kli witness start command produces deterministic prefixes and keys if not passed a salt

[daidoji]

I was informed that kli witness start was not for production and just for demonstration purposes but I was told to make this issue to track this information for posterity.

The kli witness start command makes prefixes and public keys deterministically ie:

Alias:  elite-witness
Identifier: BOTJTHFXofMW3zwLybDU-Vb3HjMA2rEbhs5TxtE8kP8M
Seq No: 0

Witnesses:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Count:          0
Receipts:       0
Threshold:      0

Public Keys:
        1. BOTJTHFXofMW3zwLybDU-Vb3HjMA2rEbhs5TxtE8kP8M

(keri) daidoji@LAPTOP-5KEUASIG:~/ssi/keripy$ rm -r ~/.keri/
(keri) daidoji@LAPTOP-5KEUASIG:~/ssi/keripy$ kli witness start -H 31337 -T 31338 --alias elite-witness
Witness elite-witness : BOTJTHFXofMW3zwLybDU-Vb3HjMA2rEbhs5TxtE8kP8M
^C(keri) daidoji@LAPTOP-5KEUASIG:~/ssi/keripykli status --name witness --alias elite-witness
Alias:  elite-witness
Identifier: BOTJTHFXofMW3zwLybDU-Vb3HjMA2rEbhs5TxtE8kP8M
Seq No: 0

Witnesses:
Count:          0
Receipts:       0
Threshold:      0

Public Keys:
        1. BOTJTHFXofMW3zwLybDU-Vb3HjMA2rEbhs5TxtE8kP8M

This result holds even across machines due to hard coded salts in the code base.

If kli witness start is just a toy then we should add warnings to the console output to let people know about this determinism at call time or we should have the salts be random by the default as a new user wouldn't expect a program that generates keys to have this behavior. The principle, default in security software should be secure should hold just so users can't make this mistake without intentionally trying to (by passing their own hardcoded salt).

[daidoji]

#701 provides a potential fix to this issue.

[lenkan]

I was informed that kli witness start was not for production and just for demonstration purposes

@daidoji Was this during a community meeting/discussion? If so, do you have a reference where I can read or hear about this statement?

[daidoji]

This was in a private conversation with Kevin when I asked him about the issue. I was a bit confused by it too but didn't press the issue.

…

On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 9:42 AM Daniel Lenksjö ***@***.***> wrote: I was informed that kli witness start was not for production and just for demonstration purposes @daidoji <https://github.com/daidoji> Was this during a community meeting/discussion? If so, do you have a reference where I can read or hear about this statement? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#702 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AADOOT2ZSWBXYD47F6BGJCTYX4A2ZAVCNFSM6AAAAABEJKXCYKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSOJRGY4DCOBXGQ> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>