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118 lines
5.1 KiB
ReStructuredText
118 lines
5.1 KiB
ReStructuredText
Security Principles
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===================
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Security is one of the primary project goals. This means that it should not be
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possible for an attacker to join a cluster uninvited, and it should not be
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possible to extract private information from intercepted traffic. Currently this
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is implemented as follows.
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All traffic is protected by TLS. To prevent uninvited nodes from joining a
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cluster, the certificate fingerprint of each node is compared to a preset list
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of acceptable nodes at connection establishment. The fingerprint is computed as
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the SHA-256 hash of the certificate and displayed in BASE32 encoding to form a
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reasonably compact and convenient string.
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Incoming requests for file data are verified to the extent that the requested
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file name must exist in the local index and the global model.
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For information about ensuring you are running the code you think you are and
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for reporting security vulnerabilities, please see the official `security page
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<http://syncthing.net/security.html>`__.
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Information Leakage
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-------------------
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Global Discovery
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When global discovery is enabled, Syncthing sends an announcement packet every
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30 minutes to the global discovery server, so that it can keep a mapping between
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your device ID and external IP. Also, when connecting to other devices that have
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not been seen on the local network, a query is sent to the global discovery
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server containing the device ID of the requested device. The discovery server is
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currently hosted by :user:`calmh`. Global discovery defaults to **on**.
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When turned off, devices with dynamic addresses not on the local network cannot
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be found and connected to.
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If a different global discovery server is configured, no data is sent to the
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default global discovery server.
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Local Discovery
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When local discovery is enabled, Syncthing sends broadcast (IPv4) and multicast
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(IPv6) packets to the local network every 30 seconds. The packets contain the
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device ID and listening port. Local discovery defaults to **on**.
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An eavesdropper on the local network can deduce which machines are running
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Syncthing with local discovery enabled, and what their device IDs are.
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When turned off, devices with dynamic addresses on the local network cannot be
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found and connected to.
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Upgrade Checks
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When automatic upgrades are enabled, Syncthing checks for a new version at
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startup and then once every twelve hours. This is by an HTTPS request to the
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download site for releases, currently **hosted at GitHub**. Automatic upgrades
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default to **on** (unless Syncthing was compiled with upgrades disabled).
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Even when automatic upgrades are disabled in the configuration, an upgrade check
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as above is done when the GUI is loaded, in order to show the "Upgrade to ..."
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button when necessary. This can be disabled only by compiling syncthing with
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upgrades disabled.
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In effect this exposes the majority of the Syncthing population to tracking by
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the operator of the download site (currently GitHub). That data is not available
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to outside parties (including :user:`calmh` etc), except that download counts
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per release binary are available in the GitHub API. The upgrade check (or
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download) requests *do not* contain any identifiable information about the user,
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device, Syncthing version, etc.
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Usage Reporting
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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When usage reporting is enabled, Syncthing reports usage data at startup and
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then every 24 hours. The report is sent as an HTTPS POST to the usage reporting
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server, currently hosted by :user:`calmh`. The contents of the usage report can
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be seen behind the "Preview" link in settings. Usage reporting defaults to
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**off** but the GUI will ask once about enabling it, shortly after the first
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install.
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The reported data is protected from eavesdroppers, but the connection to the
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usage reporting server itself may expose the client as running Syncthing.
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Sync Connections (BEP)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Sync connections are attempted to all configured devices, when the address is
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possible to resolve. The sync connection is based on TLS 1.2. The TLS
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certificates are sent in clear text (as in HTTPS etc), meaning that the
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certificate Common Name (by default ``syncthing``) is visible.
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An eavesdropper can deduce that this is a Syncthing connection and calculate the
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device ID:s involved based on the hashes of the sent certificates.
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Likewise, if the sync port (default 22000) is accessible from the internet, a
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port scanner may discover it, attempt a TLS negotiation and thus obtain the
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device certificate. This provides the same information as in the eavesdropper
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case.
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Web GUI
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~~~~~~~
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If the web GUI is accessible, it exposes the device as running Syncthing. The
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web GUI defaults to being reachable from the **local host only**.
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In Short
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--------
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Parties doing surveillance on your network (whether that be corporate IT, the
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NSA or someone else) will be able to see that you use Syncthing, and your device
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ID's `are OK to share anyway
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<http://docs.syncthing.net/users/faq.html#should-i-keep-my-device-ids-secret>`__,
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but the actual transmitted data is protected as well as we can. Knowing your
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device ID can expose your IP address, using global discovery.
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