lightarti-rest-android

Android wrapper based on arti, "An implementation of Tor, in Rust".

⚠️ Warning: lightarti-rest-android is not secure in all situations lightarti-rest-android builds on top of lightarti-rest, which modifies several core parts of arti. It therefore does not have the same security guarantees as arti or the stock Tor client would. Before integrating this library check the reliability considerations in the lightarti-rest repository to make sure that the security offered by this library is sufficient for your use case. In case of doubt, contact us in this repo. We'll be happy to discuss enhancements and limitations of our solution.

Using the wrapper

Library releases are published on Maven. To use the library in your project, add the following to your build.gradle:

implementation 'io.github.c4dt:lightarti-rest:<version>'

In the repository, you can find:

• An example application that uses the documented wrapper API: here and here.
• An instrumented test suite to run on emulators and devices.

Supported versions

• Android SDK 30
• Android SDK 31
• Android SDK 32
• Android SDK 33
• Android SDK 34

Android NDK is pinned to version 25.2.9519653 due to missing dependencies in later versions, please refer to this cargo-ndk issue for details. Also a thank you to the meli project for proposing a workaround that we integrated as well.

Releasing on Maven

In order to publish a new release on Maven, follow these steps:

• Go to the rust directory and update to the latest release tag
• Update VERSION_NAME and VERSION_CODE in the properties file.
• Commit to main
• Tag the repository (with a tag following semver, format v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+)).
• Push the tag to the repository (must be on the main branch).
• The GitHub action will build, create a GitHub release, and publish on Maven in the staging area.
• Log into the Nexus Repository Manager with the c4dt-services credentials.
• Click on "Staging Repositories" on the left, under "Build Promotion".
• Find the release in the top area of the screen, possibly clicking "Refresh".
• If there is an issue with the release, click on "Drop". Fix it and restart this procedure.
• Otherwise, if all looks good, click on "Close", giving an optional message when prompted. This will take a bit of time, after which the "Release" button will become available.
• Click on "Release", again giving an optional message when prompted.
• After 2h-3h, the release will be available in Maven, with Group ID io.github.c4dt and Artifact ID lightarti-rest.

Running the example application

To run the example application locally, it is recommended that you install Android Studio following the installation instructions for your distribution/operating system.

Once installed, run the Android Studio application and import this project via "Open" and selecting the project from your system's directory tree.

Make sure to have the Android SDK/CMake installed, by going to "File" > "Settings" > "Languages & Frameworks" > "Android SDK" and in the tab "SDK Tools" checking for "Android SDK Build-Tools" the version you want to run (must be one of the supported versions), for "NDK" the version 25.2.9519653 and for "CMake" the latest available version. Click then on "Apply" to install these dependencies.

You then need to add device(s) to run the example application on. Choose "Create Device" in the "Device Manager" menu and follow the instructions. You will need to install the emulators for the chosen devices which may each take up to 10GB of disk space once installed and set up. Make sure that the devices correspond to one of the supported versions of the Android SDK.

Android Studio should have found the ArtiWrapper example app automatically, so that you can now choose which of your devices to run it on from the drop-down menu left of the app in the toolbar and clicking on the green "Run" button. The project will be build and the emulator will be started and after a brief start-up period will show a confirmation screen that it retrieved the updated lightArti directory cache.

Contributors

lightarti-rest-android is maintained by the Center for Digital Trust. The following people contributed to the implementation of lightarti-rest:

• Linus Gasser, C4DT
• Valérian Rousset, C4DT
• Christian Grigis, C4DT
• Carine Dengler, C4DT
• Laurent Girod, SPRING Lab, EPFL

Analysis and design by:

• Wouter Lueks, SPRING Lab, EPFL
• Carmela Troncoso, SPRING Lab, EPFL