On 06/24/2015 08:33 PM, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:
On Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:20:07 -0500, Randall Smith <rand...@tnr.cc>
declaimed the following:
On 06/24/2015 06:36 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
I don't understand how mangling the data is supposed to protect the
recipient. Don't they have the ability unmangle the data, and thus expose
themselves to whatever nasties are in the files?
They never look at the data and wouldn't care to unmangle it. The
purpose is primarily to prevent automated software (file indexers, virus
scanners) from doing bad things to the data.
Which leads to the question: what is "doing bad things".
Storage nodes are computers running the software in discussion, that
store chunks of data they are sent (recipient) and send it upon request.
Their job (as related to this software) is to accept, store and send
chunks of data upon request. So losing data is a bad thing.
The storage node software is cross platform and should run on anything
from a dedicated Raspberry PI to an old Windows PC. Data integrity is
insured using encryption and hashes generated by the original data
owners. Normally, a data chunk would look like random bytes, because it
is encrypted. However, the storage node cannot prevent the client
(uploader) from sending unencrypted data. The purpose of this
obfuscation is to protect the storage node, as many potential users have
expressed hesitation in storing other peoples data.
Example: A storage node runs a Desktop OS with an image indexer. It
receives an unencrypted nasty image or movie. The indexer picks it up
and shows it in the person's image or movie "Library".
Does that clear things up?
-Randall
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