this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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We have successfully completed our migration to RAM-only VPN infrastructure - Mullvad VPN (mullvad.net)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology
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[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What does “without any disks in use” mean?

  • If the computer is powered off, moved or confiscated, there is no data to retrieve.
  • We get the operational benefits of having fewer breakable parts. Disks are among the components that break often. Therefore, switching away from them makes our infrastructure more reliable.
  • The operational tasks of setting up and upgrading package versions on servers become faster and easier.
  • Running the system in RAM does not prevent the possibility of logging. It does however minimise the risk of accidentally storing something that can later be retrieved.
    https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2022/1/12/diskless-infrastructure-beta-system-transparency-stboot/
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

While mostly true, there are ways to preserve ram if the device is confiscated.

Your local PD likely couldn’t pull it off, but if one of the larger abbreviation agencies were to get involved, data on RAM isn’t a huge hurdle. Assuming no one flips the power switch, at least.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Yeah, freezing and dumping RAM is a well known attack, even happening at some airports with laptops. But it still requires very recently powered ram, basically still in operation before extraction. It's a big step toward security at least.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I guess it's going to stop any standard agencies with a warrant. Confiscating the machine for it to sit in a warehouse until some forensic techs get their hands on it.

[–] jarfil 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are devices that allow moving and confiscating computers without powering them off.

The rest are true.

[–] DoomBot5 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's assuming those computers weren't already powered off first.

[–] jarfil 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, but how often does that happen to servers running 24/7? They'd have to set up some sort of dead man's switch, movement sensors, or something. It's unlikely they'd get a day's notice that the servers are going to be confiscated for forensic analysis.

[–] DoomBot5 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How long do you think it takes to broadcast a network wide shutdown command over the management network?

[–] jarfil 2 points 1 year ago

How long do you think would you have? Also, any manual action on your part would be obstruction, while an automated system could be defended as anti-theft protection.