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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<channel>
<title>Solene'%</title>
<description></description>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="gemini://perso.pw/blog/rss.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<item>
<title>I moved my emails to Proton Mail</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<pre># Introduction
I recently took a very hard decision: I moved my emails to Proton Mail.
This is certainly a shock for people following this blog for a long time, this was a shock for me as well! This was actually pretty difficult to think this topic objectively, I would like to explain how I came up to this decision.
I have been self-hosting my own email server since I bought my first domain name, back in 2009. The server have been migrated multiple times, from hosting companies to another and regularly changing the underlying operating system for fun. It has been running on: Slackware, NetBSD, FreeBSD, NixOS and Guix.
# My needs
First, I need to explain my previous self-hosted setup, and what I do with my emails.
I have two accounts:
PORT=$(natpmpc -a 1 0 udp 60 -g 10.2.0.1 | awk '/Mapped public/ { print $4 }')
grep "$PORT" /var/i2p/router.config || /etc/rc.d/i2p stop
sed -i -E "s,(^i2np.udp.port).*,\1=$PORT, ; s,(^i2np.udp.internalPort).*,\1=$PORT," /var/i2p/router.config
/etc/rc.d/i2p start
while true
do
date # use for debug only
natpmpc -a 1 0 udp 60 -g 10.2.0.1 && natpmpc -a 1 0 tcp 60 -g 10.2.0.1 || { echo "error Failure natpmpc $(date)"; break ; }
sleep 45
done
The script will search for the port number in I2P configuration, stop the service if the port is not found. Then the port line is modified with sed (in all cases, it does not matter much). Finally, i2p is started, this will only do something in case i2p was stopped before, otherwise nothing happens. Then, in an infinite loop with a 45 seconds frequency, there is a renewal of the TCP and UDP port forwarding happening. If something wrong happens, the script exits. ### Using supervisord If you want to use supervisord to start the script at boot and maintain it running, install the package `supervisor` and create the file `/etc/supervisord.d/nat.ini` with the following content:
[program:natvpn]
command=/etc/supervisord.d/continue_nat.sh ; choose the path of your script
autorestart=unexpected ; when to restart if exited after running (def: unexpected)
Enable supervisord at boot, start it and verify it started (a configuration error prevents it from starting):
rcctl enable supervisord
rcctl start supervisord
rcctl check supervisord
### Without supervisord Open a shell as root and execute the script and keep the terminal opened, or run it in a tmux session. ## Linux The setup is exactly the same as for OpenBSD, just make sure the package providing `natpmpc` is installed. Depending on your distribution, if you want to automate the script running / restart, you can run it from a systemd service with auto restart on failure, or use supervisord as explained above. If you use a different network namespace, just make sure to prefix the commands using the VPN with `ip netns exec vpn`. Here is the same example as above but using a network namespace named "vpn" to start i2p service and do the NAT query.
PORT=$(ip netns exec vpn natpmpc -a 1 0 udp 60 -g 10.2.0.1 | awk '/Mapped public/ { print $4 }')
FILE=/var/i2p/.i2p/router.config
grep "$PORT" $FILE || sudo -u i2p /var/i2p/i2prouter stop
sed -i -E "s,(^i2np.udp.port).*,\1=$PORT, ; s,(^i2np.udp.internalPort).*,\1=$PORT," $FILE
ip netns exec vpn sudo -u i2p /var/i2p/i2prouter start
while true
do
date
ip netns exec vpn natpmpc -a 1 0 udp 60 -g 10.2.0.1 && ip netns exec vpn natpmpc -a 1 0 tcp 60 -g 10.2.0.1 || { echo "error Failure natpmpc $(date)"; break ; }
sleep 45
done
# Conclusion
Proton VPN port forwarding feature is useful when need to expose a local network service on a public IP. Automating it is required to make it work efficiently due to the unusual implementation.
</pre>
]]>
</description>
<guid>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/protonvpn-port-forwarding.gmi</guid>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/protonvpn-port-forwarding.gmi</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Emails encryption at rest on OpenBSD using dovecot and GPG</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<pre># Introduction
In this blog post, you will learn how to configure your email server to encrypt all incoming emails using user's GPG public keys (when it exists). This will prevent anyone from reading the emails, except if you own the according GPG private key. This is known as "encryption at rest".
This setup, while effective, has limitations. Headers will not be encrypted, search in emails will break as the content is encrypted, and you obviously need to have the GPG private key available when you want to read your emails (if you read emails on your smartphone, you need to decide if you really want your GPG private key there).
Encryption is CPU consuming (and memory too for emails of a considerable size), I tried it on an openbsd.amsterdam virtual machine, and it was working fine until someone sent me emails with 20MB attachments. On a bare-metal server, there is absolutely no issue. Maybe GPG makes use of hardware acceleration cryptography, and it is not available in virtual machines hosted under the OpenBSD hypervisor vmm.
This is not an original idea, Etienne Perot wrote about a similar setup in 2012 and enhanced the `gpgit` script we will use in the setup. While his blog post is obsolete by now because of all the changes that happened in Dovecot, the core idea remains the same. Thank you very much Etienne for your job!
=> https://perot.me/encrypt-specific-incoming-emails-using-dovecot-and-sieve Etienne Perot: Encrypt specific incoming emails using Dovecot and Sieve
=> https://github.com/EtiennePerot/gpgit gpgit GitHub project page
=> https://tildegit.org/solene/gpgit gpgit mirror on tildegit.org
This guide is an extension of my recent email server setup guide:
=> https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2024-07-24-openbsd-email-server-setup.html 2024-07-24 Full-featured email server running OpenBSD
# Threat model
This setup is useful to protect your emails stored on the IMAP server. If the server or your IMAP account are compromised, the content of your emails will be encrypted and unusable.
You must be aware that emails headers are not encrypted: recipients / senders / date / subject will remain in clear text even after encryption. If you already use end-to-end encryption with your recipients, there are no benefits using this setup.
An alternative is to not let any emails on the IMAP server, although they could be recovered as they are written in the disk until you retrieve them.
Personally, I keep many emails of my server, and I am afraid that a 0day vulnerability could be exploited on my email server, allowing an attacker to retrieve the content of all my emails. OpenSMTPD had critical vulnerabilities a few years ago, including a remote code execution, so it is a realistic threat.
I wrote a privacy guide (for a client) explaining all the information shared through emails, with possible mitigations and their limitations.
=> https://www.ivpn.net/privacy-guides/email-and-privacy/ IVPN: The Technical Realities of Email Privacy
# Setup
This setup makes use of the program `gpgit` which is a Perl script encrypt emails received over the standard input using GPG, it is a complicated task because the email structure can be very complicated. I have not been able to find any alternative to this script. In gpgit repository there is a script to encrypt an existing mailbox (maildir format), that script must be run on the server, I did not test it yet.
You will configure a specific sieve rule which is "global" (not user-defined) that will process all emails before any other sieve filter. This sieve script will trigger a `filter` (a program allowed to modify the email) and pass the email on the standard input of the shell script `encrypt.sh`, which in turn will run `gpgit` with the according username after verifying a gnupg directory existed for them. If there is no gnupg directory, the email is not encrypted, this allows multiple users on the email server without enforcing encryption for everyone.
If a user has multiple addresses, this is the system account name that is used in the local part of the GPG key address.
## GPGit
Some packages are required for gpgit to work, they are all available on OpenBSD:
pkg_add p5-Mail-GnuPG p5-List-MoreUtils
Download gpgit git repository and copy its `gpgpit` script into `/usr/local/bin/` as an executable:
cd /tmp/
git clone https://github.com/EtiennePerot/gpgit
cd gpgit
install -o root -g wheel -m 555 gpgit /usr/local/bin/
## Sieve All the following paths will be relative to the directory `/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/`, you can `cd` into it now. Create the file `encrypt.sh` with this content, replace the variable `DOMAIN` with the domain configured in the GPG key:
DOMAIN="puffy.cafe"
NOW=$(date +%s)
DATA="$(cat)"
if test -d ~/.gnupg
then
echo "$DATA" | /usr/local/bin/gpgit "${USER}@${DOMAIN}"
NOW2=$(date +%s)
echo "Email encryption for user ${USER}: $(( NOW2 - NOW )) seconds" | logger -p mail.info
else
echo "$DATA"
echo "Email encryption for user for ${USER} none" | logger -p mail.info
fi
Make the script executable with `chmod +x encrypt.sh`. This script will create a new log line in your email logs every time an email is processed, including the username and the time required for encryption (in case of encryption). You could extend the script to discard the `Subject` header from the email if you want to hide it, I do not provide the implementation as I expect this task to be trickier than it looks like if you want to handle all corner cases. Create the file `global.sieve` with the content:
require ["vnd.dovecot.filter"];
filter "encrypt.sh";
Compile the sieve rules with `sievec global.sieve`. ## Dovecot Edit the file `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf` to add the following code within the `plugin` block:
sieve_filter_bin_dir = /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve
sieve_global_extensions = +vnd.dovecot.pipe +vnd.dovecot.environment +vnd.dovecot.filter
sieve_before = /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/global.sieve
sieve_filter_exec_timeout = 200s
You may have `sieve_global_extensions` already set, in that case update its value. The variable `sieve_filter_exec_timeout` allows the script `encrypt.sh` to run for 200 seconds before being stopped, you should adapt the value to your system. I came up with 200 seconds to be able to encrypt email with 20MB attachments on an openbsd.amsterdam virtual machine. On a bare metal server with a Ryzen 5 CPU, it takes less than one second for the same email. The full file should look like the following (in case you followed my previous email guide):
plugin {
sieve_plugins = sieve_imapsieve sieve_extprograms
# From elsewhere to Spam folder
imapsieve_mailbox1_name = Spam
imapsieve_mailbox1_causes = COPY
imapsieve_mailbox1_before = file:/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-spam.siev
# From Spam folder to elsewhere
imapsieve_mailbox2_name = *
imapsieve_mailbox2_from = Spam
imapsieve_mailbox2_causes = COPY
imapsieve_mailbox2_before = file:/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-ham.sieve
sieve_pipe_bin_dir = /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve
# for GPG encryption
sieve_filter_bin_dir = /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve
sieve_global_extensions = +vnd.dovecot.pipe +vnd.dovecot.environment +vnd.dovecot.filter
sieve_before = /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/global.sieve
sieve_filter_exec_timeout = 200s
}
Open the file `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.conf` and uncomment the variable `default_vsz_limit` and set its value to `1024M`. This is required as GPG uses a lot of memory and without this, the process will be killed and the email lost. I found 1024M to works with attachments up to 45 MB, however you should raise this value higher value if you plan to receive bigger attachments. Restart dovecot to take account of the changes: `rcctl restart dovecot`. ## User GPG setup You need to create a GPG keyring for each users you want use encryption, the simplest method is to setup a passwordless keyring and import your public key:
$ gpg --quick-generate-key --passphrase '' --batch "$USER"
$ gpg --import public-key-file.asc
$ gpg --edit-key FINGERPRINT_HERE
gpg> sign
[....]
gpg> save
If you want to disable GPG encryption for the user, remove the directory `~/.gnupg`.
## Anti-spam service
If you use a spam filter such as rspamd or spamassassin relying on bayes filter, it will only work if it process the emails before arriving at dovecot, for instance in my email setup this is the case as rspamd is a filter of opensmtpd and pass the email before being delivered to Dovecot.
Such service can have privacy issues, especially if you use encryption. Bayes filter works by splitting an email content into tokens (not really words but almost) and looking for patterns using these tokens, basically each emails is split and stored in the anti-spam local database in small parts. I am not sure one could recreate the emails based on tokens, but if someone like an attacker is able to access the token list, they may have some insights about your email content. If this is part of your threat model, disable your anti-spam Bayes filter.
# Conclusion
This setup is quite helpful if you want to protect all your emails on their storage. Full disk encryption on the server does not prevent anyone able to connect over SSH (as root or the email user) from reading the emails, even file recovery is possible when the volume is unlocked (not on the real disk, but the software encrypted volume), this is where encryption at rest is beneficial.
I know from experience it is complicated to use end-to-end encryption with tech-savvy users, and that it is even unthinkable with regular users. This is a first step if you need this kind of security (see the threat model section), but you need to remember a copy of all your emails certainly exist on the servers used by the persons you exchange emails with.
</pre>
]]>
</description>
<guid>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/automatic-emails-gpg-encryption-at-rest.gmi</guid>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/automatic-emails-gpg-encryption-at-rest.gmi</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Using Firefox remote debugging feature</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<pre># Introduction
Firefox has an interesting features for developers, its ability to connect a Firefox developers tools to a remote Firefox instance. This can really interesting in the case of a remote kiosk display for instance.
The remote debugging does not provide a display of the remote, but it gives you access to the developer tools for tabs opened on the remote.
# Setup
The remote firefox you want to connect to must be started using the command line parameter `--start-debugger-server`. This will make it listen on the TCP port 6000 on 127.0.0.1. Be careful, there is another option named `remote-debugging-port` which is not what you want here, but the names can be confusing (trust me, I wasted too much time because of this).
Before starting Firefox, a few knobs must be modified in its configuration. Either search for the options in `about:config` or create a `user.js` file in the Firefox profile directory with the following content:
user_pref("devtools.chrome.enabled", true);
user_pref("devtools.debugger.remote-enabled", true);
user_pref("devtools.debugger.prompt-connection", false);
This enables the remote management and removes a prompt upon each connection, while this is a good safety measure, it is not practical for remote debugging.
When you start Firefox, the URL input bar should have a red background.
# Remote connection
Now, you need to make a SSH tunnel to that remote host where Firefox is running in order to connect to the port. Depending on your use case, a local NAT could be done to expose the port to a network interface or VPN interface, but pay attention to security as this would allow anyone on the network to control the Firefox instance.
The SSH tunnel is quite standard: `ssh -L 6001:127.0.0.1:6000`, the remote port 6000 is exposed locally as 6001, this is important because your own Firefox may be using the port 6000 for some reasons.
In your own local Firefox instance, visit the page `about:debugging`, add the remote instance `localhost:6001` and then click on Connect on its name on the left panel. Congratulations, you have access to the remote instance for debugging or profiling websites.
=> static/firefox-debug-add-remote-fs8.png Input the remote address localhost:6001 and click on Add
=> static/firefox-debug-left-panel-fs8.png Click on connect on the left
=> static/firefox-debug-access-fs8.png Enjoy your remote debugging session
# Conclusion
While it can be tricky to debug a system you can directly see, especially if it is a kiosk in production that you can see / use in case of a problem.
</pre>
]]>
</description>
<guid>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/remote-firefox-debug.gmi</guid>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/remote-firefox-debug.gmi</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Full-featured email server running OpenBSD</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<pre># Introduction
This blog post is a guide explaining how to setup a full-featured email server on OpenBSD 7.5. It was commissioned by a customer of my consultancy who wanted it to be published on my blog.
Setting up a modern email stack that does not appear as a spam platform to the world can be a daunting task, the guide will cover what you need for a secure, functional and low maintenance email system.
The features list can be found below:
set block-policy drop
set loginterface egress
set skip on lo0
match in all scrub (no-df random-id max-mss 1440)
antispoof quick for { egress }
tcp_ports = "{ smtps smtp submission imaps pop3s sieve ssh http }"
block all
pass out inet
pass out inet6
pass in proto icmp
pass in on egress inet6 proto icmp6 all icmp6-type { routeradv neighbrsol neighbradv }
pass in on egress inet6 proto udp from fe80::/10 port dhcpv6-server to fe80::/10 port dhcpv6-client no state
pass in on egress proto tcp from any to any port $tcp_ports
block return in on ! lo0 proto tcp to port 6000:6010
block return out log proto {tcp udp} user _pbuild
# DNS If you want to run your own email server, you need a domain name configured with a couple of DNS records about the email server. ## MX records => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MX_record Wikipedia page: MX record The MX records list the servers that should be used by outside SMTP servers to send us emails, this is the public list of our servers accepting emails for a given domain. They have a weight associated to each of them, the server with the lowest weight should be used first and if it does not respond, the next server used will be the one with a slightly higher weight. This is a simple mechanism that allow setting up a hierarchy. I highly recommend setting up at least two servers, so if your main server fails is unreachable (host outage, hardware failure, upgrade ongoing) the emails will be sent to the backup server. Dovecot bundles a program to synchronize mailboxes between servers, one way or two-way, one shot or continuously. If you have no MX records in your domain name, it is not possible to send you emails. It is like asking someone to send you a post card without giving them any clue about your real address. Your server hostname can be different from the domain apex (raw domain name without a subdomain), a simple example would be to use `mail.domain.example` for the server name, this will not prevent it from receiving/sending emails using `@domain.example` in email addresses. In my example, the domain puffy.cafe mail server will be mail.puffy.cafe, giving this MX record in my DNS zone:
IN MX 10 mail.puffy.cafe.
## SPF => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework Wikipedia page: SPF record The SPF record is certainly the most important piece of the email puzzle to detect spam. With the SPF, the domain name owner can define which servers are allowed to send emails from that domain. A properly configured spam filter will give a high spam score to incoming emails that are not in the sender domain SPF. To ease the configuration, that record can automatically include all MX defined for a domain, but also A/AAAA records, so if you only use your MX servers for sending, a simple configuration allowing MX servers to send is enough. In my example, only mail.puffy.cafe should be legitimate for sending emails, any future MX server should also be allowed to send emails, so we configure the SPF to allow all MX defined servers to be senders.
600 IN TXT "v=spf1 mx -all"
## DKIM => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail Wikipedia page: DKIM signature When used, the DKIM is a system allowing a receiver to authenticate a sender, based on an asymmetric cryptographic keys. The sender publishes its public key on a TXT DNS record before signing all outgoing emails using the private key. By doing so, receivers can validate the email integrity and make sure it was sent from a server of the domain claimed in the From header. DKIM is mandatory to not be classified as a spamming server. The following set of commands will create a 2048 bits RSA key in `/etc/mail/dkim/private/puffy.cafe.key` with its public key in `/etc/mail/dkim/puffy.cafe.pub`, the `umask 077` command will make sure any file created during the process will only be readable by root. Finally, you need to make the private key readable to the group `_rspamd`. Note: the umask command will persist in your shell session, if you do not want to create files/directory only readable by root after this, either spawn a new shell, or run the set of commands in a new shell and then exit from it once you are done.
umask 077
install -d -o root -g wheel -m 755 /etc/mail/dkim
install -d -o root -g _dkim -m 775 /etc/mail/dkim/private
openssl genrsa -out /etc/mail/dkim/private/puffy.cafe.key 2048
openssl rsa -in /etc/mail/dkim/private/puffy.cafe.key -pubout -out /etc/mail/dkim/puffy.cafe.pub
chgrp _rspamd /etc/mail/dkim/private/puffy.cafe.key /etc/mail/dkim/private/
chmod 440 /etc/mail/dkim/private/puffy.cafe.key
chmod 775 /etc/mail/dkim/private/
In this example, we will name the DKIM selector `dkim` to keep it simple. The selector is the name of the key, this allows having multiple DKIM keys for a single domain.
Add the DNS record like the following, the value in `p` is the public key in the file `/etc/mail/dkim/puffy.cafe.pub`, you can get it as a single line with the command `awk '/PUBLIC/ { $0="" } { printf ("%s",$0) } END { print }' /etc/mail/dkim/puffy.cafe.pub`:
Your registrar may offer to add the entry using a DKIM specific form. There is nothing wrong doing so, just make sure the produced entry looks like the entry below.
dkim._domainkey IN TXT "v=DKIM1;k=rsa;p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAo3tIFelMk74wm+cJe20qAUVejD0/X+IdU+A2GhAnLDpgiA5zMGiPfYfmawlLy07tJdLfMLObl8aZDt5Ij4ojGN5SE1SsbGC2MTQGq9L2sLw2DXq+D8YKfFAe0KdYGczd9IAQ9mkYooRfhF8yMc2sMoM75bLxGjRM1Fs1OZLmyPYzy83UhFYq4gqzwaXuTvxvOKKyOwpWzrXzP6oVM7vTFCdbr8E0nWPXWKPJhcd10CF33ydtVVwDFp9nDdgek3yY+UYRuo/iJvdcn2adFoDxlE6eXmhGnyG4+nWLNZrxIgokhom5t5E84O2N31YJLmqdTF+nH5hTON7//5Kf/l/ubwIDAQAB"
## DMARC => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC Wikipedia page: DMARC record The DMARC record is an extra mechanism that comes on top of SPF/DKIM, while it does not do much by itself, it is important to configure it. DMARC could be seen as a public notice explaining to servers receiving emails whose sender looks like your domain name (legit or not) what they should do if SPF/DKIM does not validate. As of 2024, DMARC offers three actions for receivers:
_dmarc IN TXT "v=DMARC1;p=reject;rua=mailto:dmarc@puffy.cafe;sp=reject;aspf=r;"
## PTR (Reverse DNS) => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_DNS_lookup Wikipedia page: PTR record An older mechanism used to prevent spam was to block, or consider as spam, any SMTP server whose advertised hostname did not match the result of the reverse lookup of its IP. Let's say "mail.foobar.example" (IP: A.B.C.D) is sending an email to my server, if the result of the DNS request to resolve the PTR of A.B.C.D is not "mail.foobar.example", the email would be considered as spam or rejected. While this is superseded by SPF/DKIM and annoying as it is not always possible to define a PTR for a public IP, the reverse DNS setup is still a strong requirement to not be considered as a spamming platform. Make sure the PTR matches the system hostname and not the domain name itself, in the example above the PTR should be `mail.foobar.example` and not `foobar.example`. # System configuration ## Acme-client The first step is to obtain a valid TLS certificate, this requires configuring acme-client, httpd and start httpd daemon. Copy the acme-client example `cp /etc/examples/acme-client.conf /etc/` Modify `/etc/acme-client.conf` and edit only the last entry to configure your own domain, mine looks like this:
authority letsencrypt {
api url "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory"
account key "/etc/acme/letsencrypt-privkey.pem"
}
authority letsencrypt-staging {
api url "https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory"
account key "/etc/acme/letsencrypt-staging-privkey.pem"
}
authority buypass {
api url "https://api.buypass.com/acme/directory"
account key "/etc/acme/buypass-privkey.pem"
contact "mailto:me@example.com"
}
authority buypass-test {
api url "https://api.test4.buypass.no/acme/directory"
account key "/etc/acme/buypass-test-privkey.pem"
contact "mailto:me@example.com"
}
domain mail.puffy.cafe {
# you can remove the line "alternative names" if you do not need extra subdomains
# associated to this certificate
# imap.puffy.cafe is purely an example, I do not need it
alternative names { imap.puffy.cafe pop.puffy.cafe }
domain key "/etc/ssl/private/mail.puffy.cafe.key"
domain full chain certificate "/etc/ssl/mail.puffy.cafe.fullchain.pem"
sign with letsencrypt
}
Now, configure httpd, starting from the OpenBSD example: `cp /etc/examples/httpd.conf /etc/` Edit `/etc/httpd.conf`, we want the first block to match all domains but not "example.com", and we do not need the second block listen on 443/tcp (except if you want to run a https server with some content, but you are on your own then). The resulting file should look like the following:
server "*" {
listen on * port 80
location "/.well-known/acme-challenge/*" {
root "/acme"
request strip 2
}
location * {
block return 302 "https://$HTTP_HOST$REQUEST_URI"
}
}
Enable and start httpd with `rcctl enable httpd && rcctl start httpd`. Run `acme-client -v mail.puffy.cafe` to generate the certificate with some verbose output (if something goes wrong, you will have a clue). If everything went fine, you should have the full chain certificate in `/etc/ssl/mail.puffy.cafe.fullchain.pem` and the private key in `/etc/ssl/private/mail.puffy.cafe.key`. ## Rspamd You will use rspamd to filter spam and sign outgoing emails for DKIM. Install rspamd and the filter to plug it to opensmtpd:
pkg_add rspamd-- opensmtpd-filter-rspamd
You need to configure rspamd to sign outgoing emails with your DKIM private key, to proceed, create the file `/etc/rspamd/local.d/dkim_signing.conf` (the filename is important):
allow_username_mismatch = true;
domain {
puffy.cafe {
path = "/etc/mail/dkim/private/puffy.cafe.key";
selector = "dkim";
}
}
For better performance, you need to use redis as a cache backend for rspamd:
rcctl enable redis
rcctl start redis
Now you can start rspamd:
rcctl enable rspamd
rcctl start rspamd
For extra information about rspamd (like statistics or its web UI), I wrote about it in 2021: => https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2021-07-13-smtpd-rspamd.html Older blog post: 2024-07-13 Filtering spam using Rspamd and OpenSMTPD on OpenBSD ### Alternatives If you do not want to use rspamd, it is possible to replace the DKIM signing part using `opendkim`, `dkimproxy` or `opensmtpd-filter-dkimsign`. The spam filter could be either replaced by the featureful `spamassassin` available as a package, or partially with the base system program `spamd` (it does not analyze emails). This guide only focus on rspamd, but it is important to know alternatives exist. ## OpenSMTPD OpenSMTPD configuration file on OpenBSD is `/etc/mail/smtpd.conf`, here is a working configuration with a lot of comments:
pki puffy.cafe cert "/etc/ssl/mail.puffy.cafe.fullchain.pem"
pki puffy.cafe key "/etc/ssl/private/mail.puffy.cafe.key"
pki puffy.cafe dhe auto
smtp sub-addr-delim '_'
filter rspamd proc-exec "filter-rspamd"
table aliases file:/etc/mail/aliases
listen on all port 25 tls pki "puffy.cafe" filter "rspamd"
listen on all port 465 smtps pki "puffy.cafe" auth mask-src filter "rspamd"
listen on all port 587 tls-require pki "puffy.cafe" auth mask-src filter "rspamd"
action "local" lmtp "/var/dovecot/lmtp" alias <aliases>
action "outbound" relay
match from any for domain "puffy.cafe" action "local"
match from local for local action "local"
match from any auth for any action "outbound"
match from local for any action "outbound"
In addition, you can configure the advertised hostname by editing the file `/etc/mail/mailname`: for instance my machine's hostname is `ryzen` so I need this file to advertise it as `mail.puffy.cafe`. Restart OpenSMTPD with `rcctl restart smtpd`. ### TLS For ports using STARTTLS (25 and 587), there are different options with regard to TLS encryption.
root: solene
It is possible to redirect to multiple users using a comma to separate them, this is handful if you want to create a local group delivering emails to multiple users. Instead of a user, it is possible to append the incoming emails to a file, pipe them to a command or return an SMTP code. The aliases(5) man pages contains all you need to know. => https://man.openbsd.org/aliases.5 OpenBSD manual pages: aliases(5) Every time you modify this file, you need to run the command `smtpctl update table aliases` to reload the aliases table in OpenSMTPD memory. You can add a new email account by creating a new user with a shell preventing login:
useradd -m -s /sbin/nologin username_here
passwd username_here
This user will not be able to do anything on the server but connecting to SMTP/IMAP/POP. They will not be able to change their password either! ### Handling extra domains If you need to handle emails for multiple domains, this is rather simple:
table lambda file:/etc/mail/aliases-lambda
action "local_mail_lambda" lmtp "/var/dovecot/lmtp" alias <lambda>
match from any for domain "lambda-puffy.eu" action "local_mail_lambda"
Note that the users will be the same for all the domains configured on the server. If you want to have separate users per domains, or that "user a" on domain A and "user a" on domain B could be different persons / logins, you would need to setup virtual users instead of using system users. Such setup is beyond the scope of this guide. ### Without Dovecot It is possible to not use Dovecot. Such setup can suit users who would like to download the maildir directory using rsync on their local computer, this is a one-way process and does not allow sharing a mailbox across multiple devices. This reduces maintenance and attack surface at the cost of convenience. This may work as a two-way access (untested) when using a software such as unison to keep both the local and remote directories synchronized, but be prepared to manage file conflicts! If you want this setup, replace the following line in smtpd.conf
action "local" lmtp "/var/dovecot/lmtp" alias <aliases>
by this line: if you want to store the emails into a maildir format (a directory per email folder, a file per email), emails will be stored in the directory "Maildir" in user's homes.
action "local" maildir "~/Maildir/" junk alias <aliases>
or this line if you want to keep the mbox format (a single file with emails appended to it, not practical), the emails will be stored in /var/mail/$user.
action "local" mbox alias <aliases>
=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir Wikipedia page: Maildir format => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox Wikipedia page: Mbox format ## Dovecot Dovecot is an important piece of software for the domain end users, it provides protocols like IMAP or POP3 to read emails from a client. It is the most popular open source IMAP/POP server available (the other being Cyrus IMAP). Install dovecot with the following command line:
pkg_add dovecot-- dovecot-pigeonhole--
Dovecot has a lot of configuration files in `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/` although most of them are commented and ready to be modified, you will have to edit a few of them. This guide provides the content of files with empty lines / comments stripped so you can quickly check if your file is ok, you can use the command `awk '$1 !~ /^#/ && $1 ~ /./'` on a file to display its "useful" content only (awk will not modify the file). Modify `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf` and search the lines `ssl_cert` and `ssl_key`, change their values to your certificate full chain and private key. Generate a Diffie-Hellman file for perfect forward secrecy, this will make each TLS negociation unique, so if the private key ever leak, every past TLS communication will remain safe.
openssl dhparam -out /etc/dovecot/dh.pem 4096
chown _dovecot:_dovecot /etc/dovecot/dh.pem
chmod 400 /etc/dovecot/dh.pem
The file (filtered of all comments/empty lines) should look like the following:
ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/mail.puffy.cafe.fullchain.pem
ssl_key = </etc/ssl/private/mail.puffy.cafe.key
ssl_dh = </etc/dovecot/dh.pem
Modify `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf`, search for a commented line `mail_location`, uncomment it and set the value to `maildir:~/Maildir`, this will tell Dovecot where users mailboxes are stored and in which format, we want to use the maildir format. The resulting file should look like:
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
}
mmap_disable = yes
first_valid_uid = 1000
mail_plugin_dir = /usr/local/lib/dovecot
protocol !indexer-worker {
}
mbox_write_locks = fcntl
Modify the file `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/20-lmtp.conf`, LMTP is the protocol used by opensmtpd to transmit incoming emails to dovecot. Search for the commented variable `mail_plugins` and uncomment it with the value `mail_plugins = $mail_plugins sieve`: The resulting file should look like:
protocol lmtp {
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins sieve
}
If you do not want to use IMAP or POP3, you do not need Dovecot. There is an explanation above how to proceed without Dovecot. ### IMAP => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol Wikipedia page: IMAP protocol IMAP is an efficient protocol that returns headers of emails per directory, so you do not have to download all your emails to view the directory list, emails are downloaded upon read (by default in most email clients). It allows some cool features like server side search, incoming email sorting with sieve filters or multi devices access. Edit `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/20-imap.conf` and configure the last lines accordingly to the result file:
protocol imap {
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins imap_sieve
mail_max_userip_connections = 25
}
The number of connections per user/IP should be high if you have an email client tracking many folders, in IMAP a connection is required for each folder, so the number of connections can quickly increase. On top of that, if you have multiple devices under the same public IP you could quickly reach the limit. I found 25 worked fine for me with 3 devices. ### POP => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Protocol Wikipedia page: POP protocol POP3 is a pretty old protocol that is rarely considered by users, I still consider it a viable alternative to IMAP depending on your needs. A major incentive for using POP is that it downloads all emails locally before removing them from the server. As we have no tooling to encrypt emails stored on remote email servers, POP3 is a must if you want to not leave any email on the server. POP3 does not support remote folders, so you can not use Sieve filters on the server to sort your emails and then download them as-this. A POP3 client downloads the Inbox and then sorts the emails locally. It can support multiple devices under some conditions: if you delete the emails after X days, your devices should synchronize before the emails are removed. In such case they will have all the emails stored locally, but they will not be synced together: if both computers A and B are up-to-date, when deleting an email on A, it will still be in B. There are no changes required for POP3 in Dovecot as the defaults are good enough. ### JMAP For information, a replacement for IMAP called JMAP is in development, it is meant to be better than IMAP in every way and also include calendars and address book management. JMAP Implementations are young but exist, although support in email clients is almost non-existent. For instance, it seems Mozilla Thunderbird is not interested in it, an issue in their bug tracker about JMAP from December 2016 only have a couple of comments from people who would like to see it happening, nothing more. => https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322991 Issue 1322991: Add support for new JMAP protocol From the JMAP website page listing compatible clients, I only recognized the name "aerc" which is a modern console email client. => https://jmap.io/software.html#clients JMAP project website: clients list ### Sieve (filtering rules) => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieve_(mail_filtering_language) Wikipedia page: Sieve Dovecot has a plugin to offer Sieve filters, they are rules applied to received emails going into your mailbox, whether you want to sort them into dedicated directories, mark them read or block some addresses. That plugin is called pigeonhole. You will need Sieve to enable the spam filter learning system when moving emails from/to the Junk folder as it is triggered by a Sieve rule. This improves rspamd Bayes (a method using tokens to understand information, the story of the person behind it is interesting) filter ability to detect spam accurately. Edit `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf` with the following content:
plugin {
sieve_plugins = sieve_imapsieve sieve_extprograms
# From elsewhere to Spam folder
imapsieve_mailbox1_name = Spam
imapsieve_mailbox1_causes = COPY
imapsieve_mailbox1_before = file:/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-spam.sieve
# From Spam folder to elsewhere
imapsieve_mailbox2_name = *
imapsieve_mailbox2_from = Spam
imapsieve_mailbox2_causes = COPY
imapsieve_mailbox2_before = file:/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-ham.sieve
sieve_pipe_bin_dir = /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve
sieve_global_extensions = +vnd.dovecot.pipe +vnd.dovecot.environment
}
This piece of configuration was taken from the official Dovecot documentation: https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/howto/antispam_with_sieve/ . It will trigger shell scripts calling rspamd to make it learn what does a spam look like, and what is legit (ham). One script will run when an email is moved out of the spam directory (ham), another one when an email is moved to the spam directory (spam).
Modify `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/15-mailboxes.conf` to add the following snippet inside the block `namespace inbox { ... }`, it will associate the Junk directory as the folder containing spam and automatically create it if it does not exist:
mailbox Spam {
auto = create
special_use = \Junk
}
To make this work completely, you need to write the two extra sieve filters that will run trigger the scripts: Create `/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-spam.sieve`
require ["vnd.dovecot.pipe", "copy", "imapsieve", "environment", "variables"];
if environment :matches "imap.user" "*" {
set "username" "${1}";
}
pipe :copy "sa-learn-spam.sh" [ "${username}" ];
Create `/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-ham.sieve`
require ["vnd.dovecot.pipe", "copy", "imapsieve", "environment", "variables"];
if environment :matches "imap.mailbox" "*" {
set "mailbox" "${1}";
}
if string "${mailbox}" "Trash" {
stop;
}
if environment :matches "imap.user" "*" {
set "username" "${1}";
}
pipe :copy "sa-learn-ham.sh" [ "${username}" ];
Create `/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/sa-learn-ham.sh`
exec /usr/local/bin/rspamc -d "${1}" learn_ham
Create `/usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/sa-learn-spam.sh`
exec /usr/local/bin/rspamc -d "${1}" learn_spam
Make the two scripts executable with `chmod +x /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/sa-learn-spam.sh /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/sa-learn-ham.sh`. Run the following command to compile the sieve filters:
sievec /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-spam.sieve
sievec /usr/local/lib/dovecot/sieve/report-ham.sieve
### Manage Sieve By default, Sieves rules are a file located on the user home directory, however there is a standard protocol named "managesieve" to manage Sieve filters remotely from an email client. It is enabled out of the box in Dovecot configuration, although you need to make sure you open the port 4190/tcp in the firewall if you want to allow users to use it. ### Start the service Once you configured everything, make sure that dovecot service is enabled, and then start / restart it:
rcctl enable dovecot
rcctl start dovecot
# Webmail A webmail will allow your users to read / send emails from a web interface instead of having to configure a local email client. While they can be convenient, they enable a larger attack surface and are often affected by vulnerability issues, you may prefer to avoid webmail on your server. The two most popular open source webmail are Roundcube mail and Snappymail (a fork of the abandoned rainloop) and Roundcube, they both have pros and cons. ## Roundcube mail setup Roundcube is packaged in OpenBSD, it will pull in all required dependencies and occasionally receive backported security updates. Install the package:
pkg_add roundcubemail
When installing the package, you will be prompted for a database backend for PHP. If you have one or two users, I highly recommend choosing SQLite as it will work fine without requiring a running daemon, thus less maintenance and server resources locked. If you plan to have a lot of users, there are no wrong picks between MySQL or PostgreSQL, but if you already have one of them running it would be better to reuse it for Roundcube. Specific instructions for installing Roundcube are provided by the package README in `/usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/roundcubemail`. We need to enable a few PHP modules to make Roundcube mail working:
ln -s /etc/php-8.2.sample/zip.ini /etc/php-8.2/
ln -s /etc/php-8.2.sample/intl.ini /etc/php-8.2/
ln -s /etc/php-8.2.sample/opcache.ini /etc/php-8.2/
ln -s /etc/php-8.2.sample/pdo_sqlite.ini /etc/php-8.2/
Note that more PHP modules may be required if you enable extra features and plugins in Roundcube. PHP is ready to be started:
rcctl enable php82_fpm
rcctl start php82_fpm
Add the following blocks to `/etc/httpd.conf`, make sure you opened the port 443/tcp in your `pf.conf` and that you reloaded it with `pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf`:
server "mail.puffy.cafe" {
listen on egress tls
tls key "/etc/ssl/private/mail.puffy.cafe.key"
tls certificate "/etc/ssl/mail.puffy.cafe.fullchain.pem"
root "/roundcubemail"
directory index index.php
location "*.php" {
fastcgi socket "/run/php-fpm.sock"
}
}
types {
include "/usr/share/misc/mime.types"
}
Restart httpd with `rcctl restart httpd`. You need to configure Roundcube to use a 24 bytes security key and configure the database: edit the file `/var/www/roundcubemail/config/config.inc.php`: Search for the variable `des_key`, replace its value by the output of the command `tr -dc [:print:] < /dev/urandom | fold -w 24 | head -n 1` which will generate a 24 byte random string. If the string contains a quote character, either escape this character by prefixing it with a `\` or generate a new string. For the database, you need to search the variable `db_dsnw`. If you use SQLite, change this line
$config['db_dsnw'] = 'sqlite:///roundcubemail/db/sqlite.db?mode=0660';
by this line:
$config['db_dsnw'] = 'sqlite:///db/sqlite.db?mode=0660';
If you chose MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL, modify this line:
$config['db_dsnw'] = 'mysql://roundcube:pass@localhost/roundcubemail';
by
$config['db_dsnw'] = 'mysql://USER:PASSWORD@DATABASE_NAME';
Where `USER`, `PASSWORD` and `DATABASE_NAME` must match a new user and database created into the backend. Because PHP is chrooted on OpenBSD and that the OpenSMTPD configuration enforces TLS on port 587, it is required to enable TLS to work in the chroot:
mkdir -p /var/www/etc/ssl
cp -p /etc/ssl/cert.pem /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf /var/www/etc/ssl/
To make sure the files `cert.pem` and `openssl.cnf` stay in sync after upgrades, add the two commands to a file `/etc/rc.local` and make this file executable. This script always starts at boot and is the best place for this kind of file copy. If your IMAP and SMTP hosts are not on the same server where Roundcube is installed, adapt the variables `imap_host` and `smtp_host` to the server name. If Roundcube mail is running on the same server where OpenSMTPD is running, you need to disable certificate validation because `localhost` will not match the certificate and authentication will fail. Change `smtp_host` line to `$config['smtp_host'] = 'tls://127.0.0.1:587';` and add this snippet to the configuration file:
$config['smtp_conn_options'] = array(
'ssl' => array('verify_peer' => false, 'verify_peer_name' => false),
'tls' => array('verify_peer' => false, 'verify_peer_name' => false));
From here, Roundcube mail should work when you load the domain configured in `httpd.conf`. For a more in-depth guide to install and configure Roundcube mail, there is an excellent guide available which was written by Bruno Flückiger: => https://www.bsdhowto.ch/roundcube.html Install Roundcube on OpenBSD # Hardening It is always possible to improve the security of this stack, all the following settings are not mandatory, but they can be interesting depending on your needs. ## Always allow the sender per email or domain It is possible to configure rspamd to force it to accept emails from a given email address or domain, bypassing the anti-spam. To proceed, edit the file `/etc/rspamd/local.d/multimap.conf` to add this content:
local_wl_domain {
type = "from";
filter = "email:domain";
map = "$CONFDIR/local.d/whitelist_domain.map";
symbol = "LOCAL_WL_DOMAIN";
score = -10.0;
description = "domains that are always accepted";
}
local_wl_from {
type = "from";
map = "$CONFDIR/local.d/whitelist_email.map";
symbol = "LOCAL_WL_FROM";
score = -10.0;
description = "email addresses that are always accepted";
}
Create the files `/etc/rspamd/local.d/whitelist_domain.map` and `/etc/rspamd/local.d/whitelist_email.map` using the command `touch`. Restart the service rspamd with `rcctl restart rspamd`. The created files use a simple syntax, add a line for each entry you want to allow:
10 4 * * 0 -s acme-client mail.puffy.cafe && rcctl restart dovecot httpd smtpd
This will try to renew the certificate for `mail.puffy.cafe` every Sunday at 04h10 and upon renewal restart the services using the certificate: dovecot, httpd and smtpd. ## All about logs If you need to find some logs, here is a list of paths where to find information:
/var/log/rspamd/rspamd.log 600 7 500 * Z "pkill -USR1 -u root -U root -x rspamd"
/var/www/roundcubemail/logs/errors.log 600 7 500 * Z
/var/www/roundcubemail/logs/sendmail.log 600 7 500 * Z
## Disk space
Finally, OpenSMTPD will stop delivering emails locally if the `/var` partition has less than 4% of free disk space, be sure to monitor the disk space of this partition otherwise you will not receive emails anymore for a while before noticing something is wrong.
# Conclusion
Congratulations, you configured a whole email stack that will allow you to send emails to the world, using your own domain and hardware. Keeping your system up to date is important as you have network services exposed to the wild Internet.
Even with a properly configured setup featuring SPF/DKIM/DMARC/PTR, it is not guaranteed to not end in the spam directory of our recipients. The IP reputation of your SMTP server also account, and so is the domain name extension (I have a `.pw` domain which I learned too late that it was almost always considered as spam because it is not mainstream).
</pre>
]]>
</description>
<guid>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/openbsd-email-server-setup.gmi</guid>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/openbsd-email-server-setup.gmi</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Cloud gaming review: Xbox xCloud and Amazon Luna+</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<pre># Introduction
There are not many cloud gaming services around, here is a quick summary of Xbox Gaming and Amazon Luna services.
# Xbox Cloud Gaming (Microsoft)
The Xbox Cloud gaming service is available for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at a price of 17.99$€ / month.
## pros
CONFIG=/etc/wireguard/my-vpn.conf
mkdir -p /etc/netns/vpn/
ip netns exec vpn ip l del tun0
ip netns del vpn
DNS=$(awk '/^DNS/ { print $3 }' $CONFIG)
IP=$(awk '/^Address/ { print $3 }' $CONFIG)
echo "nameserver $DNS" > /etc/netns/vpn/resolv.conf
ip netns add vpn
ip -n vpn link set lo up
ip link add tun0 type wireguard
ip link set tun0 netns vpn
ip netns exec vpn wg setconf tun0 <(wg-quick strip "$CONFIG")
ip -n vpn a add "$IP" dev tun0
ip -n vpn link set tun0 up
ip -n vpn route add default dev tun0
ip -n vpn add
This script autoconfigure the network namespace and the VPN interface + the DNS server to use. There are extra checks at the end of the script that you can uncomment if you want to take a look at the public IP and DNS resolver used just after connection. Running this script will make the netns "vpn" available for use. The command to run a program under the namespace is `ip netns exec vpn your command`, it can only be run as root. ## Sudo rule Now you need a specific rule so you can use sudo to run a command in vpn netns as your own user without having to log in as root. Add this to your sudo configuration file, in my example I allow the user `solene` to run commands as `solene` for the netns vpn:
solene ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/ip netns exec vpn /usr/bin/sudo -u solene -- *
When using this command line, you MUST use full paths exactly as in the sudo configuration file, this is important otherwise it would allow you to create a script called `ip` with whatever commands and run it as root, while `/usr/sbin/ip` can not be spoofed by a local script in $PATH. If I want a shell session with the VPN, I can run the following command:
sudo /usr/sbin/ip netns exec vpn /usr/bin/sudo -u solene -- bash
This runs bash under the netns vpn, so any command I'm running from it will be using the VPN.
# Limitations
It is not a real limitation, but you may be caught by it, if you make a program listening on localhost in the netns vpn, you can only connect to it from another program in the same namespace. There are methods to connect two namespaces, but I do not plan to cover it, if you need to search about this setup, it can be done using socat (this is explained in the blog post linked earlier) or a local bridge interface.
# Conclusion
Network namespaces are a cool feature on Linux, but it is overly complicated in my opinion, unfortunately I have to deal with it, but at least it is working fine in practice.
</pre>
]]>
</description>
<guid>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/linux-vpn-netns.gmi</guid>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/linux-vpn-netns.gmi</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>The Old Computer Challenge v4 (Olympics edition)</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<pre># Introduction
This is the time of the year where I announce the Old Computer Challenge (OCC) date.
I recommend visiting the community website about the OCC if you want to connect with the community.
=> https://occ.deadnet.se/ Old Computer Challenge community
=> https://dataswamp.org/~solene/tag-oldcomputerchallenge.html The Old Computer Challenge history
=> static/occ-v4.jpg The Old Computer Challenge v4 poster, by @prahou@merveilles.town on Mastodon
# When?
The Old Computer Challenge 4th edition will begin 13th July to 20th July 2024. It will be the prequel to Olympics, I was not able to get the challenge accepted there so we will do it our way.
# How to participate?
While the three previous editions had different rules, I came to agree with the community for this year. Choose your rules!
When I did the challenge for the first time, I did not expect it to become a yearly event nor that it would gather aficionados during the trip. The original point of the challenge was just to see if I could use my oldest laptop as my main computer for a week, there were no incentive, it was not a contest and I did not have any written rules.
Previous editions rules were about using an old laptop, use a computer with limited hardware (and tips to slow down a modern machine) or limit Internet access to a single hour per day. I always insist on the fact it should not hinder your job, so people participating do not have to "play" during work. Smartphones became complicated to handle, especially with the limited Internet access, all I can recommend to people is to define some rules you want to stick to, and apply to it the best you can. If you realllyyyy need once to use a device that would break the rules, so be it if it is really important, nobody will yell at you.
People doing the OCC enjoy it for multiple reasons, find yours! Some find the opportunity to disconnect a bit, change their habit, do some technoarcheology to run rare hardware, play with low-tech, demonstrate obsolescence is not a fatality etc...
Some ideas if you do not know what to do for the challenge:
vnconfig vnd0 /path/to/file.iso
This will create a new device `/dev/vnd0`, now you can mount it on your file-system with:
mount -t cd9660 /dev/vnd0c /mnt
You should be able to browser your iso file content in /mnt at this point. # Unmounting If you are done with the file, you have to umount it with `umount /mnt` and destroy the vnd device using `vnconfig -u vnd0`. # Going further: Using a file as an encrypted disk If you want to use a single file as a file system, you have to provision the file with disk space using the command `dd`, you can fill it with zeroes but if you plan to use encryption on top of it, it's better to use random data. In the following example, you will create a file `my-disk.img` of a size of 10 GB (1000 x 10 MB):
dd if=/dev/random of=my-disk.img bs=10M count=1000
Now you can use vnconfig to expose it as a device:
vnconfig vnd0 my-disk.img
Finally, the command `bioctl` can be used to configure encryption on the disk, `disklabel` to partition it and `newfs` to format the partitions. You can follow OpenBSD FAQ guides, make sure use the the device name `/dev/vnd0` instead of wd0 or sd0 from the examples.
=> https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#softraidCrypto OpenBSD FAQ: Encrypting external disk
</pre>
]]>
</description>
<guid>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/mount-iso-file-openbsd.gmi</guid>
<link>gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/mount-iso-file-openbsd.gmi</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
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</rss>