ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Josh Leverette <coder543@xxxxxxxxx>]

Why do you even joke about options one or two? My phone is CDMA, so option
two doesn't even begin to make sense, full stop. Even if I did have a GSM
phone, nobody would plug something like that in, let alone expect their
friends to do so as well. We have software solutions for a reason. ROT 13
is a troll encryption method. It is a practical joke. It is the comp sci
equivalent of pig latin. You know those options are not practical, and you
should realize that option three is not even *an *option. It is many
options. There are numerous decisions that must be made within option three
alone.

I really don't see what you're getting at. OpenSSL will be on the phones,
which you can use to encrypt arbitrary data if all else fails. We know we
can encrypt things. The question is whether it will be tightly integrated
with the SMS app, and whether it will provide useful asymmetric key
management stuff to make it simple and *not* confusing for the average
user. Unified messaging is a great thing to talk about, but even Apple,
with all of their capital has issues maintaining iMessage. There are
outages reported every few weeks, and it doesn't always fallback to SMS
when it should.

Your message really wasn't clever or entertaining at all... just...
annoying. I'm sorry.


On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 5:33 PM, Alan Miller <dralanmiller@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Josh I think you have 3 choices.
>
> ONE
> for SMS you could do unix ROT 13 a few times if you want to keep things
> private, although its not really encryption its good enough for most
> purposes and trivially easy to implement.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT13
>
>  TWO
> Alternatively go buy some bladox SMS boards…your SIM plugs into them and
> then the whole thing plugs into the phone.
>
> THREE
> OR design an encryption proxy which will work on all unified messages, why
> not ?  the whole trend is towards unified messaging, nothing stopping you
> from SMS encryption by that means.
>
>
> On 18 Jul, 2013, at 6:14 AM, Josh Leverette <coder543@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> "Who uses SMS much anyway these days ? Its all  IM."
>
> You have no idea how much I wish that were true. For me and my friends
> though, it couldn't be further from the truth. All we use is SMS,
> practically speaking.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 5:09 PM, Alan Miller <dralanmiller@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>>  Who uses SMS much anyway these days ? Its all  IM.
>> We used to use small electronic boards from Bladox to encrypt SMS in the
>> past but that was before IM and smart phones.
>> There is very  clear need for some kind of encryption proxy built into
>> Ubuntu that could provide point to point encryption. I have always liked
>> Phil Zimmermanns ZPHONE and how it worked. It sits in the protocol stack
>> and when it detects another ZPHONE it jumps up and opportunistically
>> encrypts using ZRTP.
>> The key is generated in the media stream and wiped afterwards so no
>> public key is needed, just verbal verification of the fingerprint strings.
>>
>> Two ubuntu phones no matter which service they used would be able to send
>> and receive encrypted messages or even audio point to point.
>> OTR can easily be implemented as well.
>> All that is needed is a way to announce to the world that you are capable
>> of encryption and to do that all you need is to transmit a character at the
>> beginning of each message and that can used to trigger OTR or ZRTP.
>> The fingerprint strings could be brought up to the UI easily enough at
>> the top like the battery or Wifi indicators and pulled down to view and
>> verify.
>>
>> While we are on this topic, could someone get crypto.cat working on
>> ubuntu as an app ?
>>
>> On 18 Jul, 2013, at 3:26 AM, Marius Kotsbak <marius@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> They have given up individual SMS charging in Norway too. Also the
>> content could be en compressed inside the encryption so that it might not
>> require so many SMS-es.
>> Den 17. juli 2013 21:08 skrev "Gianguido Sorà" <gianguidorama@xxxxxxxxx>
>> følgende:
>>
>>> Exactly, in the USA there are unlimited SMS but in other countries there
>>> aren't.
>>> In Italy for example if an operator give 200/month is a great deal.
>>> I think that the XMPP approach is more useful, because (almost) free
>>> 3G/4G data access is more reliable and easy to use.
>>> Il giorno 17/lug/2013 20:57, "Josh Leverette" <coder543@xxxxxxxxx> ha
>>> scritto:
>>>
>>>> I didn't say linking. Just breaking it up and sending them out. It's
>>>> the user's choice. Encrypting it won't make it take up more space
>>>> necessarily. If the user wants to send that many messages, they can. In a
>>>> number of countries, SMS is unlimited. Here in the United States, all of
>>>> the companies essentially gave up on charging for each message. It really
>>>> is absolutely free for the cell company, and once one of them started
>>>> offering unlimited SMS, none of the others could do any less and be
>>>> competitive. Doing an XMPP system would work too, but that requires having
>>>> a data connection, which should always be more expensive than SMS,
>>>> realistically. I'm fine with it being XMPP, but the advantage of using SMS
>>>> is that it works even when you barely have any signal, and SMS is dirt
>>>> cheap compared to data, at least here in the United States. I can't speak
>>>> about the rest of the world, but SMS as a technology is infinitely cheaper.
>>>> Whether the company chooses to charge appropriately, that's up to them.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Rasmus Eneman <Rasmus@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Linking SMS cost money, you have to pay for every SMS. Also I'm pretty
>>>>> sure you only can link up to 4 SMSes.
>>>>> However an XMPP based service would still be better as key exchange
>>>>> may happen automagically. You have
>>>>> already broken the standard so why continue to use it when you only
>>>>> gets its limitations?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 2013/7/17 Josh Leverette <coder543@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Also, I don't see why encrypting SMS would be impossible. You don't
>>>>>> send encrypted SMS to people who can't decrypt them. Since we're talking
>>>>>> about asymmetric encryption anyways, then the only people *you could
>>>>>> even think* *of* sending encrypted SMS to are people for whom you
>>>>>> have a public key. If you don't have a public key for a contact, then
>>>>>> obviously you have no method of encrypting a message to them. But, more
>>>>>> importantly, you can always break up an SMS into multiple SMS as the need
>>>>>> arises, so length isn't an issue as long as the user knows how many
>>>>>> messages it will form.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 1:36 PM, Mike Bybee <mike.bybee@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Well, SMS obviously can't do GPG due to character limits - however,
>>>>>>> there are dozens of varieties of secure SMS tools currently on Android. It
>>>>>>> seems that some variety encryption could be supported by the default client
>>>>>>> - much like OTR for Pidgin, etc.
>>>>>>> Not that it should default to it - that would be awful. But that it
>>>>>>> should be able to have an easy to enable option.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There's a lot of people world wide mad about security right now -
>>>>>>> and if Ubuntu Touch can eventually ship with a good basic set of security
>>>>>>> options, it will appeal to people who otherwise might have no reason to use
>>>>>>> it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 11:30 AM, Rasmus Eneman <Rasmus@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> You can't have GPG on SMS as it can't handle that amount of
>>>>>>>> characters. Also it would be stupid
>>>>>>>> as no one can't receive GPG/PGP SMS. If this feature is realy
>>>>>>>> wanted on Ubuntu to Ubuntu
>>>>>>>> then implementing something like iMessage or Hangouts should be
>>>>>>>> done using XMPP and bound
>>>>>>>> to the Ubuntu One account.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> 2013/7/17 Mike Bybee <mike.bybee@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks. I think with PRISM and it's various world-wide
>>>>>>>>> equivalents, we're all thinking about this.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 11:08 AM, Josh Leverette <
>>>>>>>>> coder543@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I'm still waiting on the actual native email client to be
>>>>>>>>>> written. Once that happens, adding encryption should be relatively trivial.
>>>>>>>>>> So, whenever that happens.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Mike Bybee <mike.bybee@xxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>  Are there currently any plans to make sure the ubuntu mail app
>>>>>>>>>>> will support gpg or some other standard - and likewise for SMS?
>>>>>>>>>>> I know right now it just uses webmail, but I'm sure that's not
>>>>>>>>>>> the long term goal
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>>> Mike Bybee
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>>>>>>>>>> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>>>>>>>>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>>>>>>     Josh
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>> Mike Bybee
>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>>>>>>>> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>>>>>>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Rasmus Eneman
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Mike Bybee
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>>     Josh
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Rasmus Eneman
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>     Josh
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>>> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>
>>> --
>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>     Josh
>
>
>


-- 
Sincerely,
    Josh