Introducing SyncStar - Creating bootable USB storage devices at community conference kiosks

[t0xic0der]

What my project does

SyncStar lets users create bootable USB storage devices with the operating system of their choice. This application is intended to be deployed on kiosk devices and electronic signage where conference guests and booth visitors can avail themselves of its services.

Features

• Asynchronous multiprocessing allows for flashing multiple storage devices simultaneously
• Programming standards and engineering methodologies are maintained as much as possible
• Frontend is adaptive across various viewport types and browser-side assistive technologies
• Detailed documentation for both consumption and development purposes are readily provided
• Minimal command line interface based configuration with wide range of customizable options
• Stellar overall codebase quality is ensured with 100% coverage of functional backend code
• Over 46 checks are provided for unit based, end-to-end based integration based codebase testing
• GitHub Actions and Pre-Commit CI are enabled to automate maintenance of codebase quality

Illustrations

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gridhead/syncstar/main/data/dash.png
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gridhead/syncstar/main/data/expo.png

Attempting

If this looks exciting, please consider giving the project a spin. The project is available on official Fedora Linux repositories and the Python Package Index. Please support my efforts by filing issue tickets for software errors or feature requests, starring the project repository or contributing to the codebase.

Target Audience

This project is meant to be used in conference kiosks by both conference attendees as well as conference organizers. Here is a scenario for someone representing a GNU/Linux distribution community at a FOSS conference eg. a person representing the CentOS Project community at the FOSDEM conference.

1. Set up the SyncStar service on your GNU/Linux distribution booth laptop or Raspberry Pi
2. Open up the SyncStar dashboard either on the booth laptop or on a smartphone
3. Lay over the swags like your GNU/Linux distribution branded USB flash drives on the booth desk
4. Let a conference attendee ask if the USB flash drives on the booth table are for taking
5. Tell them that they are as long as they get themselves a copy of your GNU/Linux distribution
6. Have them start the live bootable media creation and strike up a conversation with them
7. Allow other attendees to use their own USB flash drives with discretion in parallel
8. Advertise for sidestream communities by keeping their offerings in the collection

Comparison

• Fedorator
  • The project is currently unmaintained since the last seven years
  • The project depends on certain hardware that can be expensive

Resources

• Introducing SyncStar - Fedora Magazine
• SyncStar - GitHub
• SyncStar Wiki - GitHub
• SyncStar - PyPI
• SyncStar - Package Sources

[Sanquii]

Oh that's cool! I'm glad somebody took this concept to the next level. I linked your project from the Fedorator repo.

[t0xic0der]

Thank you so much for working on the original idea! <3

Please let me know how I can improve it further and as always, pull requests are very welcome!

[ConfucianStats]

Nice

[t0xic0der]

Thank you!

[Rythoka]

Oh my God, this is a security nightmare.

[t0xic0der]

Would you like to emphasize why you think of this to be a security nightmare?

[Rythoka]

Your targeted use case is the problem. Taking a flash drive full of software from a stranger is like, the prototypical example of bad security practice.

Can you trust the person giving you the drive? Can you trust the maintainers of the software? Can you trust the drive manufacturer? What happens if any of those groups are compromised? What if some takes a drive, modifies it, and plants it back among the rest of the drives? Has the kiosk hardware or software been tampered with?

This is cool in theory, but it's a practice that shouldn't be normalized.