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Instead of a backup, i store my important documents (my resumee, certificates and such) in a git repository - which is then pushed to sth like github.

My reasons for using git instead of an backup are:

  • My important documents are anyways inside git repositories, so pushing the content regularly to an external server(or github.com) is not difficult at all.

  • I don't know much of how to make proper backups (so that they are protected from ransomware).

Its obvious that ransomware can destroy my local repository, but can they also destroy the remote one? I mean, the connection is done with ssh keys, so a ransomsoftware can obviously read the key and push sth to github. But then I could maybe just revert the commit, right?

So the essence of my questions is: can a ransomware destory the content of the .git folder on the remote repository? (so, that i can't revert any change)

(NOTE: I do not mean using some exploits or anything like that, because of course it the answer to my question would be then "yes" )

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  • With git push --force it would be able to rewrite history on every remotes. So yes, if well done, it can prevent you to revert to a previous commit.
    – rdupz
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 10:55
  • @rdupz okay, but i can prevent that in the settings of github. (so only git push, without --force is possible)
    – uuu
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 10:57
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    @toogley If the malware is tailored for github specifically, it could easily check if your browser has session cookies related to the site, and if you were indeed recently logged on the site (without logout), forge a request that would change those settings. If I were a malicious actor with such intent, I would write malware that would check for cookies + browser-saved passwords for sites like GitHub, BitBucket and similar platforms.
    – niilzon
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 12:48
  • @niilzon do you want to morph your comment into an answer? i think its the best answer.
    – uuu
    Commented Dec 23, 2016 at 12:06
  • I don't think that it is complete at all, I'm just giving an example, but thanks. I see other ways but lack time to formulate a full answer
    – niilzon
    Commented Dec 24, 2016 at 9:02

2 Answers 2

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Yes. A Ransonware can "destroy" your files locally. As for the server, this depends on the configuration. It would be interesting to use a password in the key to auth with git. Ransonware can read your files, but it will not be possible to send remotely.

Recommendation: Use the ssh key with password and do not use automatic authentication.

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  • 2
    This would help a. against non-sophissticated malware and b. for a limited time against sophisticated malware.
    – v6ak
    Commented Dec 23, 2016 at 8:03
  • An easier way to handle that recommendation is to use an SSH agent (so you don't have to type your key password every time) but use an agent that supports confirmation and add the key with ssh-add -c. This will produce a pop-up on your screen whenever the agent is requested to sign a request and you can deny the request and investigate if it pops up unexpectedly. (This won't be proof against all malware, but will probably stop much of it.) Also consider using the timeout option when adding a key to the agent.
    – cjs
    Commented Mar 12 at 10:01
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Unless server prevents it, you can use git push --force to overwrite the chasnges.

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