[OTR-dev] Key validation via Namecoin

[Ian Goldberg]

On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 06:04:03PM +0200, Daniel Kraft wrote:
> What do you think about this idea in general? Also, if I wanted to
> implement this addition to the OTR plugin, how should that be done? I
> think it would be straight-forward to write it as patch to the
> plugin's code, but I'm not sure if that's the best way to do (because
> it only makes sense if you want to include it in the official OTR
> plugin at some point in the future and I'm not sure you would/should).
> Is it possible to write it as a separate Pidgin plugin, and have this
> plugin alter the UI of the OTR plugin as well as communicate with it
> (get the fingerprint to be verified and mark it as trusted)? Sorry if
> that's a dumb question, but I don't really know much about how pludins
> in Pidgin work (apart from some introductory tutorials which don't
> cover more advanced details) ... is it possible for plugins to
> interact with each other in this way, and can I "manipulate" the
> behaviour of the OTR plugin from another plugin in this way? If this
> would at least require some patches to the OTR plugin to allow it to
> work, do they have a chance of getting into the "official" code?
> 
> Thanks for your input! Yours,
> Daniel

Daniel,

Interesting idea!

You're right that it probably wouldn't get integrated into the official
pidgin-otr, but you're also right that plugins can't really modify other
plugins in the way you want without other cooperation.

What you're envisioning is an "authentication plugin" architecture
for the pidgin-otr plugin itself.

Definitely an interesting idea, and hopefully not *too* ridiculous.
There would need to be some kind of signalling mechanism for
registering/unregistering authentication methods at runtime, and some
specification for what such an authentication method might entail.

The various suggestions of GPG, DANE, etc. integration could also fall
into this framework, I would think.

I can't put this on my own plate right now, but I would definitely be
interested in seeing a discussion on this list, leading to a git branch.

   - Ian