[messaging] "Pseudoword" base32 fingerprints

[Trevor Perrin]

On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 6:50 PM, Tony Arcieri <bascule at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, February 5, 2014, Robert Ransom <rransom.8774 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> If you're talking about authenticating an interactive connection
>
>
> I am not. There's SRP or PSK for that.
>
> I'm talking about using a randomly generated password in lieu of public key
> fingerprints for authenticating public keys.


Hi Tony,

Yeah, you're talking about the case where Alice and Bob can manually
exchange a secret to bootstrap their communication (scribbled password
on a napkin, QR code, etc).

That's a very interesting case, particularly when you consider
leveraging that secret to try to hide even the fact of their
communication (like Pond's "PANDA" protocol), or authenticate a key
agreement that sets up forward secrecy.

But that's a whole other thing than the public-key fingerprints this
thread is considering.  I also think that fingerprints and
"introduction secrets" may be complementary instead of mutually
exclusive.

Anyways, I suggest we let the fingerprints discussion run its course
but discuss that "PANDA" scenario later (maybe next week)?


Trevor