OpenKeychain

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OpenKeychain

OpenKeychain Logo.svg
Basic data

Maintainer Confidential Technologies GmbH
Publishing year March 1, 2012
Current  version 5.5
( January 20, 2020 )
operating system Android
programming language Java
category OpenPGP
License GNU GPLv3
German speaking Yes
https://openkeychain.org

OpenKeychain is a free mobile app for Android that enables users to encrypt using the OpenPGP standard. Users can encrypt and decrypt messages, e-mails and files, as well as sign and check signatures. The app can save public keys of other users with whom you interact. With these keys files can be encrypted in such a way that only the appropriate user can decrypt them. Conversely, files that are received by a user with a stored key can be checked for authenticity and decrypted.

K-9 mail integration

Together with K-9 Mail (an Android e-mail client), end-to-end encrypted e-mails can be created and sent with OpenPGP INLINE and PGP / MIME. The developers of OpenKeychain and K-9 Mail are trying to revise the previous user interfaces for e-mail encryption . They propose to abolish the options for encrypted-only and signed-only e-mails and to only allow encryption and signature creation together to ensure confidentiality and authenticity at the same time.

reception

OpenKeychain is listed on the official OpenPGP website and the renowned developer collective " The Guardian Project " recommends it instead of APG for mail encryption. TechRepublic published an article about the app and concluded: "OpenKeychain happens to be one of the easiest encryption tools available for Android (that also happens to best follow OpenPGP standards)." Heise rated the app in c't Android Magazine 2016 and looked in particular at OpenKeychains backup mechanism. In science, OpenKeychain is used for experimental evaluations: It was used as an example for cryptographic operations in Trusted Execution Environments . Furthermore, modern alternatives for public key fingerprints were implemented by scientists. In 2016, the BSI published a study on OpenPGP on Android and evaluated OpenKeychains functionality. OpenKeychain now works with smart cards and NFC rings. The resulting user study was published at Ubicomp 2017.

financing

The OpenKeychain developers took part in three Google Summer of Code programs, with a total of 6 students. In 2015 one of the main developers got one year of funding to expand OpenPGP support in K-9 Mail, paid for by the Open Technology Fund. On June 28, 2018, Confidential Technologies GmbH was founded with the help of the TU Braunschweig , to provide support and develop OpenKeychain. In addition, it offers "tailor-made end-to-end encryption solutions" and is developing an Autocrypt library which can still be used as free software for projects under GPL license, but which should be available as a commercial license for proprietary projects.

history

OpenKeychain was started in March 2012 as a spin-off from the Android Privacy Guard (APG) app . No new versions of APG were released between December 2010 and October 2013. OpenKeychain was initiated with the intention of continuing the development and improving the user interface and API . The first version 2.0 was released in January 2013. After three years without updates security fixes were from OpenKeychain in APG merged , and later a complete new version of APG on OpenKeychains source code was based. This process stopped in March 2014, while the OpenKeychain developers continued to publish new versions on a regular basis. Cure53 found and fixed some security holes in OpenKeychain. As of K-9 Mail version 5.200, APG is no longer supported as a cryptography provider.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release 5.5 . January 20, 2020 (accessed January 21, 2020).
  2. ↑ OpenPGP Considerations, Part II: Encrypted-Only Mails . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ OpenPGP Considerations, Part I: Signed-Only Mails . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  4. ↑ Official OpenPGP Homepage . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  5. ↑ How To: Lockdown Your Mobile E-Mail . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  6. ↑ Let OpenKeychain help handle your encryption . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  7. ↑ Urs Mansmann, Holger Bleich, Axel Kossel: Email encrypted with PGP . In: c't Android 2016 . 1, 2016, pp. 50–51.
  8. ↑ Konstantin Rubinov, Lucia Rosculete, Tulika Mitra, Abhik Roychoudhury: Automated Partitioning of Android Applications for Trusted Execution Environments . In: Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering . 2016, pp. 923-934. doi : 10.1145 / 2884781.2884817 .
  9. ↑ Sergej Dechand, Dominik Schürmann, Karoline Busse, Yasemin Acar, Sascha Fahl, Matthew Smith: An Empirical Study of Textual Key-Fingerprint Representations . In: 25th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 16) . 2016, pp. 193-208.
  10. ↑ BSI Study: Use of OpenPGP on Android . Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  11. ↑ Dominik Schürmann, Sergej Dechand, Wolf Lars: OpenKeychain: An Architecture for Cryptography with Smart Cards and NFC Rings on Android . In: Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. . 1, No. 3, 2017, pp. 99: 1--99: 24. doi : 10.1145 / 3130964 .
  12. ↑ GSoC Archive 2014 . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  13. ↑ GSoC Archive 2015 . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  14. ↑ GSoC Archive 2016 . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  15. ↑ Bringing OpenKeychain Support to K-9 Mail . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  16. ↑ OpenKeychain team: Founding of Confidential Technologies GmbH OpenKeychain. Retrieved July 6, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Cotech: OpenKeychain and Cotech | Cotech. Accessed August 10, 2018 (English).
  18. ↑ Cure53 Security Audit . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  19. ↑ OpenKeychain Wiki: Cure53 Security Audit . Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  20. ^ Why APG is no longer supported . Retrieved February 11, 2017.