As mentioned in the comments, plain text keys aren’t bad because they are necessary. You have to have at least one plain text key in order to be able to use encryption

  • ScottAEnglish
    4·
    6 months ago

    In the device’s secure enclave (e.g. TPM).

      • chris@l.roofo.ccEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        If I’m not mistaken you can save keys in these chips so that they can not be extracted. You can only use the key to encrypt/decrypt/sign/verify by asking the chip to do these operations with your key.

          • lud@lemm.ee
            3·
            6 months ago

            No, why would a backup contain non-exportable information? One of the reasons to use TPM to begin with is that sensitive information can’t leave it.

              • lud@lemm.ee
                2·
                6 months ago

                You would probably use a recovery key that exists exclusively elsewhere like on paper in a vault. Like bitlocker.

                I have no idea if signal uses TPM or not but generally keys in TPM are non-exportable which is a very good thing and IMO the primary reason to use TPM at all.

          • ScottAEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            One would hope the backup is encrypted.

            • onlinepersona@programming.devEnglish
              3·
              6 months ago

              It is. A password is generated that you have to write down. It must’ve been a compromise because they knew most people would just pick a shitty password if they didn’t generate one and it would end up on a piece of paper or in some digital form anyway.

              Anti Commercial-AI license