signal-protocol

A ratcheting forward secrecy protocol that works in synchronous and asynchronous messaging environments.

This repository is forked from WhisperSystem's own https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-protocol-javascript, modified to support node and the browser.

You can read more about the signal protocol (formerly axolotl for its self-healing abilities) here.

Overview

PreKeys

This protocol uses a concept called 'PreKeys'. A PreKey is an ECPublicKey and an associated unique ID which are stored together by a server. PreKeys can also be signed.

At install time, clients generate a single signed PreKey, as well as a large list of unsigned PreKeys, and transmit all of them to the server.

Sessions

Signal Protocol is session-oriented. Clients establish a "session," which is then used for all subsequent encrypt/decrypt operations. There is no need to ever tear down a session once one has been established.

Sessions are established in one of two ways:

1. PreKeyBundles. A client that wishes to send a message to a recipient can establish a session by retrieving a PreKeyBundle for that recipient from the server.
2. PreKeySignalMessages. A client can receive a PreKeySignalMessage from a recipient and use it to establish a session.

State

An established session encapsulates a lot of state between two clients. That state is maintained in durable records which need to be kept for the life of the session.

State is kept in the following places:

• Identity State. Clients will need to maintain the state of their own identity key pair, as well as identity keys received from other clients.
• PreKey State. Clients will need to maintain the state of their generated PreKeys.
• Signed PreKey States. Clients will need to maintain the state of their signed PreKeys.
• Session State. Clients will need to maintain the state of the sessions they have established.

Requirements

This implementation currently depends on the presence of the following types/interfaces, which are available in most modern browsers.

• ArrayBuffer
• TypedArray
• Promise
• WebCrypto with support for:
  • AES-CBC
  • HMAC SHA-256

Usage

There are two ways to use this package.

You can require with your front-end bundler of choice (e.g. browserify, webpack):

var libsignal = require('libsignal-protocol')

Or, you can include the prebundled dist/libsignal.js in your HTML file.

Install time

At install time, a libsignal client needs to generate its identity keys, registration id, and prekeys.

var libsignal = require('libsignal-protocol')
var KeyHelper = libsignal.KeyHelper;

var registrationId = KeyHelper.generateRegistrationId();
// Store registrationId somewhere durable and safe.

KeyHelper.generateIdentityKeyPair().then(function(identityKeyPair) {
    // keyPair -> { pubKey: ArrayBuffer, privKey: ArrayBuffer }
    // Store identityKeyPair somewhere durable and safe.
});

KeyHelper.generatePreKey(keyId).then(function(preKey) {
    store.storePreKey(preKey.keyId, preKey.keyPair);
});

KeyHelper.generateSignedPreKey(identityKeyPair, keyId).then(function(signedPreKey) {
    store.storeSignedPreKey(signedPreKey.keyId, signedPreKey.keyPair);
});

// Register preKeys and signedPreKey with the server

Building a session

A libsignal client needs to implement a storage interface that will manage loading and storing of identity, prekeys, signed prekeys, and session state. See test/InMemorySignalProtocolStore.js for an example.

Once this is implemented, building a session is fairly straightforward:

var store   = new MySignalProtocolStore();
var address = new libsignal.SignalProtocolAddress(recipientId, deviceId);

// Instantiate a SessionBuilder for a remote recipientId + deviceId tuple.
var sessionBuilder = new libsignal.SessionBuilder(store, address);

// Process a prekey fetched from the server. Returns a promise that resolves
// once a session is created and saved in the store, or rejects if the
// identityKey differs from a previously seen identity for this address.
var promise = sessionBuilder.processPreKey({
    registrationId: <Number>,
    identityKey: <ArrayBuffer>,
    signedPreKey: {
        keyId     : <Number>,
        publicKey : <ArrayBuffer>,
        signature : <ArrayBuffer>
    },
    preKey: {
        keyId     : <Number>,
        publicKey : <ArrayBuffer>
    }
});

promise.then(function onsuccess() {
  // encrypt messages
});

promise.catch(function onerror(error) {
  // handle identity key conflict
});

Encrypting

Once you have a session established with an address, you can encrypt messages using SessionCipher.

var plaintext = "Hello world";
var sessionCipher = new libsignal.SessionCipher(store, address);
sessionCipher.encrypt(plaintext).then(function(ciphertext) {
    // ciphertext -> { type: <Number>, body: <string> }
    handle(ciphertext.type, ciphertext.body);
});

Decrypting

Ciphertexts come in two flavors: WhisperMessage and PreKeyWhisperMessage.

var address = new SignalProtocolAddress(recipientId, deviceId);
var sessionCipher = new SessionCipher(store, address);

// Decrypt a PreKeyWhisperMessage by first establishing a new session.
// Returns a promise that resolves when the message is decrypted or
// rejects if the identityKey differs from a previously seen identity for this
// address.
sessionCipher.decryptPreKeyWhisperMessage(ciphertext).then(function(plaintext) {
    // handle plaintext ArrayBuffer
}).catch(function(error) {
    // handle identity key conflict
});

// Decrypt a normal message using an existing session
var sessionCipher = new SessionCipher(store, address);
sessionCipher.decryptWhisperMessage(ciphertext).then(function(plaintext) {
    // handle plaintext ArrayBuffer
});

License

I (elsehow) release copyright to Copyright 2015-2016 Open Whisper Systems under the GPLv3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html