Builtin encryption support in rsync (was Re: I also am getting hang/timeout using rsync 2.4.6 -e ssh)

[Martin Pool]

Obviously ssh is a source of a large fraction of the problems people
have in using rsync.  Most of the problems seem to come from the fact
that we have to run an external program, and so we get lockups because
of operating system or rsync bugs in blocking/nonblocking
pipes/sockets etc.  

I'm looking at adding built-in stream encryption, so that we can give
people some privacy even if they can't use ssh.  In combination with
the challenge-response password system, this will mean that both
passwords and rsync data will be protected from snooping on the wire.

I'm not trying to recreate all of ssh, so it won't be appropriate for
really secret data.  It also won't protect against active attacks (DNS
spoofing, tcp takeover, etc).  But for mid-level security I think it
will help -- perhaps for backups of home directories and that kind of
thing.

Anybody interested?
-- 
Martin Pool
Church of tridge

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