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Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

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Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#201

Post by TulliusCicero »

dTal wrote: post #178
skykooler wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android phones show up as MTP devices, which are basically file-level storage instead of block-level storage. Most OS's (besides MacOS) will display this with the same interface as a USB mass storage device.

MTP is a horrible protocol which renders the abstraction very leaky in my experience, to the extent that it's inaccurate to refer to it as "removable storage" and expect to behave in similarly sane fashion to a proper flash drive. For example, there's no support for modifying a file in-place - the entire file must be read out, modified, and then written back. These kinds of restrictions render it slow and unreliable.…

> MTP is a horrible protocol which renders the abstraction very leaky in my experience

Nevertheless, it's still removable storage that can take the place of the most common use case of portable flash drives: moving files around from one computer to another. Which is explicitly what we were originally talking about.

Pointing out that it doesn't work for some other use case that you yourself brought up doesn't make any sense. That's not what everyone else was talking about.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#203

Post by toomuchtodo »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #194
toomuchtodo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the link expire after a successful transfer? Curious what happens if the transfer fails mid transfer and needs a retry.

No one I've tried it with has ever had it fail on them. But to answer your question, I uploaded a 100mb+ file to FireFox Send, copied the link, RDPd into another computer, kicked off the download, and then cancelled it midway through download. The link did expire after that. So I guess they don't have an easy way of telling whether the download is successful or not. Maybe Mozilla's engineers can figure something out…

I appreciate you took the time to run a test to answer my question. Thank you.

Firefox might consider keying off the initial IP seen upon retrieval and extending the TTL of the object until the final byte has been retrieved.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#204

Post by [deleted] »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #144
dTal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android phones don't do this anymore, for the technical reason that allowing a computer to mount a filesystem directly requires that the phone unmount it. Mass storage expects a block device, so there's no wrapper that one could provide that would make this work with the native filesystems of the phone. What could be done is to dedicate a file on the phone as block storage, and expose that as a mass storage device. T…

> Android phones don't do this anymore They don't? Since when? I still have a Pixel 1 but it's running Android P, so the latest major version of Android, and this still works fine.

[deleted]

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#205

Post by jumbopapa »

akerro wrote: post #125
mFixman wrote: post #12

I can't believe that there isn't a simple service to transfer data between my cellphone and my computer without going through the internet. iTunes is terribly bloated, MTP is a mess, and Bluetooth is slow and frustrating. Back in my hacker day I used to have an SSH server open on my cellphone and use it to transfer files back and forth with my computer. Why isn't there a mainstream service like that?

>I can't believe that there isn't a simple service to transfer data between my cellphone and my computer without going through the internet. KDE Connect, https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect#What_is_KDE_Connect.3F i've been using it for years

I've been using this, but I just switched to the Sway for my WM and I'm unsure of how to use KDEConnect with Sway. Any ideas?

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#206

Post by bjt2n3904 »

I don't understand the end-to-end encryption claim.

1. Bob uploads a file, but specifies no password.

2. ???

3. Sue downloads the file.

Best case, Bob's browser encrypts it (with javascript?) before uploading. Either Mozilla provides a key, or Bob sends the key he used. When Sue's browser downloads it, Mozilla sends the key and her browser decrypts it client side.

In either case, Mozilla has the password for decryption. This makes a mild barrier to mass scanning content that's uploaded, so at least that's something... but that's little more than a promise I have to trust.

Am I missing something? Where is the "end-to-end" encryption? End-to-end means I don't have to trust you (as much). Please don't turn this into a meaningless buzzword...

EDIT: I did misunderstand something. Please see timvisee's comment below.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#207

Post by ocdtrekkie »

mFixman wrote: post #12

I can't believe that there isn't a simple service to transfer data between my cellphone and my computer without going through the internet. iTunes is terribly bloated, MTP is a mess, and Bluetooth is slow and frustrating. Back in my hacker day I used to have an SSH server open on my cellphone and use it to transfer files back and forth with my computer. Why isn't there a mainstream service like that?

SMB over local network would be my default, I recall an app for using SMB with Android back as far as the 2.x days.

We have tons of protocols for transferring files over networks, there's no reason for them to go to the public Internet, nor for them to be mobile phone specific.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#208

Post by millstone »

skrowl wrote: post #174
electrograv wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Google simply wants to maximize the use of their servers here (independent of what users want/need): 1. P2P doesn’t give Google all that juicy mineable data that they get when everything you do makes round trips through their servers. 2. This would also implicitly encourage Android users to rely more on services like Google Drive/Docs for all files, which is good for them. Edi…

In addition to NUMEROUS 3rd party tools, Google already provides a tool exactly like AirDrop for Android. It's a feature of the Files app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... which has over 100M installs. Look at the 3rd screenshot. ENCRYPTED FILE SHARING Files’s offline file sharing is secured with WPA2 encryption, providing a more secure file transfer. Files app uses Bluetooth to set up e…

Does Files actually allow transfer with desktops or laptops? It sounds like it only transfers between Android devices.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#210

Post by mimsee »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #206

I don't understand the end-to-end encryption claim. 1. Bob uploads a file, but specifies no password. 2. ??? 3. Sue downloads the file. Best case, Bob's browser encrypts it (with javascript?) before uploading. Either Mozilla provides a key, or Bob sends the key he used. When Sue's browser downloads it, Mozilla sends the key and her browser decrypts it client side. In either case, Mozilla has the password for decrypti…

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