Encrypting PubSub node items
Good day to one and all! I have been contemplating the idea of utilizing PubSub as a platform to synchronize browser bookmarks, history and tabs. See article "XMPP For Browsers" at The XMPP Newsletter of November 2024. I have received crucial criticism by the Pale Moon developers due to neglegence of encryption. It is not in my intention to neglegence encryption, yet I do not intend to add encryption before a working prototype. Schimon:
There is no storage encryption yet. I do not know whether it is necessary
Moonchild:
Unacceptable. Nobody but the end user should be able to access the stored data. Encryption is required, and encryption should be set up in such a way that nobody aside from the end user (not even the server admin) has access to this data. Storing everything in plaintext in an XMPP service instance is ridiculous.
That said, the owner of the server must not have any access to the data. However, I am thinking of encrypting the data, yet I do not how to implement such system which will be possible to decrypt only by the owner of the data, and I also do not know how to handle a situation in which an encryption key was lost. Links: https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?t=31900 https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/woodpeckersnest.space/~schapps/journal/2024-11... gemini://woodpeckersnest.space/~schapps/journal/2024-11-28-xmpp-for-browsers.gmi https://xmpp.org/2024/12/the-xmpp-newsletter-november-2024/ Happy new year! Schimon
Hi and Happy New Year Schimon. Le lundi 6 janvier 2025, 14:06:28 heure normale d’Europe centrale Schimon Jehudah a écrit :
However, I am thinking of encrypting the data, yet I do not how to implement such system which will be possible to decrypt only by the owner of the data, and I also do not know how to handle a situation in which an encryption key was lost.
There are currently 2 specified e2ee mechanisms for pubsub: - XEP-0473: OpenPGP for XMPP Pubsub , this is probably what you want to use. - XEP-0477: Pubsub Targeted Encryption, this is more for ad-hoc item encryption, and can be used with OMEMO (so you can have PFS). But in your use case, I thing that XEP-0473 is more adapted (and probably easier to implement). Note that Libervia implements both, if you wanna test your implementation. Best, Goffi
Goffi. Good evening! On Mon, 06 Jan 2025 18:17:23 +0100 Goffi <goffi@goffi.org> wrote:
Hi and Happy New Year Schimon.
Le lundi 6 janvier 2025, 14:06:28 heure normale d’Europe centrale Schimon Jehudah a écrit :
However, I am thinking of encrypting the data, yet I do not how to implement such system which will be possible to decrypt only by the owner of the data, and I also do not know how to handle a situation in which an encryption key was lost.
There are currently 2 specified e2ee mechanisms for pubsub:
- XEP-0473: OpenPGP for XMPP Pubsub , this is probably what you want to use.
- XEP-0477: Pubsub Targeted Encryption, this is more for ad-hoc item encryption, and can be used with OMEMO (so you can have PFS). But in your use case, I thing that XEP-0473 is more adapted (and probably easier to implement).
Yes. I think that I will utilize XEP-0473: OpenPGP for XMPP Pubsub.
Note that Libervia implements both, if you wanna test your implementation.
Thank you very much for the advise! I will surely do so.
Best, Goffi
Regards, Schimon
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Schimon Jehudah