Launchpad has imported 3 comments from the remote bug at
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30419.

If you reply to an imported comment from within Launchpad, your comment
will be sent to the remote bug automatically. Read more about
Launchpad's inter-bugtracker facilities at
https://help.launchpad.net/InterBugTracking.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 2010-09-28T06:19:10+00:00 Singpolyma wrote:

The FAQ lists XEP-0246+TLS as the preferred way to do e2e encryption
(hopefully with RFC5081).  That XEP, however, is deferred and not
recommended for implementation.  XEP-0027, however, is historical and
already supported by many clients (Psi, Gajim, etc).  Implementation of
XEP-0246, therefore, is implementing something few (if any) others do,
and which likely no one ever will (since deferred XEPs are usually
replaced by something else later, and not "reactivated"), whereas
implementing XEP-0027 would give telepathy-gabble users in-protocol end-
to-end OpenPGP strong encryption that is immediately compatible with
existing clients and practices.

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/empathy/+bug/348082/comments/4

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 2011-01-03T05:28:09+00:00 Maciej Piechotka wrote:

*** Bug 16707 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/empathy/+bug/348082/comments/7

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 2012-07-17T18:56:05+00:00 Simon McVittie wrote:

Realistically, I think this is WONTFIX. XEP-0027 has some pretty serious
flaws, and I would rather see effort go into XTLS and/or OTR.

(In reply to comment #0)
> The FAQ lists XEP-0246+TLS as the preferred way to do e2e encryption 
> (hopefully
> with RFC5081).  That XEP, however, is deferred and not recommended for
> implementation.

XTLS, the former XEP-0246, has morphed into an Internet-Draft,
<https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-meyer-xmpp-e2e-encryption-02>. I
still think this is a better approach to strong cryptography in XMPP
than XEP-0027.

The reason nobody has implemented it yet is that good security is
difficult. I think if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

OTR ("off-the-record messaging" as implemented in a Pidgin plugin) is
another option: it's not as flexible as XTLS, but is considerably better
than XEP-0027.

Some thoughts about the right way to do strong cryptography in XMPP,
with specific reference to XTLS and OTR:
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/telepathy/2012-June/006122.html>

> implementing XEP-0027 would give telepathy-gabble users
> in-protocol end-to-end OpenPGP strong encryption

Let's see how that compares with the potentially-desirable security
properties in my mail "Goals for end-to-end security" to the list.

Confidentiality: yes, confidentiality is provided for messages. (I seem
to remember hearing that encrypting messages without also signing them
is a bad idea for some obscure cryptographic reason, but I can't find a
reliable reference for that, so I could be wrong.)

Integrity: no, the integrity of messages is not protected. In
particular, each message is entirely separate, so a "man in the middle"
can silently drop some of your messages and you'll never know. In
addition, the integrity of individual messages is only protected if you
violate the XEP by signing as well as encrypting.

Deniability: yes, unless you violate the XEP and sign the messages as
well as encrypting them.

Non-repudiability: no, unless you violate the XEP and sign the messages
as well as encrypting them. (XTLS and OTR don't provide this either. I
think this is appropriate.)

Strong authentication: yes if you verify key ownership out-of-band,
otherwise no.

Weak authentication: no, nothing in the XMPP connection indicates which
key the peer should expect to use.

Weak anonymity: yes if you use gpg --throw-keyids, otherwise no.

Strong anonymity: yes if you use gpg --throw-keyids, otherwise no. (XTLS
and OTR don't provide this either. I think this is reasonable - secure
anonymity is hard.)

Replay-protection: no, even if you violate the XEP and sign the messages
as well as encrypting them. (In any case, you probably don't want a
signed IM saying something like "yes, I agree", without context, to be
something that exists... )

Perfect forward secrecy: no, losing control of the decryption key makes
all past conversations decryptable.

--------

Some other interesting features of XEP-0027:

* it signs your presence (not very usefully, since it's vulnerable to
replay attacks, and I'm not at all convinced that signing presence
broadcasts is even useful)

* it's incredibly verbose for IMs (there's a significant per-message
overhead, which is proportionally larger for IMs since they tend to be
short)

* it can only carry the text <body> of a message, not XML (like OTR, but
unlike XTLS)

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/empathy/+bug/348082/comments/9


** Changed in: telepathy-gabble
       Status: Unknown => Confirmed

** Changed in: telepathy-gabble
   Importance: Unknown => Medium

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/348082

Title:
  Add GPG encryption

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/empathy/+bug/348082/+subscriptions

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs

Reply via email to