For chatting and instant messaging, Tails includes the Pidgin Instant Messenger.
You can use it to connect to IRC or XMPP (also known as Jabber) servers, and have several accounts connected at the same time.
To start Pidgin choose or click on the Pidgin icon in the Favorites submenu.
For more detailed documentation refer to the official Pidgin user guide.
Predefined accounts
One account is configured in Pidgin by default:
irc.oftc.net
to connect to the OFTC IRC server.
That account is deactivated when Tails is started. To activate it, choose
, and select the account that you want to enable in the submenu.Off-the-record (OTR) encryption
As explained on its official page, Off-the-Record messaging allows you to have private conversations over instant messaging by providing:
- Encryption
No one else can read your instant messages. - Authentication
You are assured the correspondent is who you think it is. - Deniability
The messages you send do not have digital signatures that are checkable by a third party. Anyone can forge messages after a conversation to make them look like they came from you. However, during a conversation, your correspondent is assured the messages he sees are authentic and unmodified. - Perfect forward secrecy
If you lose control of your private keys, no previous conversation is compromised.
OTR is deactivated by default, and your conversations are not private.
File transfers are not encrypted by OTR. OTR only encrypts conversations.
/me
command is not encrypted. The person receiving
the message is notified by a warning.
IRC servers blocking Tor
Some IRC servers block connections from Tor because Tor is sometimes used to send spam.
- Accessing freenode Via Tor (the hidden services mentioned on this page are sometimes unavailable)
- OFTC and Tor
- List of IRC/chat networks that block or support Tor
Random username generation
Every time you start Tails, a random username is generated for all Pidgin accounts.
The generator uses a list of common English first names, and modifies them, so that they are almost unique, and does not reveal that you are using Tails.
It is based on the language confluxer by Christopher Pound.
Adding support for another protocol
For security reasons, it is only possible to use IRC and XMPP with Pidgin in Tails. Here are the prerequisites to enable another protocol that is supported by Pidgin otherwise:
- The support in Pidgin for this protocol has been successfully tested in Tails.
- Someone volunteers to maintain the corresponding support in Tails on the long term.
- Someone has verified that the security record of the desired plugin (including open bugs) is good enough.
If you want to work on this issue, see our contribute page.