Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
Update 04-scenarios.adoc
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
In doc/user-guide/04-scenarios.adoc
explain that when a command like
export VAR='secret_value'
is run on the original system, then one must ensure
to not keep that command in a shell history file.
This is an addedum to
#2156
which was triggered by what was done in
#2982
  • Loading branch information
jsmeix committed May 11, 2023
1 parent 4b5dc28 commit edd7097
Showing 1 changed file with 9 additions and 5 deletions.
14 changes: 9 additions & 5 deletions doc/user-guide/04-scenarios.adoc
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -48,9 +48,13 @@ It gets removed because the ReaR rescue/recovery system must be free of secrets.
Otherwise the rescue system ISO image and any recovery medium that is made from it
would have to be carefully protected against any unwanted access.
Therefore BACKUP_PROG_CRYPT_KEY must be manually set before running "rear recover".
For example via `export BACKUP_PROG_CRYPT_KEY='my_secret_passphrase'`
before calling "rear recover" and/or also before calling "rear mkbackup"
so that there is no need to store it ever in a ReaR config file.
For example in the running ReaR rescue system via
`export BACKUP_PROG_CRYPT_KEY='my_secret_passphrase'`
before calling "rear recover".
You may also do this on the original system before calling "rear mkbackup"
so that there is no need to store it ever in a ReaR config file
but then ensure to run commands that contain 'my_secret_passphrase'
without keeping the command in a history file (e.g. ~/.bash_history).
On the other hand it is crucial to remember the BACKUP_PROG_CRYPT_KEY value
that was used during "rear mkbackup" so that possibly a long time later that
rescue image can be used (possibly by someone else) to recover from a disaster.
Expand All @@ -60,8 +64,8 @@ when 'rear' is run in debugscript mode (where 'set -x' is set) by redirecting
STDERR to /dev/null via `{ command confidential_argument ; } 2>/dev/null`
where the redirection must be done via a compound group command even for
a single confidential command to let the redirection also apply for 'set -x'.
See the comment of the UserInput function in lib/_input-output-functions.sh
how to keep things confidential when 'rear' is run in debugscript mode.
See the description in /usr/share/rear/conf/default.conf
how to set variables for secret values in a confidential way.


== Bootable USB device with backup to USB
Expand Down

0 comments on commit edd7097

Please sign in to comment.