Encryption of emails in the mailing list

Feature Proposal
1

I understand that the mailing list is currently in experimental mode, but for the future it is worth considering the following: Sending an encrypted email to those users with whom the key exchange is performed, with the rest in its pure form.

2

i assume you mean “broadcast lists” [1]. indeed, when we get that out of experimental, we’ll think over the end-to-end-encryption behaviour.

  1. “classic mailing lists” as such are not considered “experimental”. support for reading classic mailing lists was added in 2021, for writing classic mailing lists in 2022.
    note, that you cannot create “classic mailing lists” in Delta Chat. Delta Chat just supports them as good as possible when seeing a message from a classic mailing list. it is not up to Delta Chat to add encryption or change behaviour somehow - we can just try to do what is expected by the classic mailing list sever - and beside some exceptions, this do not include end-to-end-encryption ↩︎

2 Likes
3

broadcast lists are currently read-only mailing lists, similar to a Telegram channel, so for the receiver it is show as mailing list, I guess that is why @DELTA_MAFIA called it mailing lists

4

Yes, I mean the mailing list. The thing is, it’s great that it looks like a Telegram channel. But I would like it to be encrypted in the same way as in groups if all the interlocutors use DC. That is, if I send out to contacts who have exchanged keys with me, then the mailing list for them must be encrypted. It’s just convenient for me to send employees news about our company.

1 Like
5

we can encrypt them the same way we do with groups, it is even simpler because only the owner can send messages, so it is like a group with only one sender, the problem was that to encrypt it, we need to encrypt the key for every contact with their key so they can decrypt it, and this seems to reveal some metadata about channel/broadcast members list, but it is MUCH better to expose this metadata than having unencrypted messages exposing all the message content to your server and the receiver server, besides the fact that it just doesn’t work with chatmail servers, so we should really move to encrypted broadcast ASAP, IMHO

3 Likes
6

In this case, we disclose only the public keys of the participants, not their email addresses. But even so, I think it’s not such a big problem. Maybe.

1 Like
7

The process of organizing encryption of channels with a shared key in Delta Chat

  1. Creating a channel:

    • The channel administrator creates a channel in Delta Chat.
    • A shared encryption key is generated, which will be used for all messages in the channel.

  2. Distribution of the shared key:

    • The shared key is encrypted using the public keys of all channel participants. This ensures that only those who have the appropriate private keys will be able to decrypt it.
    • The administrator sends an encrypted shared key to each channel participant via a private message along with a record that he invited him to the channel (channel name, about the channel), in the form of a contact card.

  3. Message Encryption:

  • When sending a message, the channel administrator encrypts it using a shared key.
    • An encrypted message is sent to all channel participants.
  1. Receiving and decrypting messages:
  • All participants who have a shared key can decrypt encrypted messages using this key.
  1. Adding new members:
    • When adding a new participant to the channel:
  • It is checked that the new participant uses Delta Chat, if not, then an alert about it.
    • Send an encrypted shared key via its public key so that a new member can access the channel’s messages.

This approach allows you to create a secure and confidential environment for communication in the channel, while maintaining the convenience of using Delta Chat.