[messaging] Axolotl for email

[Wei Chuang]

Pardon the bug in the initial message.  D-E is supposed to be D-H  =)

-Wei

On 9 June 2016 at 11:16, Wei Chuang <weihaw at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Would it make sense to apply Axolotl for email encryption?  While the
> protocol allows the D-E exchanges to be asynchronous, the main remaining
> issue is the initial D-E exchange setup.  TextSecure uses pre-keying, but
> that likely has challenges for email as there isn't a standard directory
> service for email.  Are other approaches possible?  Would it be possible to
> use existing PKI (X.509 or PGP based) to transmit the initial D-E key with
> integrity?
>
> If that can be overcome, I see the following advantages (and please
> correct me if I'm wrong):
> 1) Perfect forward and backwards secrecy makes key loss much less
> important.  So much so that much of the worry about key revocation goes
> away.
> 2) Message processing needs only be a single pass authenticated encryption
> encrypt/decrypt that provides both privacy and integrity.  S/MIME and PGP
> would have to do two passes and would have weaknesses as described here:
> http://world.std.com/~dtd/sign_encrypt/sign_encrypt7.html
>
> Assuming that it does make sense is there standardization work for Axolotl
> for email encryption?  I've read about the OMEMO for XMPP that is related.
> If so, who is a contact for the Axolotl email standardization work?
>
> thanks,
> -Wei
>
>
>
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