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Re: [openpgp] Disabling compression in OpenPGP

Jon Callas <jon@callas.org> Wed, 19 March 2014 20:47 UTC

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From: Jon Callas <jon@callas.org>
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Cc: David Shaw <dshaw@jabberwocky.com>, "openpgp@ietf.org OpenPGP" <openpgp@ietf.org>, Jon Callas <jon@callas.org>, Alfredo Pironti <alfredo.pironti@inria.fr>
Subject: Re: [openpgp] Disabling compression in OpenPGP
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> That's the job of encryption, and modern encryption does that job very
> well.
> 
> I strongly support turning off compression by default. That the length
> of the data being encrypted is leaked is pretty easy for a non-advanced
> user to figure out - just compare the encrypted and unencrypted file
> lengths, or for that matter, just think about it rationally. But the
> fact that information on the contents of the file is being leaked too -
> exactly what encryption is supposed to prevent - is not at all obvious.

What's being leaked by compression? Really, I don't get it.

Consider an OpenPGP blob that is compressed and encrypted. Consider that it is intercepted by whatever means. What's the leak?

Here's an example, where an unknown plaintext is encrypted both to a key, and to a passphrase:

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org
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=Uqr6
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

What's the leak? What's the vuln?

	Jon

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