Hi,

I just saw that in the EFF messaging scorecard [1], the column for forward 
secrecy gives a tick even if the application does not actually have forward 
secrecy:

"Note: For this phase of the campaign, we accept [..] forward secrecy on the 
transport layer [..] and non-forward-secret end-to-end encryption, plus an 
explicit guarantee that ciphertexts are not logged by the provider. This is a 
compromise [..] but we prefer this setup to having no forward secrecy at all."

According to the changelog, this clarification was added on 2015-01-29, but the 
wording of the changelog entry seems to imply that this criteria was *applied* 
in older versions of the table as well, just not clarified.

Together with the clarification for #1 ("Note that we are not requiring 
encryption of data that is transmitted on a company network, though that is 
ideal.") these caveats, if both satisfied in the weakest way, do not give us 
much confidence - "SSL added and removed here". Holes that are this big, render 
extra strength in the rest of the system worth not much more than a marketing 
exercise, like using 4096bit DH with MD5, and also pollutes the meaning of the 
other ticks in those columns.

I'm not going to suggest that you should change the table to be more strict; 
it's your table and you can do it how you like. However, do you have the raw 
data behind the tick/cross ratings?

For example, I seem to remember being told that Threema uses forward-secure TLS 
but non-forward-secure end-to-end encryption. So that's why they have a tick on 
this table. But then I wonder which other systems do this, instead of having 
actual forward secrecy.

X

[1] https://www.eff.org/secure-messaging-scorecard

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