From 04df819f2f18191781c0489aeca17bede6cc5d05 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Andy Balaam Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 14:16:50 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Add a paragraph about losing the recovery key --- proposals/4161-crypto-terminology.md | 9 +++++++++ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+) diff --git a/proposals/4161-crypto-terminology.md b/proposals/4161-crypto-terminology.md index 386f35215b9..384c744d090 100644 --- a/proposals/4161-crypto-terminology.md +++ b/proposals/4161-crypto-terminology.md @@ -272,6 +272,15 @@ changed" messages), and also read old messages using the stored message keys. A **recovery passphrase** is an easier-to-remember way of accessing the recovery key and has the same purpose as the recovery key. +**Losing the recovery key**: if the user loses their recovery key, they can +"reset" it, which means re-storing the identity information in the server, +encrypted with a new recovery key. If the user has a verified client, then that +is holding the identity information locally, so they can reset their recovery +key without losing access to key storage. If they don't have a verified client +and they lose their recovery key, then they need to reset key storage as well as +recovery key (since the identity information is needed to read from key +storage), meaning they lose access to old messages. + > "Write down your recovery key in a safe place" > "If you lose access to your devices and your recovery key, you will need to