Skype Goes After Reverse-Engineering

[curaga]

BTW, what's the encryption situation in xmpp? Last I looked, they had no support whatsoever for any useful encryption, all were just suggestion XEPs supported by no client.

Until they can do properly confidential video and audio, I'll be staying SIP and ZRTP.

[pejakm]

a) Microsoft = skype = assholes

Agreed.

b) stop using Skype, start using XMPP for everything

How? I think Gtalk works out-of-the-box on Windows systems, but for Linux it's a bit complicated. I'm using kopete to set up a Google jabber account, but appears it has no support for video chat.

[Apopas]

Skype is claiming copyright on the code even though the open-source code was written by the researcher.

Filthy bastards!

[TheBlackCat]

How? I think Gtalk works out-of-the-box on Windows systems, but for Linux it's a bit complicated. I'm using kopete to set up a Google jabber account, but appears it has no support for video chat.

According to the cmake output it has experimental video support. I am not sure about other distributions but it isn't enabled in openSUSE for that reason.

[locovaca]

BTW, what's the encryption situation in xmpp? Last I looked, they had no support whatsoever for any useful encryption, all were just suggestion XEPs supported by no client.

Until they can do properly confidential video and audio, I'll be staying SIP and ZRTP.

XMPP supports encryption using standard certs. My personal XMPP server (OpenFire) uses self signed certs and I turned on the policy to mandate encrypted connections.

[curaga]

Is that messages only, or video and audio too? Also, I read that as client-to-server, not end-to-end encryption, which isn't enough.

[Yfrwlf]

How? I think Gtalk works out-of-the-box on Windows systems, but for Linux it's a bit complicated. I'm using kopete to set up a Google jabber account, but appears it has no support for video chat.

I use Pidgin or Empathy. I tested video chats on Empathy and that worked. I haven't tested on Pidgin yet though. You might want to try asking on some other forums or doing some searches.

Is that messages only, or video and audio too? Also, I read that as client-to-server, not end-to-end encryption, which isn't enough.

For sending files on AIM, I know it is capable of sending files through the server instead of directly if a direct connection can't or isn't made. As for XMPP, I'm not sure what it is capable of, but perhaps it can do both as well, and if so it would also depend on if the server accepted routing files, video, or audio through itself. It'd have to, because some server admins would want to prevent that if they needed to save bandwidth. If you established direct connections though from client to client then if each client supported encryption you should be fine, right?

Oh, here we go, found it. From http://xmpp.org/about-xmpp/technology-overview/

Secure — any XMPP server may be isolated from the public network (e.g., on a company intranet), robust security using SASL and TLS has been built into the core XMPP specifications, and the XMPP network is virtually spam-free. In addition, the XMPP developer is actively working on end-to-end encryption to raise the security bar even further.

So, not yet. But, if a XMPP server mandates all connections are encrypted and calls or IMs go through it then at least you're moooostly secure in that case?

[curaga]

It'd also make it quite hard to run a low-power server on ARM for example, if all calls and video went through it. It (hopefully) wouldn't have to transcode, but it'd still need to decrypt and encrypt from one ssl stream to another.

Also, I think that message about it coming RSN now has been there for at least two years.

[LinuxID10T]

It'd also make it quite hard to run a low-power server on ARM for example, if all calls and video went through it. It (hopefully) wouldn't have to transcode, but it'd still need to decrypt and encrypt from one ssl stream to another.

Also, I think that message about it coming RSN now has been there for at least two years.

I think you seriously underestimate the power of an ARM processor.

[curaga]

I have ran A8 and A9 systems and I'm fairly familiar with their performance. It's nothing to show off, honestly.