Re:Google Is Testing End-to-End Encryption in Android Messages
by sneak on Monday November 23, 2020 @07:05AM
(#25185835)
I believe that that blog post indicates that Google uses custom HSMs to do the backup pin check to access the actual backup encryption key, ruling out the likelihood (but not possibility) that Google is able to casually decrypt the data.
Google writes and signs the firmware for the Titan HSMs in question, though. I would be surprised if it is actually 100% technically impossible for Google to decrypt backups.
Re:Google Is Testing End-to-End Encryption in Android Messages
by est31 on Monday November 23, 2020 @07:18AM
(#25185928)
Yeah the HSM idea is good, and it likely helps preventing malicious insiders from hacking user's backups, but I wouldn't trust it as it's not verifiable from the outside.
Google writes and signs the firmware for the Titan HSMs in question, though. I would be surprised if it is actually 100% technically impossible for Google to decrypt backups.