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Client-Server Instant Messengers (IM)

General Tor and Anonymity Talk
#6

The Signal client is open-source. Portions of the Signal server are not open-source. In particular, the portions written by the NSA. (joke!) It’s not very clear why. But it wouldn’t really matter since Open Whisper Systems runs all the servers and could change the running code to some extent. This brings up another issue with Signal, besides the fact that it runs on iOS/Android. Here we have Privacy by Policy - their claim that they only keep limited metadata - that is difficult to work around. With OTR, I can simultaneously have 20 accounts on 20 different XMPP servers on 20 Tor circuits - not sure if that’s possible with Signal.

Google Play services are used as a convenient delivery mechanism and most importantly, for Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) - the notification engine. AFAIK it is possible to install Signal on a rooted phone using F-Droid and also possible to avoid GCM by installing GmsCore. Signal also accepts registrations coming from VOIP numbers, which should open up the program to Android emulators. [Still too many unknowns with Android and Signal servers for my paranoia.]

@HulaHoop pieces of shit noted. Will update OP and add task to my wiki list. :wink: Also, any comments regarding the little bit about hosting your own XMPP server? Obviously, it’s better for you than your contacts but any obvious deficiencies? Is there inter-server leakage when all activity (registration and messaging) occurs on one server? It could be a decent workaround when a paranoid Whonix user needs to communicate with OTR-only contacts…

2 Likes
#7

I think you’re right. Is it just me or is all the I2P documentation stored on .i2p servers? I can’t find any information from the outside.
@goldstein Can you confirm?

Also, I added a blurb on coyIM then saw your old thread about it + Moxie dick moves:
A secure replacement for Pidgin
Will pull info from that thread. Maybe a table is in order…

2 Likes
#8

I think a good rubric for recommending IM programs is:

*Written in a type safe language
*Encryption is the built-in default not a plugin
*The code is audited

Bonus points:

*No metadata collection possible
*PQ Crypto
*OMEMO support

2 Likes
#9

Gajim Notes:

  • Gajim, plugins, and libraries written in Python (all unaudited)
  • OTR plugin is not installed by default; can be installed manually or by using …
  • … Plugin Installer (v0.11.40) that leaks DNS and ignores Gajim’s global proxy setting.
  • plugins are not signed - but only relevant for OTR plugin because …
  • releases of gajim, python-potr, gajim-omeemo, and python-axolotl included in debian repos
  • python-axolotl is a close 1:1 port of audited libaxolotl-android
  • easy omemo setup: apt-get -t jessie-backports gajim-omemo
  • no manual certificate pinning (use .onion servers or trust PKI)
  • easy stream isolation of contacts accounts
  • separate setting for ‘Log encrypted chat session’… but it’s enabled by default.
  • metadata / environment leaky options enabled by default (can be disabled)

Note on XMPP Privacy from https://securejabber.me/en_security.html:

XMPP was designed long time ago without anonymity kept in mind. Depending on the capabilities of your XMPP client it may leak some sensitive information about your software configuration such as the time on your machine, your timezone, geolocation (XEP-0080), version of your operating system and version of your XMPP client. Some XMPP clients can also download a content (pictures, files) authomatically that may be used by attacker to reveal your IP address. Thus, if anonymity matters for you, it is always better to run XMPP client inside some virtual operating system (on virtual machine), that doesn’t share its software configuraton with your main operating system.

1 Like
#10

Tor Messenger (v0.2.0b2):

  • written in JavaScript and based on mature InstantBird code
  • OTR enabled by default
  • not in Debian repo, but has signed portable installation and built-in updater
  • clumsy interface, wrt account connectivity
  • only global status options (can’t set per account)
  • has fewer user-configurable privacy options (compared to pidgin, gajim). Hopefully, that’s because they’re all set to safe defaults.
  • default has no stream-isolation: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/14382. Whonix + Tor Messenger has stream isolation per xmpp server because port 9152 has IsolateDestAddr on Whonix-Gateway. Multiple accounts on same server will share circuits. Needs per-account proxy settings as is common on other chat clients.
  • flexible OTR fingerprint verification + future CONIKS
  • still WIP so things like interface and customizability likely to change
1 Like
#11

CoyIM (v0.3.7):

wow.wow.wow. Love what I’m reading here: https://coy.im/about/
These guys are our kindred spirits. If coyIM does what it says it does, Tor Messenger is dead-on-arrival.

I’ll mostly just be repeating what’s on their About page… so what… it’s good.

  • new release yesterday. previous release 2 months ago. active development.
  • written in Golang.
  • supports one protocol (xmpp).

The goal of CoyIM is not to have every feature under the sun. Instead we want to carefully pick and choose the features that are necessary to create a good chat experience, while keeping the attack surface of the system to a minimum.

  • built-in OTR enabled by default. Tor enabled if present. (confirmed using netstat - port 9050).
  • ! automatically connects to onion version of xmpp server if it exists (confirmed)
  • ! automatic stream isolation of accounts (confirmed using onioncircuits: two accounts on same server going to same dest address and port were routed over different circuits. ?using IsolateSocksAuth like Tor Browser?)
  • (probably not a long enough delay to matter but it’s a nice touch)

If more than one account is configured, when connecting CoyIM will insert random delays before connecting to each account, in order to make fingerprinting of connections between accounts harder

  • yellow banner on top of home page indicating unaudited. nice transparency.
  • optionally encrypted config files
  • safe defaults
  • all dialog options explained clearly on the dialog
  • blob is signed. navigate to download directory for sigs

On their wishlist:

  • disposable one-click xmpp accounts
  • reproducible builds

Blacklisted features:

  • hyperlinks
  • browser views
  • emoticons!
  • less config options are better
  • logging, maybe (personally, I wouldn’t mind having this)

Issue tracker looks pretty clean. Mostly UX stuff. Some tickets worth watching:

Audit Progress: https://github.com/twstrike/coyim/issues/297
Mandatory OTR: https://github.com/twstrike/coyim/issues/270 ; coming next release
Debian packaging: https://github.com/twstrike/coyim/issues/260 ; coming days timeframe
Fedora packaging: https://github.com/twstrike/coyim/issues/197 ; also coming soon
Sandboxing: https://github.com/twstrike/coyim/issues/108 ; leaning toward seccomp but apparmor also mentioned

This seems like a no-brainer for Whonix 14!

EDIT: I need to re-test the isolation using non-hidden services. I know streams going to different HS are isolated from each other. (per https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2012-September/025432.html) I’m not sure if multiple streams going to same HS share circuits or not.

EDIT2: re-tested with non-onion jabber servers and stream isolation still works. fyi coyIM won’t allow connections to clearnet servers if an onion server exists.

#12

Also, EFF will be releasing their new Secure Messaging Guide soon:

Version 1.0 was rather… weak:

Recognizing that unpublished audits can be valuable, we do not require that the results of the audit have been made public, only that a named party is willing to verify that the audit took place.

Hmm… (those private audits also included closed-source apps).
Translation: “Trust us when we say that our audit (which no one has seen) says that this program has solid code (which no one has seen).”

1 Like
#13

Good day,

Wait what?! SO THEY DIDN’T EVEN REQUIRE RELEASING THE RESULT?!?! What purpose does that serve?

I can only think of this one:

Source: http://xkcd.com/1096/

Actually, if the RESULTS (still can’t get over that part) aren’t even required to be released, even that translation is to good. That XKCD fits really perfectly for this.

Have a nice day,

Ego

2 Likes
#14

Had a closer look at gajim because gajim and a gajim OMEO plugin are installable from packages.debian.org. Here are the notes that came out of it.

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Chat#Gajim

Great stuff in this thread!

FYI unmessage. Had quite some discussions with its developer recently. They even added experimental VoIP support recently!

How to their encryption features compare to OTR and/or OMEMO?

They use the same circuit unless they are using a different SocksPort or socks user name.

#15

ricochet does not use an inside application encryption layer. The only encryption is the one used by Tor onions. Therefore it does not provide OTR like encryption features. Maybe not catastrophic but also not great. Source:

unMessage uses stronger encryption, Double Ratchet Algorithm for in application encryption, which is similar to OMEMO (which is similar to OTR). More details:

1 Like
#16

The ‘Wire’ chat is created by Estonian ex-Skype mastermind (pre MS takeover) announced that they will opensource both client and server code. Multiple code audits over time show they are improving their codebase. The most recent by JP Aumasson (who uncovered bugs in Signal) confirms its robust crypto implementation. IM protocol uses Moxie’s ratchet. VoIP recently became E2E encrypted otherwise past notes say its RTP with SRTP. E2E encrypted group VoIP planned which no other major client has:

RTP is usually UDP based. Now that they are open source we can potentially ask for a TCP implementation like they did for Skype before. Maybe suggest Tor support too.


Licensing:

Server still has some proprietary components as of now (April 2017) but opening it up.

Both components client and server are released under strong copyleft licenses. However I noticed there are extra restrictions on client modification if the derivative app wants to connect to the Wire company server - that seems normal considering projects like Signal even forbid this from happening at all. They are aiming for a federated network anyhow so this restriction is less problematic long term.

Another point is contributions must happen under a CLA. Looking thru it: it seems a defensive agreement to make sure no one can abuse patents against them, copyrights are co-owned between contributors and them, promises that any contributions will be kept under an OSI or FSF license. Sounds reasonable.

1 Like
#17

Relevant tickets:




https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/please-add-wire/

1 Like
#18

Updates:

  1. When UDP not possible it falls back to TLS/TCP
  2. PQ Crypto considered too new for implementing by them
1 Like
#19

Some progress on gajim was made. gajim has a separate thread:

https://forums.whonix.org/t/gajim-messenger

#20

Odd fact: signal (android app) does not work on a phone without google installed. Requires google services to run.

There’s more. I have a few online friends who keep dragging me into signal. But my main problem isn’t signal requiring google (which I’m not a fan of, for obvious reasons). My problem is that I don’t own a cellphone at all. I was glad when the users won the Linux battle on PC, but very sad when they lost the whole war by surrending to iOS/Android on their shiny smartphones. Most likely I would not buy a phone until it will be possible to install a standard Linux distribution on it, like I can do on my PC. I did a very superficial search online and it looks like signal also has a desktop app. Yet, to register an account, one still needs to have a phone to receive some authorization code to it. I would be glad to hear your feedback on this if you have anything to add.

#21

You might be interested in this.

#22

9 posts were split to a new topic: dino-im messenger

#30

2 posts were split to a new topic: Redirect Whonix-Workstation Ports or Unix Domain Socket Files to Whonix-Gateway

#31

A post was split to a new topic: SRV DNS requests over Tor

#32
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