diff --git a/doc/todo/whishlist__58___GPG_alternatives_like_AGE/comment_3_09b89df28a3a3dab2f0fbf2f56feafe1._comment b/doc/todo/whishlist__58___GPG_alternatives_like_AGE/comment_3_09b89df28a3a3dab2f0fbf2f56feafe1._comment new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e6946ee5f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/todo/whishlist__58___GPG_alternatives_like_AGE/comment_3_09b89df28a3a3dab2f0fbf2f56feafe1._comment @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +[[!comment format=mdwn + username="Atemu" + avatar="http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/d1f0f4275931c552403f4c6707bead7a" + subject="comment 3" + date="2021-10-19T13:05:50Z" + content=""" +> Mostly people pick on gpg's public key crypto implementation, and mostly I think, because public key crypto is easy to pick at. I have not seen many such arguments about gpg that seem very convincing to me. + +Ah, this is not about the underlying algorithms and theories. Those are more than sufficient in our pre-quantum world and, as you said, AGE isn't fundamentally different here. + +What I'm mostly concerned about is the quality of the implementation; especially the non-functional aspects like speed, UI and simplicity (some of which also have security implications). + +> The way git-annex uses gpg for encryption=shared does not involve public key crypto at all, but uses AES-128, which is about as close as there is to a standard for encrypting things. + +The actual encryption is done symmetrically but the encryption of the symmetric key is done asymmetrically if I'm not mistaken. + +This is not what age aims to replace though, it functions the exact same from a high level AFAIK; just with a different implementation that satisfies different goals from GPG. + +> git-annex already links to an AES implementation for other purposes and could probably bypass gpg and use that, but that smells of implementing your own crypto. + +That definitely smells of homebrewed crypto. This is why I would love to see something like age used: It's a pre-made, (supposedly) secure, standardised crypto system/library that you can feed files into and it simply gives you encrypted files back. No faffing about with complex key setups or other brilliant UX anno 1999. + +> AGE does not seem to expose any non-public key encryption, so it could not be used for encryption=shared, I think. (Unless perhaps the public/private key pair were stored in the repo as the shared cipher?) + +I'm not sure I follow, couldn't you just generate an age keypair and simply store that in the repo? + +Does the current gpg-based implementation not do it just like that? + +> I don't like the idea of git-annex supporting more than 2 encryption programs, and even 2 seems like 1 too many. Every one will be an ongoing cost. It's not clear to me that there's enough of a benefit to support AGE, or that it would be the best choice for a +1. + +Me neither and I understand your point but the problem with that approach is that it leaves absolutely no way to migrate away from GPG. + +GPG is a complex beast that will likely need replacement within the next decade and age seems like the most obvious alternative for use-cases like git-annex. +Only time can tell whether it actually becomes the new file encryption standard but it seems like the most likely candidate right now. + +"""]]