On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 12:46:52 +0100
Pedro Melo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> 
> On Oct 2, 2008, at 8:34 AM, Jonathan Schleifer wrote:
> > Anyway, as we're currently on that OOB vs. IBB thing for E2E: I  
> > think using OOB is bad. Direct connections are a leak of privacy
> 
> (I'm assuming that your loss of privacy is the other party getting  
> your IP address)
> 
> Not necessarily. You are assuming OOB using direct connections I  
> assume, and forgetting about mediated connections.
> 
> Besides, the entire discussion about E2E assumes that parties will
> use certificates and some sort of trust-upgrade mechanism. I would
> say that the information inside the certificate is probably more
> privacy- important than my IP address, but other might disagree.

+1

If you don't want your IP to be known, you can still do that.

> I admit I find it hard to see how you can have a secure and
> *trusted* connection without loss of privacy. But I'm not an expert
> on security.

Secure connections just requires mutual authentication.

> 
> > and not very reliable.
> 
> I don't understand why a direct or mediated TCP connection is less  
> reliable than a C2S + S2S * 2 + C2S set of connections. I think a  
> direct connection is the most reliable of them all because I've got  
> instant notification when something goes wrong: the connection gets  
> dropped.
> 

I am very much for direct connections where possible if we're dealing
security and/or performance. Sensible decentralization is
already XMPP's advantage.

> I deal with lost stanzas everyday due to S2S fluctuations, and those  
> problems go away with direct connections. Even mediated connections  
> look better.

Good then.

> 
> > I think we should always use IBB for E2E, as long as it's only
> > text. ICQ demonstrated back then HOW bad this is.
> 
> I encourage exactly the opposite, specially in a corporate  
> environment. If I make sure the chat doesn't ever leave the local  
> network, I reduce the risk of snooping considerable.
> 

Correct, ICQ didn't demonstrate anything of this sort. I encourage the
opposite in all environments except maybe very special ones. Corporate
environment should though have its own XMPP server.

> Just because its encrypted, safe is still a relative term to your  
> paranoia level.

Yep. Somewhere it was unencrypted and somewhere it will be decrypted
again. Hopefully only by the right recipient :).

Pavel

-- 

Pavel Šimerda
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