Show HN: Briefing – Anonymous, secure, open source WebRTC group video chat

Post by marci » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

perenzo wrote: post #13

cryo wrote: post #10

I don't understand the anonymous claim. Since in WebRTC peers connect directly to each other they'll see the IP of the other peer and can determine their locations. Further there is the signalling server which may also see these connection details if it isn't end to end encrypted (I haven't checked the code). IMHO private might be a better word than anonymous here.

By using the term "anonymous" I wanted to say, that no user account is required. To hide one self's identity and network location I would expect the users to make use of browsers like Tor or using VPN. I don't know of any way to provide anonymity on web application level. If somebody knows more, please let me know.

Post by perenzo » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

seesawtron wrote: post #32

Looks really cool. One key element is that anyone can spy on your call if they guess the random name that you generate to create the link. I am curious what randomizations you have used to generate those? (perhaps you don't want to share to avoid exactly the spying, I can understand if you feel that way). Thanks for your insights. Cheers

Post by waynenilsen » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 2:32 PM UTC

perenzo wrote: post #27

waynenilsen wrote: post #26

How can we further decentralize this such that the entire app runs "without any servers"? Sadly it is so close but the realities of ipv4 and local subnets definitely makes this more difficult. I always thought that this is part of what webrtc was trying to solve

Well technically it is possible to avoid the signaling server, but you'll need some other channel to exchange the peers connection data. This is pretty inconvenient though. But a signal server is a rather light thing and easy to install on a location you trust: https://github.com/holtwick/briefing/tree/master/signal

Post by saurik » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

waynenilsen wrote: post #35

perenzo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well technically it is possible to avoid the signaling server, but you'll need some other channel to exchange the peers connection data. This is pretty inconvenient though. But a signal server is a rather light thing and easy to install on a location you trust: https://github.com/holtwick/briefing/tree/master/signal

> you'll need some other channel to exchange the peers connection data Perhaps using IPFS to pin the data temporarily and share that hash between the peers?

Post by seesawtron » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 3:12 PM UTC

perenzo wrote: post #36

seesawtron wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes password protection would definitely make this more usable. Have you also seen apprtc [0]? Could you point out if there are any differences you see there to Briefing? [0] https://appr.tc/

It is basically the same. Briefing is a bit more modern and has a few more features. As I mentioned in the help text on https://brie.fi/ng#help I started the project as a spin off of a virtual classroom project https://peer.school/ Sources https://github.com/holtwick/peer2school