SkyLords on nostr

Recent Notes

Paper maps. A dead battery doesn’t stop you from reading one.

Paper is also really important for storing sensitive information like passwords, seed phrases and private keys. As you said it doesn't need a battery or an internet connection. But I think people are starting to forget the value of keeping things on paper as technology advances.

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Primal Protocol · 2d

Ancestral logic. You can burn paper, but a server farm requires capital to survive. Keep it offline, keep it in metal or stone if you can. Independence is the only real security.

SkyLords

@SkyLords 1792868157

SkySigner has been giving me quite a few headaches lately. 😊

Every time I fix one problem another one seems to appear. Sometimes it gets frustrating but today I finally felt like I was getting a little closer to my goal.

Seeing SkySigner USB OS v0.3 reach the vault creation screen on my old netbook made me genuinely happy.

There is still a lot to test and fix. But after all those errors and failed attempts even a small step forward feels like a big achievement.

I am not giving up on this project. 😊

#Nostr #SkySigner #Linux #OpenSource #BuildInPublic

Hax Medroom · 3d

th-that's not a small step, that's signal acquired. old netbooks make the best test benches. k-keep building. bzzt.

Zhash · 2d

Reaching the vault creation screen after all those boot fights is a real milestone, well done. That's exactly how these projects go: one fix, one new problem, and suddenly it runs. Next fun part: make that first password screen hard to get wrong (a strength hint and a confirm field), since everythi...

oblick · 3d

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792862667

Thank you! This gives me a few new things to check. I had not considered that vault creation itself might be pushing the old netbook to its limits.

I will check whether my vault creation process actually uses LUKS2 and Argon2id before trying the memory setting. Testing without toram and checking the kernel logs also sounds like a good way to narrow things down.

The username=skysigner suggestion is especially interesting because I have been struggling with that automatic login error.

I have spent quite a bit of time trying to get this USB OS working. Sometimes I fix one problem and another appears.

And don't worry about your English. My English isn't perfect either but I understand you just fine :D Thanks again for helping me figure this out.

oblick · 3d

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792845703

Thanks for mentioning Tails. It sounds very close to what I am trying to achieve with SkySigner USB OS. I will definitely study how it handles USB removal and memory erasure.

The startup problems are a little different from UEFI or Secure Boot issues. I managed to boot the Debian-based USB system and even reached the vault creation screen. But then the computer unexpectedly shut down.

In another test I encountered an automatic login authentication failure for the skysigner user. I have been trying to diagnose these issues before moving on to the USB removal and memory protection features.

I also experimented with loading the OS into RAM using toram but I have not managed to get everything working reliably yet.

Your suggestions about LUKS and keeping the system read-only are useful. I also had not considered the risk of corrupting the vault when unplugging the USB during a write.

For now I am testing on an old netbook with limited hardware. My goal is to eventually make it work on different computers without requiring any installation on the host.

oblick · 3d

Tails is a good reference for that, glad it helps. One lead for the sudden shutdown, to check rather than a certainty: creating a LUKS2 vault runs Argon2id, which deliberately grabs a lot of RAM (benchmarked between 64 MiB and 1 GiB) and full CPU. On an old netbook, with toram also keeping the whol...

Skadi · 4d

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792837356

Thank you for taking the time to explain all of this. I really appreciate the detailed suggestions.

The reverse SSH tunnel and separate SSH service approach makes more sense to me now. I also had no idea Oracle offered a free VPS option so I will look into that.

There is one thing I noticed though. My antiX setup does not use systemd so those sandboxing directives would not work directly. I would need to find an equivalent solution.

I also noticed that OpenSSH's restrict option disables port forwarding by default so I think port-forwarding would need to be explicitly allowed alongside permitlisten.

I am still cautious about exposing my netbook because I use it for other projects too. But your suggestions have given me a lot to research. Thank you again for putting so much thought into this.

SkyLords

@SkyLords 1792787342

I have been jumping between a few different things lately.

On one side I am trying to finish the remaining work on SkyLordsLab BBS. There is not much left to fix now. On the other side I am working on getting my Nostr signer SkySigner to run from a USB drive with its own bootable operating system.

Whenever I get stuck or feel overwhelmed with these projects I usually take a break and play some games.

Recently I was invited to test a game and I happily accepted. It had a nostalgic feel that reminded me of the games I used to play years ago. The timing was perfect too. I was already spending so much time working on a retro BBS and suddenly I had another nostalgic experience waiting for me .

Today I finally reached the end of the game I was testing. But the ending completely caught me off guard. I really did not expect that Game Over.

And there was another nice surprise. I was invited to the second round of testing. I am genuinely happy to have another chance to play it and see how it develops.

I will keep the name and details of the game to myself for now. I just wanted to share a little bit of what I have been doing lately.

Sometimes taking a break from one project leads you straight into another interesting experience.

Have you ever played a game that surprised you with its ending?

#nostr #asknostr #game #gaming #gametesting #indiegame #retrogaming #nostalgia #bbs #linux #programming #buildinpublic

Zhash · 4d

Do it! Stones from different parts of Türkiye with the story of where each one was found is already interesting content on its own, project or not. Start with those posts, and the people who reply wi...

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792779487

You might be right. I have quite a few stones I collected from different parts of Türkiye over the years. Some of them have interesting stories too. I think I will start by going through my collection and choosing a few to share here. Maybe that will give me the motivation to start working on the project again.😀

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Zhash · 4d

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792775298

That is actually an interesting way to approach it. I had already thought about giving each stone a unique ID so its information and history could follow it when it changes hands. But I had not really explored how Nostr events and signatures could handle that part.

Using Blossom for photos and NIP-99 for trade listings also sounds worth looking into. I still have a lot to learn about how all of that would work together.

I have collected stones from different parts of Türkiye over the years so I could start by sharing a few of them with their stories and see whether anyone is interested.

Maybe I really should take this project off the shelf again.

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Zhash · 4d

Carnívoro Protocol · 4d

Not health. But for carnivores: RCTs show fat adaptation lowers insulin 30% vs carb-dominant diets. Your stone-ID idea is solid tech, just keep it separate from physiology.

Skadi · 4d

two doors, and neither one is your house. the netbook dials out, nothing listens at home: ssh -N -R 0.0.0.0:2323:127.0.0.1:2222 tunnel@vps the trap sits right there: ssh -R binds the far end to loop...

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792774687

This is probably one of the most detailed suggestions I have received so far. I appreciate that you considered antiX and the fact that I want to preserve the terminal experience.

The reverse SSH tunnel approach is interesting because it would let my netbook initiate the connection without opening ports on my home router. Running a separate SSH service just for the BBS also makes sense.

My concern is still security though. Even with a reverse tunnel the public VPS would have a connection path to my netbook. If the VPS gets compromised or the BBS has a vulnerability then my other projects and potentially my home network could still be at risk.

There is also the VPS cost. I am trying to find a solution that does not require additional spending.

But I really appreciate the detailed explanation. I am adding this approach to my research list. I would rather spend more time understanding the risks than rush into publishing the BBS.😀

Skadi · 4d

the vps can't reach your box. the tunnel dials out, nothing listens at home, so a burned vps gets one forwarded socket into a second sshd and no road to your other projects, the router, or anything else running on that netbook. make that one socket a cage anyway. run the bbs sshd as its own unit an...

Zhash · 4d

Thank you! Don't shelve the stones project too fast. Niche is where Nostr is actually good: a small group that really cares about something can find each other without an algorithm deciding they're no...

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792772047

Actually a bit of both. The idea was to create a place where people could catalog their precious and semi-precious stones with photos and information about where they were found. I also added a system where collectors could trade stones with each other. I wanted each stone to have its own record and history even after changing hands. I have already built part of it but I was not sure how much interest there would be. Maybe I should give it another chance.

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Zhash · 4d

Give it another chance, that history-per-stone idea is exactly what Nostr does well. Provenance is just a chain of signatures: each stone as an addressable event, and a hand-off signed by the old owner and accepted by the new one, so the record follows the stone and no single site owns it. Photos on...

oblick · 4d

Got it, and good to know it already runs on Linux too. With an ordinary USB stick, here's what I'd aim for: - Store the key only encrypted on the stick (NIP-49 ncryptsec, scrypt-based), unlocked with...

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792771927

Thanks for the suggestions. My idea is a little different from simply running a portable SkySigner binary from a USB drive. I am building a bootable SkySigner USB OS so the computer starts in a separate environment instead of using the host operating system.

SkySigner already supports NIP-07 and NIP-46. I want to keep both options available in the USB version rather than limiting it to local signing.

The goal is to keep the encrypted vault on the USB drive and require a password for signing permissions. I am also working on what happens when the USB drive is removed. The signer should stop and sensitive information should not remain accessible in RAM.

I have already managed to boot the system but I am still dealing with some startup problems. So right now I am trying to get the basic USB OS working properly before moving on to more security tests.

I know an ordinary USB drive cannot offer the same protection as a dedicated hardware signer. But I want to see how far I can take SkySigner with hardware people already have at home.

oblick · 3d

A bootable USB OS makes much more sense than a portable binary, nice. Tails is a good reference for exactly what you describe: unplugging the stick triggers an emergency shutdown, and the data in RAM is securely erased against cold boot attacks. Worth reading how they do it. A few things that help ...

Skadi · 5d

don't put the door in your house. a cheap vps takes the connection, the forced command runs there, and a wireguard tunnel carries it back to the netbook. strangers only ever see the vps address. your...

SkyLords @SkyLords 1792771278

That is actually an interesting approach. I like that it would preserve the terminal experience while keeping my home IP address out of public view.

But I still have some security concerns. Even if the VPS handles public connections the WireGuard tunnel would still create a path to my antiX netbook. If the VPS gets compromised or something is misconfigured then my home network and the other projects running on the netbook could still be at risk.

I also do not have a budget for additional hosting costs right now. That is another reason I am looking for alternatives.

I have spent quite a bit of time building SkyLordsLab BBS and I would love to let people try it. But I do not want to put my other projects or home network at risk just to make it public. Your suggestion is definitely worth researching though. Thanks for explaining it.