[HN Gopher] OpenPGP master key on Nitrokey Start
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       OpenPGP master key on Nitrokey Start
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 52 points
       Date   : 2023-03-28 06:11 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.josefsson.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.josefsson.org)
        
       | matheusmoreira wrote:
       | These hardware devices can fail and take the key with them.
       | Master keys aren't expendable like subkeys so it's always a good
       | idea to have a paperkey backup. I worked on binary decoding for
       | zbar to make them easy to decode with a laptop camera.
        
         | lxgr wrote:
         | Yes, and the author is importing a key from offline storage,
         | not creating one on the Nitrokey directly.
        
         | Reitet00 wrote:
         | Could you share your script?
        
       | exabrial wrote:
       | Similar setup here. Even my ssh key is a subkey of my pgp key.
       | 
       | Pgp's most valuable use case is still establishing a digital
       | identity toehold. The PGP key that is used to sign the commit, is
       | also used to SSH to git server, is also used to sign the code
       | review comments, is also used to sign the build binaries.
       | 
       | I'm hoping some day there is website authentication integration
       | via passkey or the like.
        
         | woodruffw wrote:
         | Digital identities are useful insofar as they're (1) binding,
         | and (2) actually easy for others to verify, neither of which is
         | particularly true for PGP (especially given the WoT/strong
         | set's demise).
         | 
         | The closest thing to a binding identity in the PGP ecosystem is
         | OpenPGP's "verifying keyserver," which issues a challenge to a
         | submitted PGP key's claimed email address. But that isn't a
         | very strong proof of identity, and it doesn't prevent anybody
         | from claiming to be anybody else in the broader PGP ecosystem.
        
           | upofadown wrote:
           | These days people tend to have multiple aspects to their
           | identity that they keep separate. You probably want to have a
           | Github identity separate from, say, a social media identity
           | or, say, your legal identity. Verifying such identities is
           | heavily contextual. So a system that lets you generate your
           | own identities in a well standardized way is useful.
        
             | gabereiser wrote:
             | This. Because people have their personal identity, their
             | work identity, maybe a corporate identity if they run a
             | company. It's too complex a concept to codify into an Uber-
             | identity.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | wkat4242 wrote:
             | This is the problem though, social media and advertising
             | companies try to break this barrier so they can data mine
             | you better.
             | 
             | This is why Facebook has a real name policy for example.
             | 
             | With the move to federated systems in commercial hands (log
             | in with Facebook, Google etc) this only becomes harder to
             | escape.
        
         | woile wrote:
         | Is there some kind of tutorial as of how to control one's
         | identity with PGP or other tools?
        
       | paletteOvO wrote:
       | Canokey is also a cheap open source alternative hardware key to
       | Yubikey.
        
       | nathanmcrae wrote:
       | I think people should seriously consider using something like
       | passphrase2pgp [0] in addition to a hardware key like this. That
       | way you can have a brain key (hopefully generated with diceware
       | or equivalent) to tie together day-to-day keys like this to a
       | more permanent identity. I'm honestly surprised that strategy is
       | not more widespread.
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/skeeto/passphrase2pgp
        
       | jmclnx wrote:
       | I do not use these hardware keys, but I can see a use for then
       | since I bounce between Linux, NetBSD and OpenBSD depending on
       | what I am doing for testing programs I develop at work.
       | 
       | I can assume Linux and a good chance FreeBSD will have no issues
       | with this device. I am curious about the other *BSDs though.
        
       | behnamoh wrote:
       | Fun fact: I read it as OpenGPT!
        
       | unwind wrote:
       | This page won't load for me (Firefox 111.0.1, Windows), I get a
       | MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_REQUIRED_TLS_FEATURE_MISSING error.
        
         | LinuxBender wrote:
         | Qualys [1] does not appear to see any issues. Do you see the
         | same fingerprint? _ruling out MitM_                   openssl
         | s_client -connect  blog.josefsson.org:443 < /dev/null
         | 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -fingerprint -sha256 -noout -in
         | /dev/stdin         sha256 Fingerprint=AC:6A:41:71:DE:1C:B6:93:F
         | 0:63:56:D6:12:72:B3:27:B2:A7:C9:3F:86:4D:D9:55:63:B9:CB:CA:F6:3
         | 8:83:70
         | 
         | This [2] may also be related. If you go to _about:config_ and
         | search for  "security.ssl.enable_ocsp_must_staple" is it set to
         | true?                   OCSP stapling                offered,
         | not revoked         OCSP must staple extension   supported
         | 
         | [1] -
         | https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=blog.josefsso...
         | 
         | [2] - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1149911
        
         | ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
         | Are you accessing from a corporate network where they are doing
         | TLS interception? If so, the replacement certificate isn't
         | stapled and Firefox is picking up on that because the site
         | requires it.
        
       | jdoss wrote:
       | If you are looking to do something similar with a Yubikey check
       | out https://github.com/drduh/YubiKey-Guide for getting started.
       | 
       | It is by far the most comprehensive guide on using a YubiKey as a
       | SmartCard for storing GPG keys. I used this a few years ago and
       | it helped clear up any confusion I had about getting the most out
       | of my Yubikey 5 NFC.
        
         | cge wrote:
         | While a nicely comprehensive guide for other topics, and
         | similar to my use of a Yubikey, it looks like it's actually
         | almost entirely separate from what this post is about: storing
         | a PGP _master_ key on a hardware key, separate from the subkeys
         | (which are likely on a different hardware key), so that it can
         | be more easily used to sign the PGP keys of _other_ people, for
         | web-of-trust purposes. Those topics don 't seem to be
         | considered at all in that guide, and are rather less common.
        
       | aborsy wrote:
       | How do Nitro keys compare with Yubikey 5 NFC?
       | 
       | Nitro keys are semi open source. Other than that, any advantage?
        
         | draven wrote:
         | I hesitated between both, but the nitrokey 3 has so many things
         | listed as "planned" that I went for a Yubikey (I bought two, a
         | 5a NFC and a 5c NFC.)
        
         | palata wrote:
         | My Yubikey 5 NFC rocks. Just works, does everything I want.
         | 
         | I ordered a Nitrokey 3C NFC 2 years ago, never heard from them
         | until a week ago where they said they shipped it (I'll believe
         | it when I receive it). I tried to contact their support once to
         | kindly ask if I still existed in their database, they answered
         | that I should read the blog in a rude way (which did not even
         | answer my question).
         | 
         | They were claiming 2 years ago that they had many features (my
         | understanding was "almost compares to Yubikey"), and I realized
         | recently that it was not only not true, but in those 2 years
         | they haven't reached feature parity (not even remotely).
         | 
         | So... feel free to order a Nitrokey to support them (I did, and
         | my hope is that it will get better), but if you want something
         | that works today, go for Yubikey.
        
           | aborsy wrote:
           | Thanks for sharing!
           | 
           | The main limitation of the Yubikey is that the firmware is
           | closed source and potentially even backdoored. Otherwise the
           | construction and features of Yubikey are pretty good.
        
             | wkat4242 wrote:
             | The Yubikey firmware is open but the problem is that you
             | can't overwrite it anymore. They did this during the
             | Yubikey NEO age, the first ones could still be updated.
             | They say they did it to avoid authentication bypass attacks
             | which makes sense but there should be other ways to do
             | that. And the updatability keeps it current and also allows
             | for verified builds.
             | 
             | About a year after they changed it though there was a huge
             | vulnerability in the Yubikey where it failed to actually
             | check the pincode making the security useless. Which proved
             | locking the firmware was a bad idea IMO. They ended up
             | having to replace tons of them which could have been
             | updated. I was hoping they'd bring updatable firmware back
             | but they didn't.
        
               | aborsy wrote:
               | Yeah, the thought that Yubikey may not require PIN in
               | some cases is scary. It's like a GPG key without a
               | password in home directory. Not only it will be useless,
               | but actually harmful.
               | 
               | For such reasons, I have been searching for alternatives.
               | It seems other products have other issues.
        
         | fsflover wrote:
         | > Nitro keys are semi open source.
         | 
         | And Librem Key fully relies on FLOSS.
        
           | aborsy wrote:
           | Looks like there are usability problems
           | 
           | https://forums.puri.sm/t/librem-key-practical-usage-
           | scenario...
           | 
           | Lacks FIDO, and curve 25519.
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-28 23:02 UTC)