QR code (was: porting gnupg to Android, is pth required?)

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Jan 19, 2012, at 5:33 AM, Werner Koch wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:33, hans at guardianproject.info said:
> 
>> You can follow our progress on our wiki, this is part of the PSST project:
>> https://guardianproject.info/wiki/GnuPG_for_Android
> 
> Interesting.  I would appreciate if you  use this list to discuss:
> 
> - QR code display/scanning for keysigning exchanges
> - display randomart image of fingerprint for keysigning exchanges 
> 
> In particular a QR format is something we will use for STEED also.  BTW,
> what about changing the goals a bit a aim for STEED.

I'm just catching up on the STEED project, I have only skimmed your info so far, but I'll read the paper on the train home today.  The goals sound great.  We (the Guardian Project) are also working on projects focused on making encryption usable, mostly on mobile platforms, and really mostly on Android since it is far and away the quickest and easiest platform for us to develop on.

About QR code display and scanning, that is deployed in our Gibberbot Instant Messaging app with OTR support.  It is used to validate the fingerprints of the OTR private keys.  The best way to try it is either install it on an Android device, or if you don't have access to one, install the Android SDK and run it on the emulator.

About randomart display of fingerprints, we really like the idea as it is implemented in OpenSSH.  Most people will find it much easier to compare little pictures rather than hex strings.  Indeed many people will be quite intimidated by the site of a long hex string in their app.  So the idea is to incorporate the randomart image into the fingerprint validation process.  We are currently planning on implementing this in our Android app based on the ongoing port of gnupg to Android.

.hc

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