Messaging Layer Security (MLS) is a security layer for end-to-end encrypting messages in arbitrarily sized groups. It is maintained by the MLS working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force to provide an efficient and practical security mechanism.[1][2][3]
Abbreviation | MLS |
---|---|
First published | July 2023 |
Organization | IETF |
Authors |
|
Domain | Security |
Website | www |
Security properties
editSecurity properties of MLS include message confidentiality, message integrity and authentication, membership authentication, asynchronicity, forward secrecy, post-compromise security, and scalability.[4]
History
editThe idea was born in 2016 and first discussed in an unofficial meeting during IETF 96 in Berlin with attendees from Wire, Mozilla and Cisco.[5]
Initial ideas were based on pairwise encryption for secure 1:1 and group communication. In 2017, an academic paper introducing Asynchronous Ratcheting Trees was published by the University of Oxford and Facebook setting the focus on more efficient encryption schemes.[6]
The first BoF took place in February 2018 at IETF 101 in London. The founding members are Mozilla, Facebook, Wire, Google, Twitter, University of Oxford, and INRIA.[7]
As of March 29, 2023, the IETF has approved publication of Messaging Layer Security (MLS) as a new standard.[8] It was officially published on July 19, 2023.[9][10]
Matrix is one of the protocols declaring migration to MLS.[11]
Research by PQShield suggests post-quantum cryptography (PQC) could be added to MLS-like messaging, but MLS does not currently support PQC.[12][13]
Implementations
editReferences
edit- ^ "Inside MLS, the New Protocol for Secure Enterprise Messaging". Dark Reading. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
- ^ at 10:29, Richard Chirgwin 22 Aug 2018. "Elders of internet hash out standards to grant encrypted message security for world+dog". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Messaging Layer Security". GitHub.
- ^ "Messaging Layer Security (mls) -". datatracker.ietf.org. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
- ^ "Das sind die sieben Entwickler-Trends 2019: Vom Java-Comeback über MLS bis KI/ML-zentrierte Technologien". IT Finanzmagazin. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ Cohn-Gordon, Katriel; Cremers, Cas; Garratt, Luke; Millican, Jon; Milner, Kevin (2017). "On Ends-to-Ends Encryption: Asynchronous Group Messaging with Strong Security Guarantees". Cryptology ePrint Archive.
- ^ Chirgwin, Richard (22 August 2018). "Elders of internet hash out standards to grant encrypted message security for world+dog". Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- ^ Sullivan, Nick; Turner, Sean (2023-03-29). "Messaging Layer Security: Secure and Usable End-to-End Encryption". IETF. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
- ^ "New MLS protocol provides groups better and more efficient security at Internet scale". 2023-07-19. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
- ^ Beurdouche, Benjamin; Vasquez, Sarah (2023-07-20). "Messaging Layer Security is now an internet standard". Mozilla. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
- ^ "Are We MLS Yet?". Are We MLS Yet?. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
- ^ Hashimoto, Keitaro; Katsumata, Shuichi; Prest, Thomas (2022-11-07). "How to Hide MetaData in MLS-Like Secure Group Messaging: Simple, Modular, and Post-Quantum" (PDF). Cryptology ePrint Archive. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
- ^ "Post-quantum messaging: examining Apple's new PQ3 protocol". PQShield. 2024-02-22. Retrieved 2024-12-09.