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Note evading censorship via domain replacement
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jstrieb committed May 23, 2020
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34 changes: 34 additions & 0 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ Link Lock has many uses:
that do not respect `robots.txt`
- Add a password to shared Dropbox or Google Drive links
- Share password-protected magnet links and torrents
- [Evade censorship](#evading-censorship)

Link Lock uses AES in GCM mode to securely encrypt passwords, and PBKDF2 and
salted SHA-256 (100,000 iterations) for secure key derivation. Encryption,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -105,6 +106,39 @@ me to build a secure encryption application. In particular:
interface that does not automatically redirect:
[https://jstrieb.github.com/link-lock/decrypt](https://jstrieb.github.com/link-lock/decrypt/).

### Evading Censorship

Link Lock can be used to evade censorship. If you are concerned that sending
links with the `jstrieb.github.io` domain name will put you at risk, just
replace the domain with another. For example, share

```
https://wikipedia.org/#eyJ2IjoiMC4wLjEiLCJlIjoiYUgrNDhISkpBWWhkeFFMc0l0VlIzeFlma21mYlZCOFJ5Zz09In0=
```

instead of

```
https://jstrieb.github.io/link-lock/#eyJ2IjoiMC4wLjEiLCJlIjoiYUgrNDhISkpBWWhkeFFMc0l0VlIzeFlma21mYlZCOFJ5Zz09In0=
```

Any domain can be used in place of `wikipedia.org`. That way, a malicious
third-party who clicks the altered link will be taken to a valid page, which
helps alleviate suspicion. When sharing the password to unlock the link,
explain how to switch out the domain name with either
`jstrieb.github.io/link-lock`, or with the path to a local clone of Link Lock.
Using a local copy is particularly recommended for evading censorship, since no
request to my domain is ever made.

Alternatively paste the altered link directly into the [decrypt
page](https://jstrieb.github.io/link-lock/decrypt/). This page does not check
the domain name of the pasted link, only the "fragment" (the part after the
`#`). So, for example, the Wikipedia link above can be pasted directly in there
and decrypted without changing the domain.

Using a local copy of [URL Pages](https://github.com/jstrieb/urlpages) is also
recommended. Entire web pages can be shared safely and secretly this way.



## Other Versions & Related Projects
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<h1>Decrypt Link Lock URLs</h1>
<p>This application is for decrypting <a href="https://github.com/jstrieb/link-lock" target="_blank">Link Lock</a> URLs without automatically redirecting. This is useful if you do not trust the source of an encrypted URL. It is also useful if the URL uses a blocked protocol like <code>javascript:</code>, for example.</p>

<p>This page is also useful if you think you have received a locked link, but it uses another domain, instead of <code>jstrieb.github.io</code>. This may be done as a means to <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/jstrieb/link-lock/#evading-censorship">evade censorship</a>.</p>

<hr />

<div class="form">
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