keybase / keybase/client

Unhelpful error messages due to old clients

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#7,764 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Go
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Description

[I thought this would be a duplicate, but I can't see ant matches.]

I tried to revoke a proof on the keybase.io web page after I'd ctrl-C'd a command-line "prove https" when I found couldn't write to the server directory. It just said there was an error, with no explanation of what it was.
I then tried revoking it with the client, and got a helpful message "ERROR need a downgrade lease ID and merkle root; consider upgrading your client", which was presumably the problem on the web site.

I tried a command line proof on a different device and got "ERROR bad signature: Wrong previous hash; wanted '*****' but got '****' (error 1002)" [hashes elided], again apparently because the client was out-of-date, but without the hint about that.

It would be useful if messages could give the hint about the (probable?) version mismatch.

Contributor guide

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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 web-page proof revocation and the command-line "prove https" flows described in the issue, then compare their error output with the client's downgrade-lease message. Done means version-mismatch failures provide a useful upgrade hint instead of only a generic or cryptographic error.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
cli
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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