p≡p for iOS¶
Overview¶
This section covers the system requirements, feature list, installation- and user-guide of p≡p for iOS.
System Requirements¶
Mobile phone or tablet with iOS version 11.0 and higher
Email account accessible through IMAP/SMTP
Feature list¶
The following features are available in p≡p for iOS version 1.1.x:
Encrypt/decrypt emails and their subjects
Store messages encrypted or unencrypted on the server (Untrusted or Trusted server)
Compatibility with OpenPGP (as a p≡p user you can communicate with users that use OpenPGP)
Passive Mode (public key only attached if the communication partner uses p≡p)
Automated, decentralized key management
Import Private Keys
p≡p Sync, automated synchronization of keys between all your devices using p≡p.
Reset
Extra Keys
Supported languages¶
The following languages are supported:
Catalan
Czech
Dutch
English
French
German
Slovak
Spanish
Turkish
User Guide¶
First steps in p≡p for iOS¶
Setting up the account
In order to use p≡p, you need to setup your email account in p≡p for iOS. As soon as the email account is set-up, you can use p≡p without any additional configuration. No additional settings changes are needed for p≡p to work.
At the first startup of the app, p≡p will ask you to give permission to send you notifications: “p≡p Would Like to Send You Notifications”. It’s optional and you can change it anytime. You can configure it in the Settings same as for any other iOS apps.
On the next screen select what account type you want to setup. If your provider is not listed, select “Other”:
On the next screen, enter your email address, display name and the other required fields (depending on the account type).
Sending Secure Emails¶
After a message from another p≡p user is received and you reply to that message, the Privacy Status icon on the top of the message is yellow. This means, that this message will be sent encrypted. Please note, that the very first message between two p≡p users will be sent unencrypted.
Warning
Consider that the first part of an email address till “@” is case sensitive. The domain part is not. E.g. holden@pep.digital is not the same as HOLDEN@pep.digital, however holden@pep.digital is the same as holden@PEP.DIGITAL.
The Handshake¶
For general information about the Handshake, refer to Handshake.
To perform a Handshake, the Handshake dialog can be opened by clicking the Privacy Status icon. Users can see button at the bottom of the screen:
You can change the language of the Trustwords after touching green small globe icon. There is choice of 8 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Catalan, Slovak, Turkish and Dutch.
In case your communication partner is an OpenPGP user, you will see the PGP fingerprints in the Handshake screen:
After comparing the Trustwords with the communication partner through a separate channel, select “Confirm” if the Trustwords match or “Reject” if the Trustwords didn’t match. After you confirmed the Trustwords, the Privacy Status changed to Green (Secure & Trusted).
This step is done once with each communication partner and any future communication remains Green (Secure & Trusted).
Sending a message to multiple people with different Privacy Statuses¶
When sending a message to more than one person, you simply add the recipients to the message. The Privacy Status icon at the top will show you, if the message will be sent encrypted (yellow or green icon) or not (no icon). In the below example you can see that there are 3 recipients. Because only 1 recipient has p≡p or a compatible product installed, the message will be sent unencrypted.
When sending a message to multiple recipients, which all but one are trusted, the message will have the lowest privacy status of all intended recipients. In the following example all but one recipients are trusted, therefore the privacy status of the message is only secure.
Once you open the handshake dialog, you can see that a handshake with Hannibal is needed.
Comparing the Trustwords over another channel f.e. calling to Hannibal, we confirm the Trustwords are the same on both sides. Once confirmed, Hannibal is on trusted communication channel and privacy status for the message will change to Secure & Trusted.
For additional information about the Handshake, refer to Sending a message to multiple people with different Privacy Statuses.
Disable Protection¶
When the communication partner’s Privacy Status icon is Yellow (Secure) or Green (Secure & Trusted), the email will automatically be sent encrypted, when the user clicks on ‘Send’. If the user would like to disable protection on a case by case basis, then the user can do so by long pressing the privacy status icon and selecting the ‘Disable Protection’ button in the bottom of the screen.
The Privacy Status dot as well as the rating for a communication partner will change to Disabled and the message will be sent unencrypted when the user presses ‘Send’.
p≡p for iOS Options¶
This section covers the options related to p≡p email encryption/decryption that are available in p≡p for iOS. The options can be opened by pressing on the p≡p icon at the bottom right.
Settings - Accounts¶
Account settings are used to configure account specific settings, e.g. related to IMAP/SMTP settings of the current accounts and to remove any account in the app.
Accounts can be removed by sliding the name of the account to the left.
New accounts can be added by pressing Add Account text at the bottom of the Mailboxes view.
Settings - Global Settings¶
Global settings are used for all accounts in the app. The following settings are available.
Default Account¶
This option allows you to select the default account for sending emails.
Credits¶
In Credits, you can see the version number of p≡p for iOS, a list of projects p≡p for iOS is depending on and the end user license agreement (EULA).
Store Messages Securely¶
Defines for each account if messages should be saved encrypted or decrypted on the server.
When “Protected message subject” is disabled, p≡p will decrypt the subject of encrypted messages and save the subject unencrypted on the server in any case.
For more details see Store messages securely.
PGP Key Import¶
To import your existing PGP keys, do the following:
Export the PGP Key from your PGP Client and save it on the computer. Ensure the key doesn’t have a passphrase.
Connect your iOS device via USB cable with your computer.
On Mac: Open Finder -> Select your iOS device on the left and select Files. Then, drag & drop your key into the p≡p app (on the p≡p icon).
On Windows: Open iTunes -> Select your iOS device on the top, select File Sharing and click the p≡p app icon. Then click “Add File…” and select the key you want to import.
Once done, on your iOS device, start the p≡p for iOS app, go to settings (click the p≡p icon) and select “PGP Key Import”. Then select the green button “PGP Key Import” and select the file that you just copied to the device.
Check if the key is the correct one by comparing the fingerprint. Then confirm with “Yes”.
Note
After the import p≡p will use your key to encrypt and decrypt messages. Please be aware that p≡p automates the key management and your key may change (e.g. after a reset, when joining a device group or when a key expires). Even if p≡p starts using another key, old keys will always be kept to ensure that all messages can be decrypted.
Set Own Key¶
If you have a PGP keypair that is already imported in pEp for iOS and you want to define the key as default key for an account, do the following:
Go to settings (click the small p≡p icon on the bottom right) and select “PGP Key Import” and select “Set Own Key”.
In the Email field, enter the email address of the key you want to use. In the field Fingerprint, add the fingerprint (capitalised and without spaces, e.g. “0A1C152BEB03EC3CE7D9125D293FA3243FCE31E6”). Then, press “Set Own Key”.
If you don’t get any error message, your key is now set as default key for the address.
Unsecure reply warning¶
This option will warn you when a formerly encrypted message would be sent unencrypted by replying or forwarding, a warning message appears. This option is enabled by default.
Protect Message Subject¶
When sending messages between p≡p users, the subject is always encrypted (in transport). However, when “Protect message subject” is disabled, p≡p will decrypt the subject of messages stored in the mailbox and save the subject unencrypted.
Further, when “Protected message subject” is disabled, the subject of messages sent to PGP users will not be encrypted at all.
For more details see Protect message subject.
Passive mode¶
By default p≡p for iOS attaches your public key to every outgoing email. When passive mode is enabled, p≡p doesn’t attach a public key to outgoing messages unless the communication partner uses p≡p. If you already have a public key from your communication partner, p≡p will encrypt your emails by default.
For more details see Passive Mode.
p≡p Sync¶
If p≡p Sync is enabled, p≡p will check if other devices are using the same email account and try to build or join a device group. p≡p Sync ensures that all messages can be decrypted on all devices.
For more details see p≡p Sync.