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[WIP] MSC3726: Safer Password-based Authentication with BS-SPEKE#3726

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cvwright wants to merge 8 commits intomatrix-org:mainfrom
cvwright:bsspeke
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[WIP] MSC3726: Safer Password-based Authentication with BS-SPEKE#3726
cvwright wants to merge 8 commits intomatrix-org:mainfrom
cvwright:bsspeke

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@cvwright cvwright commented Feb 15, 2022

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This proposal serves as a sort of update to MSC3262. The main difference is a change from one password-authenticated key exchange (PAKE) protocol, SRP6a, to a more modern PAKE protocol, BS-SPEKE.

This also deprecates MSC3265, which proposed doing a bunch of client-side hashing to prevent the server from learning the user's "real" password.

@turt2live turt2live changed the title [WIP] Safer Password-based Authentication with BS-SPEKE [WIP] MSC3726: Safer Password-based Authentication with BS-SPEKE Feb 15, 2022
@turt2live turt2live marked this pull request as draft February 15, 2022 20:53
@turt2live turt2live added client-server Client-Server API kind:feature MSC for not-core and not-maintenance stuff needs-implementation This MSC does not have a qualifying implementation for the SCT to review. The MSC cannot enter FCP. proposal A matrix spec change proposal labels Feb 15, 2022
However those patents expired in 2011 and 2017, respectively, and
as a result, SPEKE-derived protocols like BS-SPEKE can now be used freely.

BS-SPEKE comes highly recommended by experts in applied cryptography,
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Can you please provide citations for this claim?

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@jvoisin The recommendation is mostly Thomas Ptacek yelling at me on Hacker News to use BS-SPEKE instead of SRP. Not exactly a peer-reviewed publication, but still his word means a lot in this space.

Signed-off-by: Charles Wright <cvwright@futo.org>
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client-server Client-Server API kind:feature MSC for not-core and not-maintenance stuff needs-implementation This MSC does not have a qualifying implementation for the SCT to review. The MSC cannot enter FCP. proposal A matrix spec change proposal

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