[Nix-dev] Binary trust (was: Haskell NG: Still no binaries)

Ertugrul Söylemez ertesx at gmx.de
Thu Apr 16 20:09:40 CEST 2015


Hi Kirill,

>>>> nix-env \
>>>>     --option extra-binary-caches https://hydra.nixos.org \
>>>>     --option extra-binary-caches https://hydra.cryp.to \
>>>>     -iA nixos.pkgs.hsEnv
>
> Might it be the case that you are running nix in daemon mode and thus it
> ignores `binary-caches`?

That did it!  Since I'm running NixOS I am indeed running nix-daemon.
The following setting did the trick:

    nix.binaryCaches = [
        "https://cache.nixos.org/"
        "https://hydra.nixos.org/"
    ];

Thanks a lot!

Unfortunately hydra.cryp.to does not seem to support TLS.  That's why I
left it out.  But that raises an interesting question:  Where do the
hash values for the binary packages come from?

At this point since we lack deterministic builds I would assume that
they come from the same host that delivers the substitutes.  A related
question is:  Are the hashes signed?

If the hashes are not trusted, then a plain-text connection would be a
huge security risk regardless of whether you trust the host.  Even a
malicious user or an infected machine on your local network could
replace binary packages on their way and get arbitrary code onto your
machine.


Greets,
Ertugrul
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