cadenas Files

Security hardening after two external reviews (Argon2id cost limits, key wiping, safer password input and temporary files, anti-framing), Homebrew and winget published at each release, and passphrases separated by hyphens. The Argon2id limits of the .cadenas format are lowered: files written by cadenas are not affected.

Added

• Windows executable: file properties of cadenas (product name, version, publisher) instead of those of Node.js, and code signing through SignPath ready in the release workflow, enabled once the project is accepted by the SignPath Foundation (docs/CODE_SIGNING.md).
• Releases: the Homebrew formula is tested and published, and a winget pull request is opened, automatically after each GitHub release (homebrew and winget jobs of release.yml). scripts/packaging.js accepts --homebrew or --winget to generate only one of them.
• Installation with Homebrew (macOS, Linux): brew install pierreebele/cadenas/cadenas, from the PierreEbele/homebrew-cadenas tap, tested on macOS and Linux.

Changed

• Passphrases: words are now separated by hyphens (navaux-tapageur-faucher-gazier-girafon) instead of spaces: no invisible double or trailing space, no quotes needed in a terminal, accepted by sites that refuse spaces. The English list loses its 4 hyphenated words (7,772 words instead of 7,776, still more than 64 bits for 5 words). Existing passphrases are not affected.

Fixed

• Armored age files: only the start of the file is read to recognize a passphrase file, instead of converting the whole file to text (twice the memory, and a crash above 512 MB).
• CLI: -f now also overwrites a read-only output file on Windows.
• Website: a .cadenas or .age file whose content is not recognized (damaged) is reported, instead of being encrypted a second time.
• Building the standalone executables works from a path with spaces or accents.

Security

• Format: Argon2id parameters are limited to 256 MiB and 16 passes (instead of 1 GiB and 64), in FORMAT.md and in the code. A crafted file can no longer impose more than about twenty times the default cost before its header is authenticated. Files written by cadenas (64 MiB, 3 passes) are not affected; files written with larger parameters through the library are now rejected.
• Derived keys: the header key is now wiped from memory after use, like the Argon2id output and the content key.
• CLI: output files are created readable by their owner only (0600), and the temporary file, which may hold part of the decrypted content, is deleted on Ctrl+C or when the process is stopped.
• CLI: escape sequences sent by the arrow, Delete or Home keys are ignored while typing the password; their characters were silently added to it. The terminal is restored even if the program is stopped while the password is typed.
• Website: the page refuses to run inside a frame of another site. On GitHub Pages, the security policy only comes through <meta>, where frame-ancestors is ignored.
• Archives: drive letters (C:) are removed from entry paths and : is replaced with _, which a Windows extractor could interpret as an alternate data stream.

Full changelog: CHANGELOG.md (github.com)