ONE-TIME SECRET - v0.8 (2013-01-01)

Keep sensitive info out of your email & chat logs.

What is a One-Time Secret?

A one-time secret is a link that can be viewed only one time. A single-use URL.

Why would I want to use it?

When you send people sensitive info like passwords and private links via email or chat, there are copies of that information stored in many places. If you use a one-time link instead, the information persists for a single viewing which means it can't be read by someone else later. This allows you to send sensitive information in a safe way knowing it's seen by one person only. Think of it like a self-destructing message.

Try it out!

Dependencies

• Any recent Linux (we use Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS)
• Ruby 1.9.1+
• Redis 2.6+

Install Dependencies

# DEBIAN
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
$ sudo apt-get install ntp libyaml-dev libevent-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev openssl libssl-dev libxml2 libreadline5-dev
$ mkdir ~/sources

# CENTOS
$ sudo yum install gcc gcc-c++ make libtool git ntp
$ sudo yum install openssl-devel readline-devel libevent-devel libyaml-devel zlib-devel
$ mkdir ~/sources

Install Ruby 1.9

$ cd ~/sources
$ curl -O ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.3-p362.tar.gz
$ tar zxf ruby-1.9.3-p362.tar.gz
$ cd ruby-1.9.3-p362
$ ./configure && make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo gem install bundler

Install Redis 2.6

$ cd ~/sources
$ curl -O http://redis.googlecode.com/files/redis-2.6.9.tar.gz
$ tar zxf redis-2.6.9.tar.gz
$ cd redis-2.6.9
$ make
$ sudo make install

Install One-Time Secret

$ sudo adduser ots
$ sudo mkdir /etc/onetime
$ sudo chown ots /etc/onetime

$ sudo su - ots
$ [download onetimesecret]
$ cd onetimesecret
$ bundle install --frozen --deployment --without=dev
$ bin/ots init
$ sudo mkdir /var/log/onetime /var/run/onetime /var/lib/onetime
$ sudo chown ots /var/log/onetime /var/run/onetime /var/lib/onetime
$ cp etc/* /etc/onetime/
$ [edit settings in /etc/onetime/config]
$ [edit settings in /etc/onetime/redis.conf]

$ redis-server /etc/onetime/redis.conf
$ bundle exec thin -e dev -R config.ru -p 7143 start

Generating a global secret

We include a global secret in the encryption key so it needs to be long and secure. One approach for generating a secret:

dd if=/dev/urandom bs=20 count=1 | openssl sha1