Messenger Secure (msgur)

In summary, this web service provide a way to host a message in a secure way, only readable one time, destroyed on read. Message are encrypted and no-one except the first one with the url can read it.

Technical details

Message are encrypted using AES algorythm. The encryption key is never sent to the server (client-side generated) and the client generate the url. The server doesn't know the key and never receive it.

Workflow:

• The user write his message, then clic on "Encrypt and Send" button
• A key (uuid4) is generated, client-side (in the browser)
• The message is encrypted using that key (client-side in the browser)
• The encrypted message (and nothing else) is sent to the server to store it
• The server reply with a unique id matching with the message
• The reader URL is generated (client-side in the browser) using the returned id and the key

You need to know the id and the key to get the message and decrypt it.

The server doesn't know the key, it's not possible for anyone who have access to the server to decrypt a message without the key, even the administrator. The key is only available to the creator, on his browser.

When a request to the message is made, the message is deleted from the database, permanently.

This documents will receive some updates the next few days related to implementation changes.

Setup

1. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Create an empty configuration

cp config.py.sample config.py

3. Customize your configuration, set your database backend settings and optional features. Supported database engines:

• MySQL/MariaDB
• SQLite3

4. Setup your WSGI Server, a sample configuration for uWSGI is provided

uwsgi uwsgi.sample.ini

Database Schema

-- MariaDB / MySQL Table Structure
CREATE TABLE messages (
    id varchar(12) CHARACTER SET ascii COLLATE ascii_general_ci NOT NULL,
    ciphertext text CHARACTER SET ascii COLLATE ascii_bin DEFAULT NULL,
    created timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT current_timestamp(),
    seen timestamp NULL DEFAULT NULL,
    iv varchar(24) CHARACTER SET ascii COLLATE ascii_general_ci NOT NULL

) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_uca1400_ai_ci;

-- Indexes
ALTER TABLE messages ADD PRIMARY KEY (id), ADD KEY seen (seen);

-- SQLite Table Structure
CREATE TABLE messages (
    id varchar(12) primary key,
    ciphertext text default null,
    created timestamp default current_timestamp,
    seen timestamp default null,
    iv varchar(24)
);

-- Index
CREATE INDEX seen ON messages (seen);