ChatSecure is a messaging application for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
which allows
OTR and
OMEMO
OMEMO is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for multi-client end-to-end encryption developed by Andreas Straub. According to Straub, OMEMO uses the Double Ratchet Algorithm "to provide multi-end to multi-end enc ...
encryption for the
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), i ...
protocol. ChatSecure is
free and open source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
available under the
GPL-3.0-or-later license.
ChatSecure has been used by international individuals and governments, businesses, and those spreading
jihadi
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
propaganda.
History
ChatSecure was originally released in 2011 and was the first iOS application to support OTR messaging. In 2012 ChatSecure formed a partnership with
The Guardian Project and the Gibberbot app was rebranded to "ChatSecure Android".
In late 2016, the Android branding partnership was ended, with ChatSecure Android becoming 'Zom', and ChatSecure iOS remaining as ChatSecure. ChatSecure iOS remains in active development and is unaffected by this change. Version 4.0 was released on January 17, 2017.
ChatSecure is censored from the App Store in China.
Reception
In November 2014, "ChatSecure +
Orbot" received a perfect score on the
Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Secure Messaging Scorecard";
the combination received points for having communications encrypted in transit, having communications encrypted with keys the provider doesn't have access to (
end-to-end encryption
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including telecommunications service providers, telecom providers, Internet ...
), making it possible for users to independently verify their correspondents' identities, having past communications secure if the keys are stolen (
forward secrecy
In cryptography, forward secrecy (FS), also known as perfect forward secrecy (PFS), is a feature of specific key agreement protocols that gives assurances that session keys will not be compromised even if long-term secrets used in the session key ...
), having the code open to independent review (
open source), having the security designs well-documented, and having a recent independent security audit.
See also
*
Comparison of instant messaging clients
The landscape for instant messaging involves cross-platform instant messaging clients that can handle one or multiple protocols. Clients that use the same protocol can typically federate and talk to one another. The following table compares gener ...
*
List of free and open-source iOS applications
References
External links
*
{{Cryptographic software
IOS software
Free software
Free mobile software
Free XMPP clients