sb_auth (seqbuild Authenticator)

A WebSocket authentication schematic for a client-server model, using the seqbuild library.

Simple client-server layout. Authentication allows for file read/write operations to take place between the two devices.

NOTE
The current websocket implementation uses the unsecured ws:// protocol instead of the secured wss:// one. The development of this authenticator has not advanced into production-level mode.

This codebase works for local WiFi networks but otherwise, more code with third-party services must be used for secured communication.

Description

There are three perspectives for use:

• local (server or client side): offline mode, used to modify read/write settings and delete bunk Comm Lang key files.
• server: can serve an unspecified number of clients. Every authenticated client has read/write access to permitted files/folders.
• client: can access one server at a time to read/write permitted files.

The procedure in which a client interacts with a server goes so:

1. Client sends IP address and port number (default is 8765, variable<DEFAULT_PORT>), and connects to the server.
2. Client inputs username. If server has no registered username, it sends client a new Comm Lang file key. This is a script that loads up a primary pseudo-random number generator G, and can be executed by seqbuild's Comm Lang interpreter. Client stores this Comm Lang file key and sets the number of past iterations i_p to 0.
3. Client is required to output q_x integers from generator G, q_x specified by the server and in the range of DEFAULT_SB_AUTH_KEYSIZE_RANGE, default set to [24,58], every time client prompts to read/write a file; q_x is variable. These q_x integers are sent to the server, and the server terminates connection if those integers do not match the ones it calculated, given the same Comm Lang file key.
4. When the number of past iterations i_p of G passes a number q2, specified by the server and in the range of DEFAULT_SB_AUTH_INDEX_RANGE, default set to [627,1450), server sends client a new Comm Lang file key. Integer q2 is set by the server when client connects to it, and remains constant throughout the session.

Server does not require any user input. Client requires user to input IP address/port, as well as for read/write operations to permitted files.

On the server side, every username it has stored in its client directory is associated with a file for file+folder exclusions. These exclusions prohibit the client from read/write operations concerning them.

Default File Naming

• Server Side:

  • username directory file is @ user_data/server_dir.
  • directory file stores Comm Lang key file names and generator index (number of past iterations) for every username.
  • directory file column layout is
    • username
    • Comm Lang key filepath
    • primary generator name
    • generator index
    • number of sessions key has been used
  • every username U has a Comm Lang file key @ user_data/commond_U.txt.
  • default permissions file is @ user_data/default_user_permissions.txt.
  • every username U has an exclusion file @ user_data/permissions_U.txt.

• Client Side:

  • username directory file is @ user_data/client_dir.
  • column layout is virtually identical to that of server side.
  • every server of IP address I and port Q is assigned a Comm Lang key file @ user_data/server__I-Q.txt.

The Identity Aspect

Websocket has the problem of authentication. If a username's Comm Lang file key for a server is shared between > 1 devices, those devices can all access the server under the same username.

For a server with a fixed IP address and port combination, a device can access it through only one username, given how the file naming convention goes.

NOTE: both server and client instances should be running the same version of seqbuild, the program responsible for key generation and PRNG execution.

Technicals Behind the Generator Key

The program used to generate Comm Lang key files is seqbuild @
seqbuild. Specifically, the Comm Lang file generator is @ the file face/easy_gen_struct.py. There may be instances where the key may be a generator such that two different devices output different sequences of integers. This issue has to do with rounding differences. So the Comm Lang key file generator is not guaranteed to be stable. More testing is advised for the sb_auth program to be used outside of local WiFi networks.

Usage

Go into this directory, and run this script:

from sb_auth.exec import *