git-annex/doc/todo/sha1_collision_embedding_in_git-annex_keys.mdwn
2017-02-24 00:28:15 -04:00

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Some git-annex backends allow embedding enough data in the names of keys
that it could be used for a SHA1 collision attack. So, a signed git commit
could point to a tree with such a key in it, and the blob for the key could
have two versions with the same SHA1.
Users who want to use git-annex with signed commits to mitigate git's own
SHA1 insecurities would like at least a way to disable the insecure
git-annex backends:
* WORM can contain fairly arbitrary data in a key name
* URL too (also, of course, URLs download arbitrary data from the web,
so a signed git commit pointing at URL keys doesn't have any security
even w/o SHA1 collisions)
* SHA1 and MD5 backends are insecure because there can be colliding
versions of the data they point to.
A config setting to prevent git-annex from using insecure backends would be
useful.
(git-annex might suggest enabling that configuration if commit.gpgSign
is enabled)
A few other potential problems:
* `*E` backends could embed sha1 collision data in a long filename
extension. It might be worth limiting the length
of an extension allowed in such a key to the longest such extension
git-annex has ever supported (probably < 20 bytes or so), which would
be less than the size of the data needed for current SHA1 collision attacks.
* It might be possible to embed colliding data in a specially constructed
key name with an extra field in it, eg "SHA256-cXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-...".
Need to review the code and see if such extra fields are allowed.
Update: All fields are numeric, but could contain arbitrary data
after the number. This has been fixed; git-annex refuses to parse
such fields, so it won't work with files that try to exploit this.