keybase / keybase/client

Unable to enroll a new device when keys are on a card (gpg vs. gpg2 shell out)

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Dominant language
Go
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Description

This is related to the issue #2452.
Last tested with keybase 1.0.16.
I have my keys on an OpenPGP card (and I can use them with GnuPG 2).
When run the GUI on a new computer, and select to "log in with passphrase", it offers me to "sign my installation of keybase with GPG", with two options: "export secret keys" which is not only insecure, but technically impossible when they keys are on a card, and "One time shell to GPG". When I do the latter, it gives me "Unknown error: Error: GPG error: exit status 2".

As a separate note, after that situation, run_keybase was unable to kill the running instance and hanged on indefinitely. But I cannot reproduce it anymore.

As a workaround, I created a temporary symlink gpg -> gpg2 in a directory early in my path, and after that enrollment worked.

If I may suggest to introduce a text field in the GUI prefilled with the gpg command, that the user can edit to change the command name and maybe to add options if necessary?

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the GUI enrollment flow with keys on an OpenPGP card and compare the gpg and gpg2 commands it shells out to. Inspect the enrollment path and run_keybase handling; done means card-backed enrollment succeeds without requiring a symlink, and the reported shutdown hang is understood or fixed.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
authentication, cryptography, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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