element-hq / element-hq/element-meta
Security terminology
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Description
I would like to break this down into smaller bugs, but I'm afraid I can't because I have not at all understood what is what myself. I'm only fairly confident that the amount of different terms exceeds the number of actual concepts used here, so this needs a cleanup. I am at a complete loss as to what this cleanup would look like.
The following summarizes the non-selfexplanatory (even for someone familiar with assymetric encryption, but much less so for an average user) terms that are mentioned on the *Security & Privacy* dialog alone.
- Session ID
- Verify User
- Verify Session
- Secure Backup
- Encryption Keys
- Recovery Key
- Backup key
- Secret Storage
- Security Passphase
- Backup
- Signature
- Cross-signing
- Cross-signing Key
- Master (Private) Key
- Self-signing (Private) Key
- User-signing (Private) Key
- Session Key
- Security Key
Particularly confusing is the mention of the three "private-only" keys and the remark that something called a "Backup Key" has been stored in "Secret Storage" (which perhaps could be the "Secure Backup").
I hope, if you are a developer, you can appreciate just *how* confusing this is for anyone who was not involved in designing it. I have mentioned a couple of terms which are clear to me (e.g. "Session ID"), but I think the gist of it should be that the terms are given names of concepts which can be understood without detailled, technical insight. I would speculate that it boils down to approximately (where KP = Key pair), at least that's what I could make sense of:
- Per-Session-KP / Per-Device-KP
- Account KP (a.k.a. "Cross-Signing Key")
- Backup Key
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
Research direction
Start with the Security & Privacy dialog and inventory the listed terms, especially the three private-only keys and the Backup Key stored in Secret Storage. Compare each label with the concepts it describes and seek agreement on a smaller, user-understandable vocabulary; done means the terminology and relationships are clearly defined.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cryptography
- Domain
- security
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100