Pidgin-paranoia is a plug-in for Pidgin (formerly known as Gaim) that provides information-theoretically secure encrypted conversations using one-time pads.

Because the plugin uses a one-time pad where the secrect key has the same length as the message and the key is only used once, the encryption is information-theoretically secure. This means that from the encrypted messages the contents of the messages are not revealed.
In short: If you use truely random numbers to generate the key files and if you keep them perfectly secret, one-time pads can not be broken. For more details read the INFO file.

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Installation

We provide packages for Debian and debian-based distributions (like Ubuntu). The plugin is tested with Debian Lenny and Ubuntu 8.04 (i386 and amd64) but it should ideally run on various platforms. The plugin requires libpurple >= 2.2.0 and libglib >= 2.16. The INSTALL file describes the build process.

Usage

To load the plugin select "Tools" -> "Plugins" and check the entry "One-Time Pad encryption". Commands are entered by typing a message beginning with /otp in a IM conversation window. The commands depend on the conversation, e.g. "/otp genkey 100" creates two keys for the accounts which are connected in this IM conversation.

   /otp help	 			shows this message 
   /otp genkey <size> <external entropy source>	
					generates a key pair of <size> kiB.
   /otp on	 			tries to enable the encryption
   /otp off	 			disables the encryption
   /otp info	 			shows details about the used key
   /otp list	 			shows all keys for this conversation
   /otp list-all	 		shows all available keys
   /otp reload				reloads all your key files
Setup:
  1. Generate key files for you and your paranoid buddy. e.g. type "/otp genkey 100". This may take a few minutes.
  2. Your key is stored in ~/.paranoia. The key for your buddy is stored on your desktop. Pass this key in a secure way to your buddy (e.g. by usb stick).
  3. Your buddy places the key you generated in his ~/.paranoia directory.
  4. He should use '/otp reload' to add the new key.
  5. Chat encrypted!

Roadmap

1.0.0