Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2025-11-03


The meeting was called to order at 19:35 by psvenk.

In attendance were

        Student keyholders: psvenk, innaavo, dtemkin, alwinfy, guoj1112, rgabriel, bzelnick

        Associate keyholders: almonds, scj643, kenta

        Members: kshitij, ryanruiz

        Guests: '()

Administrivia:

        
        psvenk: does anyone have anything not related to vault. we have a new keyholder. welcome bzelnick
        
        nmorgan: We should do a dinner sometime. I don't know when.
        
        alwinfy:  before thanksgiving? 
        
        [prison discussion]
        
        psvenk: innaavo will make a poll and we can regroup next week, anything else? 
        
        scj643: vault can be used with a yubikey. we can eventually get an hsm for experimenting. as there is a lack of education at MIT about it. I would like to allocate $120 for two Yubikey 5 Nanos which will be used for opening vault 
        
        rgabriel: what is an hsm?
        
        scj643: vault is a way for us to have secure secret storage. for example server passwordsd can be stored in vault and thennyou can grant acess to them through a moira membership. and you can use them for database credentials. instead of giving system direct acces to credentials you give them vault acces which has to be renewed. so that way, if someone steals that token, they can't steal the credentials
        
        psvenk: as far as I understand, the main objections had to do with cost and maintenence overhead. I share these concerns, when it comes to both of these, i would like to hear everyones perspective. hsm (hardware security module) purchase may be valuable to teach students. at minumum dealing with yubikeys is fine, I was worried about admin and transfer of power which may be an issue. It seems that will not be the case. 
        
        scj643: if we did not have yubikeys there would be maintenence overhead. with the way vault works with the hsm we only need recovery keys which can be stored between the office and the SMR. 
        
        
        psvenk: i want to ensure everyones concerns are adressed, any questions?
        
        innaavo: so if we get this, does everyone have to use it?
        
        
        scj643: it would be opt in

        turino14: I like how you phrased it as a learning opportunity, but is this only for keyholders?
        
        scj643: for management of vault it would be only keyholders for actually accessing vault and storing secrets that would be available to everyone 
        
        psvenk: any other thoughts, are people generally for or against
        
        almonds: and the YubiKey 5 Nano can do RSA 4096, preferable to 2048
        
        scj643: I would like to allocate 120 for yubikeys and 30 for flashdrive.
        
        almonds: I can second that
        
        psvenk: motion to white ballot
        
        turino14: seconded.
        [motion passes for $150]
        
        psvenk: I think the hsm could be a good idea 
        
        scj643: the hsm is $650
        
        innaavo: the budget is not an issue 
        
        psvenk: so how much would we be allocating for HSM 
        
        scj643: it would be $650, it includes free shipping 
        
        alwinfy: i think we should do it
        
        psvenk: motion to allocate $650 for the HSM. 
        
        scj643: seconded 
        
        
        psvenk: all in favor 
        
        [motion passes 11-0-0]
        
        scj643: VyOS it is a router software which is open source, I have contacted them to get a license for SIPB which would give us technical support
        
        psvenk: Its a distribution of Debian that is fully open source. If you are a non-profit you don't need to pay for it. 
        
        scj643: I have contacted them but we need someone from MIT to sign off on the three year 100% discount they offer
        
        kenta: The standard advice at student group financial training is that students should not sign contracts; MIT has people to sign contracts. 
        
        scj643: we are not signing it, we need someone who has the power to review and sign on our behalf
        
        psvenk: who volunteers to open a helpdesk ticket and cc scj643 and psvenk
        
        
        scj643: we need someones email to give to their team. This relates to Vault because Vault will be [?] VyOS.
        
        almonds: can this be a mailing list?
        
        scj643: yeah
        
        psvenk: ill do it

Project Reports:

        scj643: Vault continues. 
        
        nmorgan: ark continues
        psvenk: hydrant continues
        
        dtemkin: a pr was merged
        
        psvenk: I beat you to it 
        
        dtemkin: CourseRoad continues (in theory)
        
        turino14: HWops continues.
        
        almonds: the mobile hotspots we ordered arrived, according to the tracking number, but it's unclear where exactly it was delivered
        
Other:

        scj643: we could have went with javacard if we wanted to 
        
        alwinfy: i dont think we want to
        
Other Other:

        almonds: local elections tomorrow
        
        psvenk: go out and vote if you are eligible and able 
        
        guoj1112: 6.1220 has a quiz tomorrow and I need to study for that. if anyone else is taking that class you should study 
        
        psvenk: good luck
        
        ryanruiz: so basically I went home to NJ and turned on my computer for something. I think my graphics card started hitting the death bed 
        
        scj643: I had the same thing happen a few months ago 
        
        psvenk: I think the same thing is happening with my wificard
        
        psvenk: sorry you had to talk through a potato, potato talker affectionate 

The meeting was adjourned at 20:00.

        Minutes taken by guoj1112 and innaavo and submitted by $nmorgan.