Quantum Resistance and the Signal Protocol
Quantum Resistance and the Signal Protocol
The Signal Protocol is a set of cryptographic specifications that provides end-to-end encryption for private communications exchanged daily by billions of people around the world. After its publication in 2013, the Signal Protocol was adopted not only by Signal but well beyond. Technical informat...
We believe that the key encapsulation mechanism we have selected, CRYSTALS-Kyber, is built on solid foundations, but to be safe we do not want to simply replace our existing elliptic curve cryptography foundations with a post-quantum public key cryptosystem. Instead, we are augmenting our existing cryptosystems such that an attacker must break both systems in order to compute the keys protecting people’s communications.
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Our new protocol is already supported in the latest versions of Signal’s client applications and is in use for chats initiated after both sides of the chat are using the latest Signal software. In the coming months (after sufficient time has passed for everyone using Signal to update), we will disable X3DH for new chats and require PQXDH for all new chats. In parallel, we will roll out software updates to upgrade existing chats to this new protocol.
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Do we still like signal? I remember reading something about why you should stop using signal but this seems contrary to that
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Many people also fail to make a proper distinction between private and anonymous, which is why some people get mad at the phone number thing.
Ah, yes, I'm not giving an instant messenger application my phone number, it doesn't need it, especially if I'm not even using it on a phone.
That's private information that I only give out to close friends and family members.
Ok that makes sense
The phone number thing is a major problem but Signal just has the momentum imo. Ultimately, they're gonna need to fix it or we're all going to have to stop using it.
Why do we “have” to stop using it?
Private =/= anonymous
Signal is amazing
Anonymity is good but that's not the biggest problem with Signal's reliance on phone numbers. Phone numbers are just not secure and not designed to be authentication credentials. Phone services are vulnerable to a large number of exploits and that's never going to change. Signal has a number of mitigations to try preventing those exploits from hitting people but that's a bandage at best. Reliance on phone numbers is a gigantic weak point in Signal's privacy and security.
For every thing on this world, there will be people disliking this thing and being very vocal about it.
EFF still recommend Signal (and others) for people fitting various risk profiles: https://ssd.eff.org/