Wednesday, February 23, 2011

ChromiumOS uses eCryptfs for Home Directories



While looking for something else today, I came across this ChromiumOS design document:

http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/protecting-cached-user-data

This is a very interesting read, about how the good folks at Google are using eCryptfs to secure user data on ChromiumOS devices.  I found a few of the design points particularly interesting, such as the hashing of user names and integration with the TPM.  I was also pleased to see that eCryptfs was chosen, in part, in accordance with their design needs for both performance and power consumption.

There are detractors out there who regularly snipe Canonical and Ubuntu for a perceived lack of contribution to the core engineering of Linux and free software.  Such attacks continue to sadden and frustrate me.

I'm really quite proud of the the early work we did on eCryptfs in Ubuntu in 2008-2010, with our Encrypted Private Directory and eventually our Encrypted Home Directory features.  It's quite clear to me that Google's usage of eCryptfs for per-user home directory encryption in ChromiumOS are extensions of one of Ubuntu's pioneering technical advancements of desktop Linux.


Cheers,
:-Dustin
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5 comments:

  1. Jef SpaletaFebruary 23, 2011 at 5:20 PM

    Yes the ecryptfs stuff is very good. I hope that it gets accounted for appropriately the next time an effort survey the contribution stats for linux plumbing projectscape is undertaken.

    -jef

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2011 at 5:39 PM

    I don't think people argue that Canonical contributes nothing to FOSS, but that they could easily be contributing a lot more. More people complain about that, and their notorious issues with upstream and licensing than anything else. All of which are valid complaints, mind you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scott SmithFebruary 23, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    I'm not trying to be snarky, but you're giving props to Canonical because Google used something that Canonical developed. Google contracted Canonical to help with development of ChromeOS, so I don't think this is a particularly good example of contributing for the greater good. http://blog.canonical.com/?p=294

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2011 at 11:58 PM

    @Scott, accepting money to develop something that others could use freely sounds like the greater good to me. Especially if it helps feed the families of the developers who helped develop said code. What more could we ask for?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousFebruary 24, 2011 at 3:26 AM

    @Scott,
    The development of any open-source software, for any reason, is by definition for the greater good.

    ReplyDelete

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Instead, please use Launchpad for Bugs and StackExchange for Questions.
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Thanks,
:-Dustin