Merge pull request #1283 from ThomasWaldmann/backports-from-master-faq

backport some FAQ entries from master branch

docs/faq.rst

@@ -133,6 +133,50 @@ into the repository.
 Yes, as an attacker with access to the remote server could delete (or
 otherwise make unavailable) all your backups.
 
+How can I protect against a hacked backup client?
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+Assume you backup your backup client machine C to the backup server S and
+C gets hacked. In a simple push setup, the attacker could then use borg on
+C to delete all backups residing on S.
+
+These are your options to protect against that:
+
+- Do not allow to permanently delete data from the repo, see :ref:`append_only_mode`.
+- Use a pull-mode setup using ``ssh -R``, see :issue:`900`.
+- Mount C's filesystem on another machine and then create a backup of it.
+- Do not give C filesystem-level access to S.
+
+How can I protect against a hacked backup server?
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+Just in case you got the impression that pull-mode backups are way more safe
+than push-mode, you also need to consider the case that your backup server S
+gets hacked. In case S has access to a lot of clients C, that might bring you
+into even bigger trouble than a hacked backup client in the previous FAQ entry.
+
+These are your options to protect against that:
+
+- Use the standard push-mode setup (see also previous FAQ entry).
+- Mount (the repo part of) S's filesystem on C.
+- Do not give S file-system level access to C.
+- Have your backup server at a well protected place (maybe not reachable from
+  the internet), configure it safely, apply security updates, monitor it, ...
+
+How can I protect against theft, sabotage, lightning, fire, ...?
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In general: if your only backup medium is nearby the backupped machine and
+always connected, you can easily get into trouble: they likely share the same
+fate if something goes really wrong.
+
+Thus:
+
+- have multiple backup media
+- have media disconnected from network, power, computer
+- have media at another place
+- have a relatively recent backup on your media
+
 Why do I get "connection closed by remote" after a while?
 ---------------------------------------------------------
 
@@ -140,8 +184,7 @@ When doing a backup to a remote server (using a ssh: repo URL), it sometimes
 stops after a while (some minutes, hours, ... - not immediately) with
 "connection closed by remote" error message. Why?
 
-That's a good question and we are trying to find a good answer in
-`ticket 636 <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues/636>`_.
+That's a good question and we are trying to find a good answer in :issue:`636`.
 
 Why am I seeing idle borg serve processes on the repo server?
 -------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -275,7 +318,7 @@ control which we do not have (and also can't get, even if we wanted).
 So, if you need that, consider RAID or a filesystem that offers redundant
 storage or just make backups to different locations / different hardware.
 
-See also `ticket 225 <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues/225>`_.
+See also :issue:`225`.
 
 Can |project_name| verify data integrity of a backup archive?
 -------------------------------------------------------------

docs/usage.rst

@@ -718,6 +718,8 @@ Now, let's see how to restore some LVs from such a backup. ::
     $ borg extract --stdout /path/to/repo::arch dev/vg0/home-snapshot > /dev/vg0/home
 
 
+.. _append_only_mode:
+
 Append-only mode
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~