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Zero-trust services and web access
(lemmy.ml)
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
You are correct. That was the death kneel of a really cool e2e encrypted chat app that came before Signal/Text secure. I can't recall the name atm. You are relying on them wanting to avoid the reputational damage of getting caught (it would be trivial for a security researcher to compare two client apps and see the different JavaScript. Beyond that, yeah, they can serve you a compromised site one time and extract your keys.
The implication is that sending links to encrypted files with the decryption key added to the URL (eg Thunderbird Send, Mega etc) is not zero-trust. Decryption may take place locally and the key part of the URL may not be sent to the file hosting service, but when the recipient clicks on the link and is served one-off code by the web site, that code may be compromised.
As we know, the best way to be sure is to do your own separate encryption but without secure-by-design most people will think you are very odd demanding that decryption is done separately and keys are shared through a different channel. Speaking from experience, no matter how much training they are given at work, most people, including HR, would rather you sent them sensitive documents (like passport scans) in the clear as email attachments or at least in a way that involves a single click (Wetransfer etc).