this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2021
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Session messenger (getsession.org)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by Yujiri@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

I'm aware that Session has been discussed twice before on this community, but the last thread was 6 months old so excuse my starting a new one.

There's one big concern I wanted to bring up, which is the disagreements over whether it has forward secrecy. The spec says it does, but I've found two other sources saying it doesn't:

https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/session/ (search for "Perfect Forward Secrecy removed") https://www.securemessagingapps.com

Why are they saying this? Is there a critical caveat to Session's forward secrecy (does it not have it in closed groups?), or are both sources just wrong?

(I've also heard one source say its closed groups are limited to 10 members which would be a showstopper for me and another source say they're limited to 100 and the spec says 500 so i don't know what to believe.)

I'm also concerned about it being built on top of a blockchain and cryptocurrency, not because I'm suspicious of cryptocurrency in general but because I find it difficult to understand, and because that it costs thousands of dollars to run a Session node seems to me like the network is bound to be owned exclusively by a few rich companies and investors. Is it? Is there a place I can see who owns how much of it, particularly how much is owned by the Oxen developers?

UPDATE: I believe I've just learned that Sesison DOES NOT have forward secrecy or deniability; the whitepaper linked on their CURRENT website is outdated. https://getsession.org/blog/session-protocol-technical-information

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[–] ziproot@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately they use both Cloudflare and Electron. EDIT: Electron article uses Cloudflare so I linked to wayback machine instead

[–] Yujiri@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

To be fair Signal's desktop client also relies on electron

[–] Helix@feddit.de -1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

The "tu quoque" argument doesn't count. Just because your neighbor hits their wife, you shouldn't do the same.

[–] Yujiri@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 years ago

That is not my argument. My argument is that you cannot recommend Signal while rejecting Session for an issue that they both have.