On 06/08/2012 01:06 PM, Denis Cormier wrote:
I plan on using a randomly generated 32-byte key provided by a trusted 3rd
party. I also plan on using a randomly generated 32-byte initialization
vector generated by NSS within Firefox (to use with the AES Chain Block
Cipher scheme).
So you are fetching the key off box through some authenticated and protected channel?

What should I do with the initialization vector? I read that you have to
keep changing the initialization vector to preserve security. But to
decrypt the data you need the same initialization vector that you encrypted
the data with (which might not be the same IV as other files in the profile
at that given moment). Now, I know that SQLCipher keeps the initialization
vector at the end of every page it reads/writes to. Should I be doing
something similar with NSS (keeping the IV at the end or at the start of
each file)?
There is no problem using a single generated IV to encrypt a full file. The IV can and should be public, so you can store the IV with the file. If you make changes to the file, you should generate a New IV and encrypt the full file again.

If you want random access (writes or reads), you should generate a new IV per block that you need to read/write (a la SQLCipher's pages). You only need to change the IV on write, and there is no problem including the IV with the data for read.

All of this assumes that writes to these files can be triggered by untrusted 3 parties which do not have access to the key, but do have access to the file. This is rare, but it's easier just to protect against the attack than to analyze if you may be vulnerable to attack.

Also don't use a stream cipher to encrypt the files (RC-4, AES-CTR, AES-OFB, etc).

bob

On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:18 PM, Robert Relyea<rrel...@redhat.com>  wrote:

On 06/04/2012 08:20 AM, David Dahl wrote:

----- Original Message -----

From: "Denis Cormier"<denis.r.cormier@**gmail.com<denis.r.corm...@gmail.com>
To: dev-tech-crypto@lists.mozilla.**org<dev-tech-crypto@lists.mozilla.org>
Sent: Monday, June 4, 2012 9:10:34 AM
Subject: Firefox profile encryption
1. Assuming the user does not enter a master password, would key3.db
require further encryption?
2. Am I missing files from the profile that would contain sensitive
information?

I believe the key3.db stores everything encrypted. I am not sure where
the key it uses to encrypt things might be stored.

Yes, key3.db is encrypted. The key is derived from the Master Password. In
fact that is what the master password is (the source of the PBE which
encrypts the key3.db).

If no master password is set, the key is derived from the password "". The
key3.db is still encrypted, but it's contents is trivially encrypted
because the key is known.

Question, what key are you using to encrypt the whole profile?


You should also include 'sessionstore.bak' and 'webappsstore.sqlite'
(which may only be in pre-releases right now). Also, localstore.rdf has
information about extensions and search providers you have installed, my
nightly build also has chromeappsstore.sqlite which has web urls in it that
are I think pinned to the new tab page.

Is your project hosted anywhere? I am quite interested in how this will
work.

Cheers,

David



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