5b029e6117
* Applying doc changes based on reviews of past several documentation PRs
* Update docs
Clean up encryption docs
Clean up security docs
Delete export.md
Make new formats.md and add to sidebar. Also add all of the built-in formats, and examples for each.
Update mkdocs config for new files
* Fix broken docs links
* Correct incomplete sentences and markdown formatting issues
* Make overview a little more concise
* Update some command line arguments to latest version and make it a bit more concise
* Clean up unneeded TOML modifications and other scaffolding not needed for 3.9
* Revert "Clean up unneeded TOML modifications and other scaffolding not needed for 3.9"
This reverts commit 13b4266ed1.
* Specify that brew is also the easiest way to install jrnl on Linux
* Update docs/security.md
* Update docs/recipes.md
* Doc updates:
- Remove import/export page, fold it into formats
- Rename security to privacy-and-security.md to avoid conflation w/ github security issues
- Various small cleanup and edits from PR review
Co-authored-by: Jonathan Wren <jonathan@nowandwren.com>
3.1 KiB
Privacy and Security
jrnl is designed with privacy and security in mind, but like any other
program there are some limitations to be aware of.
Password strength
jrnl doesn't enforce password strength requirements. Short or commonly-used
passwords can be easily circumvented by someone with basic security skills
to access to your encrypted jrnl file.
Shell history
Since you can enter entries from the command line, any tool that logs command line actions is a potential security risk. See below for how to deal with this problem in various shells.
bash
You can disable history logging for jrnl by adding this line into your
~/.bashrc file:
HISTIGNORE="$HISTIGNORE:jrnl *"
To delete existing jrnl commands from bash history, simply delete them from
your bash history file. The default location of this file is ~/.bash_history,
but you can run echo "$HISTFILE" to find it if needed. Also, you can run
history -c to delete all commands from your history.
zsh
You can disable history logging for jrnl by adding this to your ~/.zshrc
file:
setopt HIST_IGNORE_SPACE
alias jrnl=" jrnl"
To delete existing jrnl commands from zsh history, simply remove them from
your zsh history file. The default location of this file is ~/.zsh_history,
but you can run echo "$HISTFILE" to find it if needed. Also, you can run
history -c to delete all commands from your history.
fish
By default fish will not log any command that starts with a space. If you
want to always run jrnl with a space before it, then you can add this to your
~/.config/fish/config.fish file:
abbr --add jrnl " jrnl"
To delete existing jrnl commands from fish history, run history delete --prefix 'jrnl '.
Windows Command Prompt
Windows doesn't log history to disk, but it does keep it in your command prompt
session. Close the command prompt or press Alt+F7 to clear your history
after journaling.
Files in transit from editor to jrnl
When creating or editing an entry, jrnl uses a unencrypted temporary file on
disk in order to give your editor access to your journal. After you close your
editor, jrnl then deletes this temporary file.
So, if you have saved a journal entry but haven't closed your editor yet, the
unencrypted temporary remains on your disk. If your computer were to shut off
during this time, or the jrnl process were killed unexpectedly, then the
unencrypted temporary file will remain on your disk. You can mitigate this
issue by only saving with your editor right before closing it. You can also
manually delete these files (i.e. files named jrnl_*.txt) from your temporary
folder.
Plausible deniability
You may be able to hide the contents of your journal behind a layer of encryption, but if someone has access to your configuration file, then they can figure out that you have a journal, where that journal file is, and when you last edited it. With a sufficient power imbalance, someone may be able to force you to unencrypt it through non-technical means.
Notice any other risks?
Please let the maintainers know by filing an issue on GitHub.