Getting started with Data Diodes

This Github is created to share knowledge about data diodes, also known as unidirectional gateways, to a wider audience. The data diode concept of unidirectional traffic is easy to understand but we noticed that when starting with the data diodes in the real world there are some barriers to overcome. This workshop will help you to start with the basic concept of data diodes while keeping the costs to a minimum

First issue is getting your hands on data diode hardware, which we solved in the hardware section.

Second issue is understanding how data is transferred through a data diode because unidirectional network traffic has some issues which can result in packet loss. This is described in Packet loss explained. We think this is one of the main issues you need to understand and overcome before implementing data diodes in production.

Last issue is getting your first successes when experimenting with data diodes in combination with software. It's a best practice to have a working setup before developing more complex implementations. For this we created the workshop based on open source tools to explain you step by step how to:

1. send a single message,
   
2. transfer a large (>1Gb+) batch file (stop using external drives) and
   
3. stream audio/video from the internet to an offline machine using the data diode.

By the end of the workshop you should be able to understand how to use data diodes in your own projects or research.

Summary

Workshop working with data diodes

Click here for the workshop

Packet loss (almost) explained

Packet loss explained

Example data-diode hardware setups

Datadiode hardware setups
Note: Try this demonstrator in combination with the workshop before buying or building a real data diode. €25 euro functional data-diode demonstrator

Various links

Various links to related content

Motivation

Interview on why this project is created

Help needed to improve this project

Linux kernel packet loss - Help needed!

keywords: cross domain solution, unidirectional gateway, l2 firewall, cyber, cybersecurity, ot security