Message passing in Diaspora
Current as of Sep 21, 10:00 AM
Given an object like a StatusMessage or a friend request, Diaspora first serializes that to xml with post.to_diaspora_xml salmon = Salmon::SalmonSlap.create(self, post.to_diaspora_xml) push_to_person( opts[:to], salmon.to_xml) salmon
Salmon::SalmonSlap.create base64encodes that xml, then signs it. def self.create(user, activity) salmon = self.new salmon.author = user.person salmon.magic_sig = MagicSigEnvelope.create(user , activity) salmon end
push_to_person encrypts the plain-text that is passed to it and POSTs it to the receive hook of the person that is passed in. QUEUE.add_post_request( person.receive_url, person.encrypt(xml) )
person.encrypt returns a JSON hash consisting of an RSA encrypted AES key and an AES-encrypted blob.
Given a diaspora_handle, Diaspora webfingers that server, creates a Person object from the information retrieved, and stores it in the database. Nothing tricky here.
Obviously, this could be much cleaner/simpler/better. Suggestions welcome. Salmon is not quite suited to encrypted traffic, because signatures on destination-dependent ciphertext can't be retained for relayed messages, and encrypting a whole salmon seems awkward.
One possibility is to use a modified salmon in which the author info is encrypted PK for the recipient, with the aes private key inside, and the data is aes-encrypted. The magic-signature would have to either be on the aes ciphertext and that ciphertext would have to be reused, or it would have to be on the non-exposed plain text. Tag names below are for explanation only. email aes-private-key </encrypted author info> aes encrypted data Either on the aes encrypted data or the plaintext data </salmon signature>