How to use beempy in tails (e.g. for changing the account keys)

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Tails is a great solution to access a secure computer from everywhere. I think using tails could increase security when broadcast everything that involves the owner key. When using tails is much more unlikely that the clipboard or the key strokes are leaked to a hacker.

The only remaining problem is how to get the owner key into tails, so that I'm able to change my keys? The best solution seems to be to use a VeryCrypt container which is supported by tails. An encrypted zip file could also be a solution. It is also possible to copy the beem wallet sqlite file (file location is shown by beempy walletinfo).

Install tails to a USB stick

Just follow the instructions on their website: https://tails.boum.org/install/index.en.html

Boot into tails

It is important to setup an administrator password, as we need to install some packages:

More information can be found on the website.

Create a Persistant storage

A persistant storage can be created at Applications / Tails / Configure persistent volume

You need to enable at least the following features:

  • Personal Data
  • Additional Software
  • Dotfiles

My persistent configuration

Installing packages

At first we need to open the root terminal:

Choose Applications / System Tools / Root Terminal.

Then we need to update the packages:

apt-get update

and install the necessary packages:

apt install build-essential libssl-dev python3-appdirs python3-click-plugins python3-dev python3-pip python3-prettytable python3-pycryptodome python3-ruamel.yaml python3-scrypt python3-setuptools python3-websocket

When asked, select the option to install these packages at every startup of tails.

Installing beem

Now the following python source files needs to be downloaded with the Tor-Browser:

  • click-shell from pypi
  • beem from pypi
  • diff_match_patch fro pypi

Store them directly in the Tor browser directory.

We need now to install these three packages as user:

mv ~/Tor\ Browser/* ~/Persistent/
cd ~/Persistent/
tar xvzf diff-match-patch-20200713.tar.gz
tar xvzf click-shell-2.0.tar.gz
tar xvzf beem-0.24.15.tar.gz
cd diff-match-patch-20200713
python3 setup.py install --user
cd ..
cd click-shell-2.0
python3 setup.py install --user
cd ..
cd beem-0.24.15
python3 setup.py install --user
cd ..

Now we add beempy to the path:

nano ~/.bashrc

and add

PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Make changes persistent

mkdir -p /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages
mkdir -p /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/.local/bin

and copy the installed packages to the persistant folder:

cp -r /home/amnesia/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/* /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages
cp /home/amnesia/.local/bin/beempy /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/.local/bin/
cp /home/amnesia/.bashrc /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/

The beempy command can be started with (it may be needed to write bash and return when there was no restart after changing the bashrc)

beempy

After doing

beempy set use_tor true

everything should be working.

Making the wallet persistent

The location of the wallet sqlite file can be shown with

beempy walletinfo

The following commands make the wallet persistant:

mkdir -p /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/.local/share/beem/
cp /home/amnesia/.local/share/beem/beem.sqlite /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/dotfiles/.local/share/beem/

beem is now ready to use

After applying all these changes, beem and beempy should be work after rebooting into tails and unlocking the persistant volume.

Tails can now be used for operations that need the owner key as key changing or recovery account change.


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