Forums Feature Suggestions SSL builtin

When will there be built-in support for SSL in mIRC? I'm currently using "Stunnel" but it's no fun when I want to connect to multiple servers.

Hopefully some day, I believe Khaled hasn't give us any answers about this?

Most likely never, due to import/export restrictions on software that utilizes encryption. When the world opens up it trade restrictions and doesn't require location validation before download, you may see it in mIRC. :P

bleh! Those restrictions blow! (excuse the language)

US is (afaik) the only nation with export limits on strong crypto, and the limits only disallow export to "terrorist nations" (ie Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, etc). As for importing, well basically what you're saying there is mIRC will support it when we have world peace... Because unless China suddenly decides communism isn't working out and decides to go with democracy, then crypto imports will never fully be removed. In any case there are ways around this, you could for example have 2 versions of mIRC, one SSL and one non-SSL. You could also distribute mIRC WITHOUT the SSL dlls and require users to obtain the dlls on their own, etc.

Wrong, the US restricst exportation and importation of strong cryptography to and from anywhere in the world, except Canada. But the US recently released the law a bit (not enough). The law will remain until they understand that while cryptography is more than sufficient for us (credit card processing, read e-mails, or just chatting) it's not safe enough for terroristes. They just don't use digital encryption, they use other means of transmitting their messages.

At my knowledge very few (or none) existing server implementations support SSL, so there is little need on this part. However I aggree that having SSL tunnel for DCC would be nice. It would make me more confident when I send certain information. But then, I need to have proof of who I am talking to (my credit card information goes to my wife, not a stranger pretending to be my wife)... this could be implemented with SSL if designed carefully.

SSL is already built in to xhat, which anyone can download from www.xchat.org. I can also download a free SSH client from www.ssh.com. I'm already using SSL to connect to a number of private servers, tunneling mIRC through it. It would just be handier if this was built into mIRC.

Robin Billings

Yes you can do all this because ssl has no export restrictions placed on it. It would not be a problem to add it to mIRC because as you said it is freely distributed. It is not considered strong enough to have restrictions.