this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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XMPP
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XMPP (aka Jabber) is the community-owned standard for real-time federated messaging.
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Despite the strong opinions expressed, they didn't actually find any real issues?
It's clear that they have no objections against the latest version of OMEMO (which is very similar to Signal's e2ee anyways), and the problem with the earlier version is more theoretical in nature. But yes, it would be nice if more clients would upgrade to OMEMO v0.8, but at least for Conversations there are some upstream library deficiencies that make it hard to do so.
Well, there is something mentioned about latest version of omemo:
Then on one of the comments, there's an interesting comment on something signal has mentioned it's working on quantum resistance, that it's no clear is something omemo will support, and even less when clients might adopt if eventually available:
Somehow is implied on the comment that omemo is immature compared to libsignal...
At any rate, dino uses libsignal-protocol-c (on Artix/Arch 2.3.3), not libomemo, and conversations uses libaxolotle-java (according to the "about" section in the settings). So somehow using signal library underneath. Although I have no idea how up to date with regards to the signal library those might be (though the axolotl dependency on conversations allows to think it's outdated). And for conversations the author mentions:
I guess by 1st party the author means like copy/paste the code (with local twists, which might be dangerous but perhaps necessary) to have a local version of the libraries. This sounds like a non version related criticism, but it's client related rather than protocol related, however the author mentions other clients are way worse, leaving no hope...
I don't see on dino an option to always use omemo BTW, not sure if dino just it implies omemo by default, but it doesn't have a way to force it. Perhaps a feature to ask dino developers...
At any rate, according the post there's little hope for xmpp + omemo. Which was actually something I was still hoping for, well, besides getting jami working at some point (but it has crypto issues on its own, including lack of auditing).
I don't find "the change-log lacks detail" to be a serious critique. That's just grasping for straws to support a preconceived opinion.
As for "post-quantum" encryption... I have a hard time taking people serious that use such buzz-words, when quantum computing is still largely a theoretical concept with no real-world application. Sure, it's worth researching cryptographic concepts that are resilient to this hypothetical attack, but everyone that peddles that stuff today in e2ee messengers is a snake-oil vendor.
As for mandatory e2ee, let's just say that opinions differ on that, and it's not a valid critique of the security of a messenger whether nor not it enforces e2ee. I personally prefer choice with good defaults.
I see, thanks !