Using the now discontinued syncthing-android app -- verify the signing key

Due to the “funny business” involved with the Syncthing app available on F-Droid, I decided against using the Syncthing-Fork app on F-Droid.

Instead, I will be using the last release of the syncthing-android app (version 1.28.1, from Dec 3, 2024). So, I downloaded these files

app-release.apk
sha256sum.txt.asc

I verify the sha256sum of the apk file:

~/Downloads/syncthing-android [2] $ cat sha256sum.txt.asc
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

742984454612f382fb6ba7f7f6fc5f309161cc05a1f4692945d70644cf0a9324  app-release.apk
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iQEzBAEBCgAdFiEEN8hFVOfgomHk924e0m5u0ABlSj4FAmdPdacACgkQ0m5u0ABl
Sj44bAgArlLL++8tI2GD2D/T8vQccxJMUdK65vtjyR6hP3qgUyEhpoLBo0Q9uMwX
+1sy4mjrmil8HH/1g5Td3O4dTQJyRb1mUBbpuBjCaYO5n02aKWIZvwctz9bPuZpH
zIm8mgWbPivu7BubIgDYqcuW+1S5dACezosBtnqm49MuLT5D/GyMbYkut3bRXY8C
czho6Qe/rIlrMgZfiLwbhEabZJX2LdnckDVKdjgKSbJU1kIXjkI2R5LLU3/0p+t2
+2GRHO9c5lljtP7XdF6EU4UnNN/E695wh8fGA122sDwfBydaF9HlhS+eddZRn6a9
KscC6fNFAozD31F8G6LUsEQY3CQ6ZQ==
=vAc4
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
~/Downloads/syncthing-android $ sha256sum app-release.apk
742984454612f382fb6ba7f7f6fc5f309161cc05a1f4692945d70644cf0a9324  app-release.apk
~/Downloads/syncthing-android $ 

Then I check the PGP signature on the sha256sum.txt.asc file:

~/Downloads/syncthing-android $ gpg --verify sha256sum.txt.asc
gpg: Signature made Tue 03 Dec 2024 09:18:31 PM UTC
gpg:                using RSA key 37C84554E7E0A261E4F76E1ED26E6ED000654A3E
gpg: Good signature from "Syncthing Release Management <release@syncthing.net>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 37C8 4554 E7E0 A261 E4F7  6E1E D26E 6ED0 0065 4A3E
~/Downloads/syncthing-android $ 

Can someone else verify that the key 37C84554E7E0A261E4F76E1ED26E6ED000654A3E is indeed the “official” gpg key from the 2024 release?


Apart from this I will be using this abandoned version of the android syncthing with:

  • NAT traversal – disabled
  • Local Discovery – disabled
  • Global Discovery – disabled
  • Enable Relaying – disabled
  • Between the tor onion hidden servers I am hosting on my laptop and on my android devices (thus the preceeding options disabled, peer discovery between my devices are done via the tor network)

I am assuming these will minimize the potential infosec dangers that might arise in the future, as the abandoned syncthing-android app had stopped receiving any possible future security updates. Fair enough to think it that way?

Can one of the devs confirm the key with the fingerprint 37C84554E7E0A261E4F76E1ED26E6ED000654A3E is indeed the “official” gpg key from the 2024 release?

In the archived github repo, I am not seeing a way to verify the fingerprint of the keys used to sign the sha256sum values.