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Darknet Messenger Briar Releases Beta, Passes Security Audit

briarproject.org

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Re: Darknet Messenger Briar Releases Beta, Passes Security Audit

#5

Why not develop tox instead, which is open source, end to end encrypted, on more platforms, and seemingly further along in general?

Briar is also e2e and open source. It also has a ton of mesh networking features that Tox doesn't have.

Re: Darknet Messenger Briar Releases Beta, Passes Security Audit

#6
More "Darknet". I almost passed this by.

I'm glad I took a peek. This is actually interesting to me.

...Briar is a secure messaging app for Android.

Unlike other popular apps, Briar does not require servers to work. It connects users directly using a peer-to-peer network. This makes it resistant to censorship and allows it to work even without internet access.

The app encrypts all data end-to-end and also hides metadata about who is communicating. This is the next step in the evolution of secure messaging. No communication ever enters the public internet. Everything is sent via the Tor anonymity network or local networks.

Re: Darknet Messenger Briar Releases Beta, Passes Security Audit

#7
post #2

Feedback: darknet has come to mean places where you go buy drugs online, not p2p applications generally.

Does it? I know it has that meaning on the evening news, but even on network television it means something like "the secret internet where crazy stuff is".

I mostly hear it used to mean what it is supposed to mean, but that is rarely from non-technical people.

Re: Darknet Messenger Briar Releases Beta, Passes Security Audit

#9
post #4

"passes security audit". Is security audit an exam? What does passing mean?

Purely naively I would guess that it means during whatever audit they ran, no signs of insecurity were observed. Maybe it would be better to say that it didn't "fail" the audit?

Re: Darknet Messenger Briar Releases Beta, Passes Security Audit

#10
post #9
post #4

"passes security audit". Is security audit an exam? What does passing mean?

Purely naively I would guess that it means during whatever audit they ran, no signs of insecurity were observed. Maybe it would be better to say that it didn't "fail" the audit?

You can't really fail an audit though. The point of an audit is to make your application more secure. Using terms like pass/fail just reinforces a sense of fear where there shouldn't be any.

A pentest consists of an analysis period, typically about a week. Then any flaws in your app are communicated to you, along with steps to reproduce them. When you feel you've fixed the issues, a retest is scheduled and the pentesters verify that each flaw has been fixed.

A healthy application is one that's pentested on a regular basis. Ideally after every release, though only big companies can afford that.

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