What the CIA WikiLeaks Dump Tells Us: Encryption Works

Re:What the CIA WikiLeaks Dump Tells Us: Encryption Works by aurelianito on Saturday March 11, 2017 @08:16AM (#13845321)

Then my notebook is 'airgapped'. It connects to internet via wifi :). More seriously, if it connects through non popular means (such as a protocol over sound) it is just security through obscurity.

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Re:What the CIA WikiLeaks Dump Tells Us: Encryption Works by giergirey on Sunday March 12, 2017 @05:04AM (#13849917)

If andai is just connecting a full-function laptop to the internet with some ethernet-over-audio bridge, then you're right.

But don't you think he has a point if he's talking about a simple, single-purpose device like an arduino - say - that can't connect to the internet, but allows keyboard entry of plaintext, then encrypts it, sends ciphertext to a PC via audio?

I which case I think there are some advantages in using audio; if the device used wifi / ethernet / USB then you have to trust a lot of code to be exploit free:

- ethernet driver code - wifi chip firmware - kernel network code - USB drivers etc

Whereas if he's written his own simple bytes-to-audio converter in a few hundred lines of code that can be audited, then I can be be more easily convinced that it's not possible for an adversary to remotely install a keylogger or extract keys from my little encryption device.

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