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Git 3.0's upcoming SHA-256 default will be a costly mistake

570 points · 536 comments · chmaynard

  1. ltbarcly3 · · focus · HN ↗
    This seems like Y2K fud.

    The alternative to making sha256 the default is to leave sha1 the default. Nobody changes to sha256. sha1 is broken in 10 years. Suddenly everyone has to switch all at once on the same day because it is a critical security issue, but github never implemented sha256 because they didn't have to. This would be a major problem.

    This is very very easy to fix if you run into it.

    1. Adopt git 3.0 if you can with sha256.

    2. If you can't use sha256, set the config to put things back to sha1. Wherever you need to do this you probably already set dozens of ENV vars or settings, just add a new one.

    Or write a 15 page analysis about how the above is so hard people will probably just find it catastrophic to even think about.

    1. OutOfHere · · focus · HN ↗
      For the record, Y2K was not fud. It was very real, in a long list of datetime problems that are to come. Further datetime problems are coming at scheduled dates.
      1. bigstrat2003 · · focus · HN ↗
        It was definitely FUD. There was a real problem (date counters would roll over), but the impacts of it were so ridiculously overstated that it eclipsed any sane discussion of the issue. We had people at the time predicting that planes would literally fall out of the sky when Y2k hit, which was never a realistic possibility.
        1. OutOfHere · · focus · HN ↗
          That's the problem with deniers. When responsible persons take preemptive action to prevent tragedy, like with Y2K, the diners say it was FUD. When people don't take action, like with climate change, they say it wasn't important considering it's not them who's dead, totally discounting those who have suffered or died as a consequence. In summary, the deniers are so incompetent that they can't be trusted to correctly maintain a car, let alone civilization, considering they would never even the replace the necessary parts at the right schedules in their car.
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