Protecting source code

As I mentioned on the missing iDeveloper.tv Live episode, one of the consequences of the Gawker hack was that their source code for their internal software was leaked into the Internet. I doubt any of my readers would want that to happen to their code, so I’m going to share the details of how I protect my clients’ code when I’m working. Maybe some of this will work for you.

In the office, I work at a desktop iMac. This has an external time machine backup disk and a DropBox for off-site storage. However, client code does _not_ go onto the DropBox. Instead I keep a separate, encrypted sparse disk image for each project I’m working on. The password for each is different. As well as protecting against snooping, this helps stop cross-contamination. I rarely have two such images mounted at once. Note that it’s not just source that goes into these images: build products, notes, Instruments traces, and images all go into the encrypted containers.

Obviously that means a lot of passwords, and no I can’t remember them all. I use a keychain. It locks automatically when not in use, and has a passphrase that’s different from my login passphrase.

The devices I test on are all encrypted where available (if a client needs me to test on an iPhone 3G, then I can, but it isn’t encrypted). They are passphrase locked, set to require passphrase immediately. And I NEVER take them away from the desk before deleting any developer builds, unless I need to do something special like a real-world location services test.

I rarely do coding work on the laptop, but when I do I copy the appropriate encrypted image onto it. The laptop additionally has FileVault configured, though I’m evaluating full-disk encryption options. Keychain configuration as above, additionally with a password required on wake from sleep or screensaver, and a firmware password.

For pushing work back to the clients, most clients use github or bitbucket which offer SSL-encrypted connections to the repositories. Personally, I have a self-run repo host available over HTTPS or SSH, but will probably move that to a github-like service because life’s too short. Their security policy seems acceptable to me.