mcabber with OTR on FreeBSD
===========================
Last edited: $Date: 2021/11/20 13:22:06 $
mcabber
--------
mcabber is a great XMPP (Jabber) console client. It has all
the important features and is easy use.
XMPP is an open standard for messaging and presence. XMPP is
the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol that is
developed in 1999 by Jeremie Miller. He called it jabber.
Federated instant messaging
----------------------------
XMPP is a decentralised system, that means that everybody can
set up a XMPP server, nobody owns the network and the network
can not be closed down by a single authority.
It is a federated system. The users of one server can exchange
messages with the users of another server.
Privacy by encryption
---------------------
The XMPP supports the use of encryption to protect the
confidentiality of the messages. So, your chat is secured by
encryption against eavesdropping.
There are two methods to protect your messages:
- Encryption with OpenPGP
- Encryption with OTR
mcabber supports both methods.
OTR
---
OTR or "Off-the-Record Messaging" is a cryptographic protocol
that provides encryption for instant messaging conversations.
OTR is easy to set up, doesn't require the user to maintain a
public and private key pair, and supports forward secrecy.
mcabber with OTR on FreeBSD
---------------------------
The FreeBSD binary package for mcabber has not been compiled
with support for OTR.
Because this is one of the very few applications I compile and
build, I have not installed the ports tree.
So, I did fetch the tar-ball with the source code from
https://mcabber.com and compiled this.
### Dependencies
You have to install the following packages:
gmake
pkgconf
glib-2
libotr-4
Fetch and unpack the tar-ball (mcabber-1.1.2.tar.bz2 in my
case).
Than, run the traditional combo of ./configure, make and make
install:
./configure --enable-otr
gmake
gmake install
To be able to manage any self compiled applications, [GNU
stow](
https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/) can be used. In that
case, set the prefix accordingly.
./configure --enable-otr --prefix=/usr/local/stow/mcabber
Starting encrypted chat
------------------------
An easy way to use OTR on mcabber is to set the OTR policy to
opportunistic.
Add the following lines to the ~/.mcabber/mcabberrc file:
set otr = 1
set otr_dir = "~/.mcabber/otr/"
set otrpolicy default opportunistic
Make sure the directory "~/.mcabber/otr/" does exists. Start
mcabber and connect to the jabber-server.
Set the policy for each contact you want to have a secure chat
with.
/otrpolicy JID opportunistic
Remember that you can use tab-expansion on the JID.
Make sure the other party also has OTR enabled and set to
opportunistic mode. Now just start chatting, first it will be
unencrypted, but within a very short time you will see the
friendly message:
*** OTR: channel established
Now, the channel is protected by encryption.
This can be checked by the message indicators:
-O> : outgoing message is encrypted through OTR
<O= : incoming message is encrypted through OTR
Have fun !
