[rtcweb] Encryption mandate

[Randell Jesup <[e-mail]>]

Splitting the two topics....


On 9/7/2011 3:07 AM, Olle E. Johansson wrote:

> To fearlessly  jump into another can of worms, I still think we should have confidentiality - SRTP - by default. We know that these applications will run on a myriad of devices on a myriad of networks and it will not work to let users have to decided whether or not they want confidentiality. If Skype did not have confidentiality by default, there would be articles every summer and xmas in the evening taboloids about how easy it is to listen in to your neighbours calls and that would have hurted Skype badly.
>

There is a strong argument for this.  The strongest argument for the 
other side is  you don't need a media gateway to talk to non-WebRTC 
endpoints, just a signalling gateway.  This means less delay potentially 
(especially if the application provider has gateways only in one 
geographic location) and less expense for the server provider for a 
pretty common usecase (gateway to PSTN).  The delay could be a 
significant issue.
It was also brought up that some usecases for internal PBX/business use 
would not need/prefer forced encryption.  As mentioned at the meeting, 
encrypting to the media gateway only gets you a modicum of privacy 
(though it might protect you from the "neighbor's wifi capture" case).

You could make forced-encryption the default, and allow the application 
control over whether to allow it is turned off for specific cases, like 
a PSTN call, or under the server's control.  Signalling is secure, so it 
could even use a direct optional downgrade from SAVP* to AVP* (i.e. 
similar to the best-effort-strp draft)

It's a tough call - guaranteed (local) security is nice, but I worry 
about those relay cases like taiwan->USA media gateway->taiwan.  Not a 
huge deal on signaling/call-setup, but media...


-- 
Randell Jesup
[e-mail]