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What are we up to for today? What makes nerds get up early? Some journey ahead ...

#trainstory

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Train staff didn't accept us presenting our digital ticket on ebook reader 🙄 - they are not allowed to scan arbitrary QR codes without "verifying where they are coming from".

Luckily enough, #PassAndroid was fine for them, because "some app" is apparently okay..

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️🥴
Next time, hand-draw it, take a picture of it, then show it on your smartphone!
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf Elias Probst

@eliasp Actually, the same staff member checked our tickets about an hour later on the way back (without recognizing us), and asked me to "scroll" in the app to show it's actually "an app" and not just a screenshot.
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

😑
They're basically doing client-side validation...

I feel like most people don't understand what the process of "scanning a QR code" actually means. To them, it seems to be comparable to waving a magic stick.

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

how stupid.
What's the point? It's usually just a reference number you could read out anyway....
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

> without verifying where they are coming from

I thought that's what the digital signatures are for??? 😂 Digitalisierung at it's finest

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

rail ticket complaining.

Sensitiver Inhalt

Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

sounds like bad software, it seems like it does not account for malicious QR Codes, otherwise you wouldn't have to tell the staff to check for "arbitrariness" right?
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

A new piece of baggage has joined us. Makes for happy sysadmins - which you can see in the image when you look close enough.
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Never underestimate the data transfer speed of a server filled with hard drives on a train
Als Antwort auf Erik

@SM0RVV It's actually empty, but we might offer pickup service for large free software projects 😀
@Erik
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

when transporting your servers like that, do anticipate for dirt, and worse, rain. Two Ikea blue bags fit great for most servers ;) [one over the top, one over the bottom upwards due to dirt/mud coming from the floor).

At arrival, do acclimatize the server and ensure to reseat many cards; which is why a outer carton box is advised. Good luck with the new toy! -- fellow server-by-public-transport person ;)

Als Antwort auf Jeroen Massar

@jeroen We were prepared for moist and rain, but it was a rather sunny day. We will clean up the interior (during the handover, at least one leaf fell in). But thank you for the hints!
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Waiting for the train ... we have all we need for "holidays" 😉

(posted a little late, because the train had bad WiFi)

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

In case you don't know: Laptops are less heavy and more movable 😁
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Strap a display and keyboard to that, and you have the perfect laptop. Well, except maybe for gaming, I doubt the GPU in that one is anything fancy 😜
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

To answer the initial question: This is what makes us nerds happy (in case you didn't expect an answer like this). An interesting experiment for us, too.

What this means in the long run for Codeberg? We're finally - thanks to the expertise and help of some volunteers - ready to expand our hardware infrastructure, making Codeberg more resilient to certain kinds of issues and improving availability in the long run.

Als Antwort auf Baloo

@baloo Emulating keyboard navigation for selecting the right boot device.

You know, not the kind of automation that is really worth the effort, but some fun. ~f

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Love the fire extinguisher on the table. Juuuuuust in case something could go wrong... ;)
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

loving the very responsible feuerlöscher
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf lynn

@lynn We managed to break two of these server power supplies with a firmware update. And while searching for a fix, we have found videos demonstrating these very PSUs taking fire.

So ... you never know! ~f

@lynn
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

I first thought you would make a joke that the post came late because the train was xD
Als Antwort auf isа :luna: :jules:

@f2k1de Pretty cool. Looking forward to accidentally meeting other people with servers in the train, so we can build an ad-hoc cluster 😉 ~f
Als Antwort auf Professor Code

@ProfessorCode
Yes,, with #coreboot (which now works after fixing some issues with standby with their help).

Unfortunately, the USB-C port failed after about one year, still not sure about the exact reason.
@starlabssystems

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

i guess this answers my question on if i can D-ticket without a smartphone
Als Antwort auf lynn

@lynn Some accept printed paper, this depends on the rules of your company. For my ticket, I have an offer to "save it in my wallet" or to print it.

Depending on your ticket, you have to refresh it every month or more frequently, though.

@lynn
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

For those still wondering about why they were "not allowed" to scan the other QR code: I suspect this is related to potential abuse vectors via QR codes (yes, we know, requiring the hacker to spoof it via a fake app instead of an ebook is not the answer).

Watch youtube.com/watch?v=cIcbAMO6sx… or read revk.uk/2020/01/eicar-test-qr.… for some background.

~f

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Kinda odd that the QR-code doesn't contain just a digital signature or something similar, and that their ticket-checking app might be vulnerable to it containing something malicious, like opening a random malicious URL.

I suppose it was just "QR code bad" and the policy wasn't thought through much more than that?

Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf Mizah

@mizah Well, in the case of the ICAR string as is the focus of the linked video, it doesn't even matter what the application does or does not with the data of the QR code. It's the antivirus software running in the background which recognizes that malware appeared in the memory that application is managing and which locks the system up
Als Antwort auf Peter Nerlich

@peternerlich
Sure, but for the user the result is the same: Some code crashed their system. And now they'll never ever scan a code from something that looks weird again, no matter if it makes sense or not.

It's just a wild guess, I didn't go into detail, was happy that PassAndroid was accepted. ~f
@mizah

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

O… wow. So that’s an OS-level issue, you can just denial-of-service their ticket scanning phone, because the phone OS (or antivirus) doesn’t trust that you (or some random other code somewhere) know not to do something bad with the QR code?

That’s… nasty.

I suppose that “only scan stuff from the official app” isn’t as strange of a policy anymore, though the way the policy was interpreted by the staff member is still silly, obviously.

Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

In all honesty... If they fear some malicious actors causing issues, then they shouldn't offer a QR-code-based system to begin with, if they can't be bothered having a solid system that prevents issues like this to begin with...
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

if you're doing something that makes it dangerous to scan an untrusted QR code, the security risk is not the provenance of the QR code.
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Monat her)
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

I avoid using the term "app" as much as possible, because I know full well that it is a PsyOp to normalize installing mal/spyware.

"Install our app" and "install our software" sound very different, even though they mean precisely the same thing.

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Codeberg.org
@comcloudway Been there for 30 minutes, we will be there again for 45 minutes later today.
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Codeberg.org
@programmerpony Thank you for your interest! You can request them for free with a Codeberg account by filing an issue here (we have a template for that): codeberg.org/Codeberg-e.V./req… ~n
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Codeberg.org
@RedTechEngineer
It was mostly considered an experiment for us, but it worked better than expected. We'll probably improve protection of the machine, though, just in case. ~f
@sun
Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

thanks for the trip, interesting to follow this story unfold today.
Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Codeberg.org

@kilgoretrout It was successfully accepted a few times for me, too. Some then required to also show my student ID and personal ID cards, because there was no "further information about me on the screen".

I could imagine that making the ebook slightly interactive with some buttons and references in the book, you might be able to convince them that it's just "an official app running on that epaper tablet". ~f

Als Antwort auf Codeberg.org

Show-off, with that bright green HEALTH_OK from the Ceph cluster. 😁
Als Antwort auf Michael

@mmeier Good that you point that out, didn't consider this when taking the photo. Sometimes, it is orange 😅

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