[HN Gopher] What Is the Signal Encryption Protocol? ___________________________________________________________________ What Is the Signal Encryption Protocol? Author : headalgorithm Score : 25 points Date : 2020-11-29 13:01 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.wired.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com) | upofadown wrote: | This article mentions an important fact about forward secrecy: | | >Perfect forward secrecy is useless, it's important to note, if | users don't delete their messages periodically. | | Then: | | >The Signal app offers disappearing messages that are | automatically deleted after a certain time limit. | | Which is not turned on by default. The user has to somehow know | that they have to do this to get the benefit of forward secrecy. | This seems all too common with contemporary encrypted messaging | stuff. Really great features that depend on having the users | behave in a way they normally would not. | | Of course the app can do this wrong simply by failing to do a | secure delete that actually removes the messages from the storage | device. In the end the actual communications protocol doesn't | make very much difference in the face of counter productive | implementations; conceptual and/or technical. | xiaomai wrote: | I think not having it disappear by default is reasonable. My | biggest complaint about signal is how hard it is to preserve | history (backing up / transferring to new devices). I think the | normal expectation is that your data is not going to | automatically disappear unless you ask it to. | asquabventured wrote: | When was the last time you moved devices? I was able to | wirelessly import my entire years old messaging and contact | database when I switched iOS devices ~10 months ago. I don't | recall if it used NFC, Bluetooth or having to be connected to | the same WiFi network but it worked impressively well at the | time. | xiaomai wrote: | one thing i have done recently that definitely didn't work | is syncing history from phone->desktop. i haven't gone | phone->phone in at least a couple years though--good to | hear that that's working better. | bilal4hmed wrote: | They recently improved it on iOS | https://signal.org/blog/ios-device-transfer/ | | on Android you have to do it manually and its by no means | easy or intuitive if you are an everyday user. Whatsapp | nails this experience on Android with the back up and | transfer capability | jaywalk wrote: | The iOS transfer process uses the same technology as | AirDrop, what Apple calls Multipeer Connectivity: https://d | eveloper.apple.com/documentation/multipeerconnectiv... | | The phones create their own ad-hoc Wi-Fi network, similar | to Wi-Fi Direct. | neckardt wrote: | I have the opposite problem where I can't turn disappearing | messages on by default. Every time I create a new | conversation I have to manually set messages to disappear | after a week which I often forget to do. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-11-30 23:00 UTC)