Re:I'm giving up on PGP
by cortesoft on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @07:16PM
(#13119443)
You are forgetting a key part of the 'trust' thing; you have no way of knowing if someone is man in the middle attacking your video chat.
Example: Alice wants to video chat with Bob to exchange the secret key and verify identity. Mallory sets up a MITM attack, and gives her own public key to both Alice and Bob. Alice and Bob think they are securely talking with each other, but they are actually securely talking with Mal, who decrypts the video, watches it, then forwards it on to the other person.
This is why you can't have a secure communication channel without trust; you don't know if your secure communication is being intercepted, read, and then passed on.
Example: Alice wants to video chat with Bob to exchange the secret key and verify identity. Mallory sets up a MITM attack, and gives her own public key to both Alice and Bob. Alice and Bob think they are securely talking with each other, but they are actually securely talking with Mal, who decrypts the video, watches it, then forwards it on to the other person.
This is why you can't have a secure communication channel without trust; you don't know if your secure communication is being intercepted, read, and then passed on.