4 ms·

> Don't use GPG for email except when attaching secrets. Don’t even do that. Find a different way to send those secrets.

corty 6y ago
Never say something like that without offering a proper replacement that is proveably more secure.
- garmaine 6y ago
  The thing is it is less secure in many ways because you are giving up on reputability and using long-lives keys stored on untrusted devices.
  - corty 6y ago
    Less secure than what? Unencrypted attachments?
    - garmaine 6y ago
      The guy who wrote the OP is the guy behind Signal. That's the most obvious alternative. But there's not a go-to answer because the lesson learned from PGP is that there can't be a single crypto Swiss army knife of a protocol. There are conflicting tradeoffs that necessitate the use of different protocols for different use cases. The best replacement for PGP is probably a basket of different protocols. See for example: https://blog.gtank.cc/modern-alternatives-to-pgp/ https://blog.gtank.cc/modern-alternatives-to-pgp/
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- blitblitblit 6y ago
  Someone did make an alternative to GnuPG called OpMSG, but I'm not certain that it is reliably more secure, other than not depending on an online Web of Trust / key server. https://github.com/stealth/opmsg https://github.com/stealth/opmsg
sneak 6y ago
Email is the only widely used decentralized communication system that most people have access to that doesn't require showing ID. Everyone this applies to already has GPG installed. It's fine. If you have some specific argument against it, speak up.
- garmaine 6y ago
  You give up reputability by using PGP/GPG, which is a pretty big deal when transmitting secrets, and in the default configuration that everyone has GPG involves using long-lived secret keys on untrusted devices. The first is a problem that is often not thought about in the moment. You know you need to transmit a secret, but it is rare that people think about under what future circumstances they will want to deny having sent it. The second is a practical defeat of the assumed security model. The GPG secret is a high-value target that is relatively easy to snag from unencrypted memory on untrustworthy devices.
  - sneak 6y ago
    > You give up reputability by using PGP/GPG Signing is optional.

corty 6y ago

Never say something like that without offering a proper replacement that is proveably more secure.

garmaine 6y ago
The thing is it is less secure in many ways because you are giving up on reputability and using long-lives keys stored on untrusted devices.
- corty 6y ago
  Less secure than what? Unencrypted attachments?
  - garmaine 6y ago
    The guy who wrote the OP is the guy behind Signal. That's the most obvious alternative. But there's not a go-to answer because the lesson learned from PGP is that there can't be a single crypto Swiss army knife of a protocol. There are conflicting tradeoffs that necessitate the use of different protocols for different use cases. The best replacement for PGP is probably a basket of different protocols. See for example: https://blog.gtank.cc/modern-alternatives-to-pgp/ https://blog.gtank.cc/modern-alternatives-to-pgp/
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
blitblitblit 6y ago
Someone did make an alternative to GnuPG called OpMSG, but I'm not certain that it is reliably more secure, other than not depending on an online Web of Trust / key server. https://github.com/stealth/opmsg https://github.com/stealth/opmsg

sneak 6y ago

Email is the only widely used decentralized communication system that most people have access to that doesn't require showing ID. Everyone this applies to already has GPG installed. It's fine. If you have some specific argument against it, speak up.

garmaine 6y ago
You give up reputability by using PGP/GPG, which is a pretty big deal when transmitting secrets, and in the default configuration that everyone has GPG involves using long-lived secret keys on untrusted devices. The first is a problem that is often not thought about in the moment. You know you need to transmit a secret, but it is rare that people think about under what future circumstances they will want to deny having sent it. The second is a practical defeat of the assumed security model. The GPG secret is a high-value target that is relatively easy to snag from unencrypted memory on untrustworthy devices.
- sneak 6y ago
  > You give up reputability by using PGP/GPG Signing is optional.