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@@ -710,6 +710,31 @@ Send a private email to the :ref:`security contact <security-contact>`
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if you think you have discovered a security issue.
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Please disclose security issues responsibly.
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+How important is path/to/repo/nonce?
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+------------------------------------
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+
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+Borg uses :ref:`AES-CTR encryption <borg_security_critique>`. An
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+essential part of AES-CTR is a sequential counter that must **never**
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+repeat. If the same value of the counter is used twice in the same repository,
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+an attacker can decrypt the data. The counter is stored in the home directory
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+of each user as well as in the repository. When creating a new archive borg uses
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+the highest of the two values. The value of the counter in the repository may be
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+higher than your local value if another user has created an archive more recently
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+than you did.
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+
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+Since the nonce is not necessary to read the data that is already encrypted,
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+``borg info``, ``borg list``, ``borg extract`` and ``borg mount`` should work
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+just fine without it.
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+
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+If the path/to/repo/nonce is lost, but you still have your local copy,
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+borg will recreate path/to/repo/nonce the next time you run ``borg create``.
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+This should be safe for repositories that are only used from one user account
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+on one machine.
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+
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+For repositories that are used by multiple users and/or from multiple machines
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+it is safest to avoid running *any* commands that modify the repository after
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+the nonce is deleted.
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+
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Common issues
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#############
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