Retroshare – Secure communication for everyone

http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/

by fosap • 11 years ago

37 13 11 years ago

retroshare.sourceforge.net

junto• 11 years ago

I tried this out with friends. Great idea but awful interface.

steckerbrett• 11 years ago

That's always the end feeling with RetroShare. I'd love to use it, but the interface is completely unpalatable.

There's supposed to be a web interface[0] that looked significantly better but I don't think that ever went anywhere (last commit is in 2013).

[0] https://retroshareteam.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/djrs_2013...

nota_bene• 11 years ago

That's the sad part - we sacrifice what people like Snowden tried to save (by giving up their perfect lives) for eye candy.

cordite• 11 years ago

Not every user, technically inclined or not, is willing to trudge through clunky software with confusing configurations and awkward interaction.

I tried using this a few years ago with some friends, and it was really frustrating for one of my friends to import and export user public keys just so we could get started.

Although the file syncing was nice, it was also cumbersome to work with.

jvdh• 11 years ago

that's exactly the wrong way to think about this. If we want everybody else to use these kinds of tools, they have to look good, and be easy to use.

aw3c2• 11 years ago

Even Snowden agrees that usability stands in the way of widespread crypto adoption.

stefanix• 11 years ago

Same here, very functional but too cluttered. It feels messy even though technically it looks good. I have tried several times to get a group of people on it but failed because the UX was not met with love.

This project could really take off with a clean UX. Unite and place the chat and mail feature in the foreground, other features in the background.

I would love to see Retroshare go places ...

explorigin• 11 years ago

Time for this good project to get off of sourceforge as well.

thomaslutz• 11 years ago

https://github.com/RetroShare/RetroShare

HashThis• 11 years ago

I agree. Please get security software off of sourceforge.

nickpsecurity2• 11 years ago

I haven't done a thorough review of it by stand by my at-a-glance review from 2014 on Schneier's blog:

"And it's written in a risky language using shoddy libraries on platforms NSA etc. have 0-days and automated attack systems for. I'm sure that this combination will be "really hard" for NSA to penetrate. ;)"

Goes for any strong attackers. Yet, with better interface and more security review, an app like it might protect from the lesser attackers or snoops that are still worth stopping (see "who uses Tor?"). Moreover, might be a better baseline than existing apps providing similar functionality. The main thing that will continually kill this app's security, also similar ones, is it's so complex that describing functionality and errors states is already quite a chore. Making a security argument... more so or impossible.

The best bet is probably a system like Freenet: asynchronous, low response time requirements, and F2F. So much easier to protect such systems. Already has a lot of services built on it. The approach would be a thorough, no-hold-barred review of the protocol by pro's as we've seen with Tor. Whatever survives the review is implemented in a native language with strong assurance activities for implementation and interfaces, including covert channel analysis. Mutually-distrusting, geographically-diverse, and ideologically-loving-privacy types to be the early nodes in public network for bootstrapping. Might even implement it on top of Tor or I2P.

Anyway, there's not much hope for strong anonymity or security if the app is complex and uses high-risk components/platforms. Just isn't happening. Sacrifices must be made. Both software market and FOSS communities have almost all shown they're not willing to make them. So, it will remain a niche with few solutions that are any good.

mdekkers• 11 years ago

Any good alternatives for easy to use software that enables secure emailing for the average joe?

Retroshare – Secure communication for everyone

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