Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Yahoo Debuts End-To-End Encryption Email Plugin, Password-Free Logins

Posted by Soulskill on from the from-one-end-of-the-internet-to-the-other dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Yahoo has released the source code for a plugin that will enable end-to-end encryption for their email service. They're soliciting feedback from the security community to make sure it's built properly. They plan to roll it out to users by the end of the year.

Yahoo also demonstrated a new authentication system that doesn't use permanent passwords. Instead, they allow you to associate your Yahoo account with your phone, and text you a code on demand any time you need to log in. It's basically just the second step of traditional two-step authentication by itself. But Yahoo says they think it's "the first step to eliminating passwords."

11 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. I hope... by AlCapwn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope that if the recipient gets an encrypted email, it shoves the plugin down their throat. Maybe that way people will start adopting encryption.

    1. Re:I hope... by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

      you can't make people care

      there will be plenty that just don't care about privacy

      there will be plenty that don't care and they're right: their online life is shallow crap

      there will be plenty that don't care and they're wrong: their online info is used against them

      some small fraction of the latter group will make an effort to correct that problem

      this is, and always will be, a small percentage of people online

      and honestly: it's not a problem. most people just aren't that interesting

      if you want to spin frightening scenarios of government knowing everything about them, advertisers profiling their lives in every detail, the ease at which their finances and physical location can found in a snap, etc... they still won't fucking care

      welcome to reality

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    2. Re:I hope... by mlts · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is a solved problem, although by a commercial solution. Symantec's Encryption Desktop (formerly PGP desktop) allows one to either decrypt/check signature and view what is on the clipboard or decrypt/check signature and view what is in the current window.

      We don't need a Web browser plugin. This is like drilling a hole in a boat that has one hole already in it, expecting the water to drain out.

      Instead, we need something with functionality similar to SED that is completely standalone from other applications and functions completely independent of the Web browser. This is tougher than it sounds. GPG4Win is a good effort, but it does not come anywhere close to the ease of use that SED has. Macs and Linux have decent utilities like GPGTools (which was pictured.) If PGP decryption is put into something, it should not be part of a Web browser, but should be in the MUA. Web browsers should have as little running as possible, just so they have as small an attack surface since they are the biggest frontline for computer compromise these days.

      The beauty about the OpenPGP spec is that it is completely independent of any transport mechanism, be it Slashdot posts, E-mail, MMS, AIM, Facebook's PM, or a file saved to a ZIP drive. Tethering it to a protocol can easily render a quite secure system extremely insecure, if only for the fact that a specific program or browser extension would be needed for the decryption.

      Ideally, fetching E-mail via the Web should be more of an item of last resort, where one is using another machine. A high quality MUA (Thunderbird, Mail.app, Outlook, even mutt) is a lot more secure than a Web browser.

  2. That's great if you have a mobile phone by dixonpete · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't. I tried to sign up with Yahoo a few weeks ago and got cockblocked by this. They required a mobile number.

  3. *facepalm* by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yahoo needs to understand that the purpose of 2-factor authentication was not to replace passwords, but rather to ... provide a second factor of authentication.

    Remember ideally:
    1. Something you know
    2. Something you have
    3. Something you are

    Each is no more secure than the other, but together they form a far stronger system than any individual component.

    1. Re:*facepalm* by itzly · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm sure Yahoo understands this. But who wants to go through the hassle of two factors of authentication (including using a unique and difficult password) every time they want to read an e-mail ?

      What they trying to do is find a way to provide good enough security that people will actually use.

    2. Re:*facepalm* by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wouldn't this ideally be presented as a choice to users?

      1. I don't care who reads my email; use either password or SMS only.
      2. I care only slightly who reads my email; use two factor authentication.
      3. My email is actually of some importance; choose a different email provider.
      4. My email contains sensitive information; cancel all my email accounts.

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    3. Re:*facepalm* by mlts · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Another idea that comes to mind is to use a feature that all web browsers have had for over 10 years (even Lynx) -- client certificates.

      This way, on setup, the website asks the user if the current client certificate presented is the one he or she wants to use, then from there on, authentication is completely transparent.

      It goes without saying to have SMS as a backup, but the absolute easiest way to authenticate on a "known good" computer is to have a client cert.

  4. To the second point by XB-70 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Fuck Yahoo! This is just a sleazy way to collect phone numbers and associate them with email addresses.

    What if your phone is dead/stolen and you desperately need to get a message out? You're fucked.

    NOTE: They just killed Yahoo! Profiles. In short, they are collecting data for themselves while making it harder and harder for Yahoo! users to search each other out.

    --
    *** Don't be dull.***
  5. They should adopt SQRL by mrlinux11 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    SQRL completely eliminates the need for passwords https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl....

  6. Let's tie my comm links unseparably together by gsslay · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh no, my phone is dead/stolen! Better email people and tell them not to phone me and I'll be reachable by email.

    Just need to log into my email and ... ... shit...