of data:
+
+* actual contents of live data files
+* metadata about live data files, as stored on the client file system,
+ such as the name, ownership, or size of each file
+* metadata about the contents of live data, such as its cryptographic
+ checksum
+* metadata about the backup itself
+
+For now, we are concerned about the first two kinds. The rest will be
+addressed later.
+
+The mitigation technique against this threat is to encrypt the live
+data and its metadata before uploading it to the server.
+
# Software architecture
## Effects of requirements