SeKey

Security and privacy

ssh agent

SHOW HN2017

SeKey

An SSH Agent for OS X, Using Secure Enclave and TouchID, in Rust

github.com

#ssh agent#secure enclave#touch id#macos#rust

169points
49comments
#215of 2,242 in 2017
Top 10%of 2017 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

3 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 5 critical, out of 18 comments about the project. Thread score -0.02.

Design: 0 for, 3 againstIdea: 1 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Cool, well-executed project

    From 2 comments
    • Awesome work, this is a really cool idea and well executed.
      arete on HN
    • Very, very cool. To use a public key with something like Userify (https://userify.com, plug ssh key management) or a service like Github, use --export-key to export the public…
      _hyn3 on HN

Objections

  • Secure Enclave cannot import pre-existing keys, so keys cannot be backed up

    From 2 comments
    • it's SE limitation :(. also makes me sad, will be awesome if you can import a key generated by yourself. so if you reinstall you can import again to the enclave
      ntrippar on HN
    • > Can’t import preexisting key That makes me sad :( Does anyone know if that's a SE limitation, or the app's?
      viraptor on HN
  • Hardware-based secure enclaves could leak keys if the manufacturer is malicious

    From 1 comment
    • I'm amazed there's a market for this kind of thing. Since the 1990s its been known how to implement an undetectable backdoor in hardware based crypto which leaks your keys to an…
      galadran on HN

Requests

  • Support for preexisting keys

    From 1 comment
    • This looks useful. I'd love to use this with gopass (https://github.com/justwatchcom/gopass). It would have to support preexisting keys for that to work for me. I wonder if the…
      froderick on HN
  • U2F device support

    From 1 comment
  • PIN support alongside biometric auth

    From 1 comment
    • Very cool project. I’ve done similar things with yubikeys before, having it built into the hardware is great. Can it also support a pin to go with the biometric auth?
      falcolas on HN

Questions

  • Can keys be backed up or exported?

    From 1 comment
    • Is there a way to back up your keys? If not it could be a problem to lose your laptop.
      DennisP on HN
  • Does it support elliptic curve keys beyond the current type?

    From 1 comment
    • This looks useful. I'd love to use this with gopass (https://github.com/justwatchcom/gopass). It would have to support preexisting keys for that to work for me. I wonder if the…
      froderick on HN

Alternatives named

  • Kyptonite (krypt.co)

    From 1 comment
    • see also the really excellent kyptonite, which i found linked here a few months ago and i've been positively delighted with: https://krypt.co/ i'm not a security expert, and i…
      nyolfen on HN
  • YubiKey holding SSH keys

    From 1 comment
    • a yubikey can hold your private ssh key, and it can't be taken out of it
      gdamjan1 on HN
  • simple-tpm-pk11 for TPMs

    From 1 comment
    • For TPMs on non-Apple computers: https://github.com/ThomasHabets/simple-tpm-pk11 But with TPM there's no external unlock mechanism like Touch ID, the TPM unlock happens from the…
      floatboth on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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