Secure TCP/TLS WebSocket Server

A high-performance, scalable WebSocket server designed for secure real-time communication. Built with Rust and powered by tokio, this server supports secure TLS connections using tokio-rustls, ensuring encrypted communication over WebSockets. It includes built-in rate limiting to prevent abuse, health monitoring through an HTTP metrics endpoint, and a graceful shutdown mechanism for clean termination. Configurable via environment variables, this WebSocket server is optimized for performance, making it ideal for applications requiring reliable, low-latency communication, such as financial systems, gaming, and collaborative platforms.

Features

• Secure TLS Support: Uses tokio-rustls for encrypted WebSocket connections.
• Rate Limiting: Prevents abuse by limiting incoming connection rates.
• Graceful Shutdown: Handles termination signals for a clean exit.
• Configuration via Environment: Reads settings from .env or environment variables.
• Health Monitoring: Exposes an HTTP metrics endpoint for monitoring.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable version recommended)
• OpenSSL (for generating TLS certificates)

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Guap-Codes/websocket-rs.git
   
   cd websocket-rs```
   

2. Install dependencies:

   sh cargo build --release ```
   
   

Configuration

1. TLS Certificate Generation

• Generate self-signed certificates (required for TLS):

mkdir -p certs

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout certs/key.pem -out certs/cert.pem \ -days 365 -nodes -subj "/CN=localhost

2. Set up a .env file to use environment variables:

export WS_PORT=8080
export WS_MAX_CONNECTIONS=100       
export WS_MESSAGE_RATE_LIMIT=100
export WS_ENABLE_COMPRESSION=true   
export WS_ENABLE_TLS=true
export WS_TLS_CERT_PATH=certs/cert.pem
export WS_TLS_KEY_PATH=certs/key.pem

Running the Server

Start the server with:

cargo run --release

By default, the server listens on 0.0.0.0:PORT.

API Endpoints

1. WebSocket Server: Connect via ws://localhost: or wss://localhost: for TLS.

• Connect with no verification:

  wscat -c wss://localhost:8080 -no-check
  

• Connect with TLS verification:

  wscat -c wss://localhost:8080 --ca certs/cert.pem

• Example messages to send after connection:

  Authentication
  {"type":"Auth","token":"your_access_token"}

  Text message
  {"type":"Text","content":"Hello World","compressed":false}

  Command
  {"type":"Command","action":"ping","parameters":{}}

2. Health Metrics: Exposed via HTTP (configurable endpoint).

   curl -s http://localhost:9080/metrics

Benchmarks

This project includes a Criterion benchmark suite. Run benchmarks using:

cargo bench

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature-name)
3. Commit changes (git commit -m "Add new feature")
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature-name)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.