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Even if something is open source, if it's running on a server you don't control there's no guarantee that the service you're talking to is running that same code as what you've read.
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The whole point of the app is end-to-end encryption instead of trusting the server with the data.
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That's the idea, but the problem is verification--there's a black box involved in the process. How do you know the mechanism inside the box produces end-to-end encryption and not merely apparently end-to-end encryption?
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There is no black box involved in the process. The Signal app is open source. The whole point of the app is providing end-to-end encryption from client to client. You seem to be confusing end-to-end encryption with transport encryption. It doesn't mean what you seem to think.
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It uses authenticated encryption with forward secrecy between instances of the app. It doesn't trust the server. Encrypting connections to the server is not end-to-end encryption. End-to-end means encrypting from one end (Signal app) to the other (Signal app), not to the server.
The app sets up an encrypted session with the other end. It provides forward secrecy rather than using long-lived keys directly for encryption. You either verify the safety number with contacts out-of-band to verify a MITM didn't happen for the initial setup or rely on TOFU.
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Also, re: instances of the app, I think if I could download a reproducibly-built APK from e.g. F-Droid then I wouldn't have anything more to say.
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Signal has reproducible builds. They provide a self-updating web apk as an alternative to the Play Store releases.
Molly is a alternate Signal client with some security features (github.com/mollyim/mollyi) and has F-Droid repositories with their releases.
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