Cheshire Cat Computing

The Webdropoff 2.1 package is now available. This is still to be regarded as beta although no problems have been found here so far. The encryption facility is still relatively young and problems may arise.

You can see the software in use by The University of Auckland at https://webdropoff.auckland.ac.nz/

You can collect the updated package and the Windows executable xpickup (used to collect and decrypt public-key encrypted files on the WebDropoff server from the local workstation) from https://webdropoff.auckland.ac.nz/software/

These are both gzipped-tar files and should be accessible by the normal methods. Installation instructions are contained with the first file.

The new V2.1 has the following changes:

• Encryption and decryption work correctly
• Xpickup stores configuration in registry
• makekeypair allows deletion of existing keys
• makekeypair will work for non-authenticated users (via email challenge/response)
• LDAP modules only loaded if required
• Caution on dropoff webpage moved to dropoff.conf for customisation
• waiting script now has header and footer
• Version numbering made consistent between files

Version 2.4 adds some more bug fixes and configurability, and proper support for files >2GB (if using apache 2.2 or later)

The system has the following features:

• Authenticate user's email address either via local LDAP or via emailed challenge/response
• Dropped files checksummed to prevent subsequent tampering
• Client location and destination addresses checked to allow/disallow sending between internal and external users
• Encrypted dropoff available using 448-bit keys and public/private RSA keys
• Local workstation encrypted pickup utility so that private key does not have to be sent to server
• Configurable stylesheet, headers/footers, and Caution message
• Admin utility to allow browsing of dropoff contents to check for illegal content (cannot decrypt though)
• Some support for SMTP-dropoff, enabling Scan-to-email devices (EG: RICOH MFDs) to scan direct to dropoff
• Preserves MIME-type and filename of uploaded files and restores them on pickup

If there are any problems or difficulties in installing or configuring, please either email me on s.shipway@auckland.ac.nz or contact via the forums on http://www.steveshipway.org/forum/

_________________
Steve Shipway
UNIX Systems, ITSS, University of Auckland, NZ
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning... -- Isaiah 5:11

Nice to see Webdropoff 2.1 package. I just it keeps up to the mark. Will update if I have any bugs.

Hi Steve,

I undertsand the two services (for university students and for "others"), and I've also read the statements (only legal material, 1 file at a time, still free for now and so on).
Does it mean I can recommend it to my network ?

Best regards,
Yann

If you mean to recommend for use on your system, then that would be up to you.

The features are listed above, if this meets your requirements then by all means install it and see how it works for you. Its open source so you're free to use it as you choose.

We have two ways to access the CGI, one that uses our single signon system (for university people) that requires no further authentication, and one for non-university people that requires an additional email address verification. Both in fact use the same script, which behaves differently depending on whether or not the REMOTE_USER CGI var has been set.

_________________
Steve Shipway
UNIX Systems, ITSS, University of Auckland, NZ
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning... -- Isaiah 5:11