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Re:Why does APT not use HTTPS? by DoctorOetker on Monday January 21, 2019 @08:11AM (#18960118)
It depends on the threat model, here TM1 and TM2:

TM1: attacker does not posses zerodays to installed software

TM2: attacker possesses speccific (perhaps OS, perhaps library, perhaps userland) zerodays, usage of which (including unsuccesful attempts) should be minimized to avoid detection

in TM1: it's ok to use HTTP in the clear, as long as signatures are verified

in TM2: everything should be fetched over encrypted HTTPS, since HTTP would leak information about available attack surface

EDIT: not only would this increase security by not revealing what a user installs (perhaps download some noise as well such that it becomes harder to detect what a user is installing?), it could also improve security by turning the APT servers into honeypots, so that monitoring these can reveal zerodays...

Re:Why does APT not use HTTPS? by AstralStorm on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @03:24AM (#18966831)
TM3: attacker has a 0-day against a complex https server and they replace packages on some mirrors.

TM4: attacker can impersonate a server using Lets Encrypt certificate and bypass their automated verification, creating a fake mirror or a bunch. (HTTP has same vector.) They can also make DNS fail or reroute.

TM5: attacker has a 0-day against the more complex https client (e.g. curl).

TM6: Attacker fingerprints network connections to given servers by size and os or os + tls fingerprinting data

Re:Why does APT not use HTTPS? by DoctorOetker on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:35PM (#18970916)
TM3 and TM5 are specific subcases for TM2, and turn the APT server / client into a honeypot

TM6: we should have an overlay onion router, and I agree that the current complexity is worrying, I'd love to see a minimalist version of TOR (with minimal I don't necessarily mean the code size should be small, but minimal assumptions, and that the safety of the system can be verified from the assumptions)

TM4: I don't understand, Lets Encrypt does not calculate private keys for public keys...