https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=469874
Bug ID: 469874
Summary: Feature request: one-off sharing between unpaired
devices
Classification: Applications
Product: kdeconnect
Version: 23.04.1
Platform: Other
OS: Linux
Status: REPORTED
Severity: normal
Priority: NOR
Component: common
Assignee: albertv...@gmail.com
Reporter: adam.m.fontenot+...@gmail.com
CC: andrew.g.r.hol...@gmail.com
Target Milestone: ---
SUMMARY
As I understand it, any duple of KDE Connect clients is currently in one of two
states:
1. The devices are "paired", which means they trust each other, have a long
term link, and generally provide each other with a wide variety of features
(e.g. clipboard sharing, ping, etc) depending on what plugins each device has
enabled. For this reason, pairing is intended to be used for devices owned by a
single person.
2. The devices are "unpaired", which means they're not allowed to talk to each
other in anyway. Messages other than pair requests are ignored.
I propose another state, which you might call "open". When two devices are
placed in this state (either globally or with respect to each other), they are
allowed to send individualized requests using the "share and receive"
capability. Just as pairing requests show a confirmation dialogue on both ends,
these requests would have a confirmation dialogue for *every* request. So they
would never be put in a paired / trusted state (which would allow them to share
files in perpetuity), but could nevertheless share files and URLs on a one-off
basis.
SPECIFICS
Because of the contexts in which this feature is likely to be used (untrusted
devices talking over untrusted networks), I think it would make sense to
display a verification key of some kind on each device (e.g. code words or an
emoji sequence representing bytes) that allow the users to verify that they're
talking to the correct device *before* accepting the connection. KDE Connect
represents certificate hashes as a 256-bit hex strings, but for live
verification a short verification string would be much more usable. See e.g.
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-dnssd-pairing-02
An additional feature (not part of this request) could allow *saving* a device
without having it paired. This would use a long term keypair, meaning that one
would not have to verify it each time (meaning that the confirmation dialogue
would just contain "accept / reject transfer"), and changes in the key could be
detected and reported.
JUSTIFICATION
User story: Jane lives in a house with two other people, Josh and Jill. All of
them have at least one computer, and all have a cell phone. They share a WiFi
network. All of their devices run KDE Connect. Frequently, they would like to
share photos they've taken with each other, but presently they have to use a
hodgepodge of protocols and tools to accomplish this, sometimes even resorting
to email or sharing through the cloud. They'd rather just use KDE Connect,
which is how they transfer photos between their personal devices.
---------------------
KDE Connect is a remarkably full featured application. It already does far more
than most applications that allow connecting two devices, but it's missing one
of the most common and useful feature of these other programs: an equivalent to
Apple's AirDrop, Google's Nearby Share, etc. Given that the protocol,
applications, and approach to encryption get us 90% of the way to implementing
such a feature, I think it would be great to see support for sharing
device-to-device in KDE Connect.
This feature would also likely drive adoption of KDE Connect, making it a
useful outreach tool for KDE more generally.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
As this is a suggestion for a feature, I've ignored the issue template.
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