matrix-org · uhoreg · May 12, 2022 · May 12, 2022 · Sep 5, 2022 · Aug 9, 2023
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+# MSC3814: Dehydrated Devices with [SSSS]
+
+[MSC2697] introduces device
+dehydration -- a method for creating a device that can be stored in a user's
+account and receive [Megolm] sessions.  In this way, if a user has no other
+devices logged in, they can rehydrate the device on the next login and retrieve
+the [Megolm] sessions.
+
+However, the approach presented in that MSC has some downsides, making it
+tricky to implement in some clients, and presenting some UX difficulties.  For
+example, it requires that the device rehydration be done before any other API
+calls are made (in particular `/sync`), which may conflict with clients that
+currently assume that `/sync` can be called immediately after logging in.
+
+In addition, the user is required to enter a key or passphrase to create a
+dehydrated device.  In practice, this is usually the same as the [SSSS]
+key/passphrase, which means that the user loses the advantage of verifying
+their other devices via emoji or QR code: either they will still be required to
+enter their [SSSS] key/passphrase (or a separate one for device dehydration), or
+else that client will not be able to dehydrate a device.
+
+This proposal introduces another way to use the dehydrated device that solves
+these problems by storing the dehydration key in [SSSS], and by not changing the
+client's device ID.  Rather than changing its device ID when it rehydrates the
+device, it will keep its device ID and upload its own device keys. The client
+will separately rehydrate the device, fetch its to-device messages, and decrypt
+them to retrieve the Megolm sessions.
+
+## Proposal
+
+### Dehydrating a device
+
+The dehydration process is similar as in [MSC2697]. One important change is that
+the dehydrated device, the public device keys, and one-time keys are all
+uploaded in the same request. This change should prevent the creation of
+dehydrated devices which do not support end-to-end encryption.
+
+To upload a new dehydrated device, a client will use `PUT /dehydrated_device`.
+Each user has at most one dehydrated device; uploading a new dehydrated device
+will remove any previously-set dehydrated device.
+
+The client *must* use the public [Curve25519] [identity key] of the device,
+encoded as unpadded Base64, as the device ID.
-encoded as unpadded Base64, as the device ID.
+encoded as unpadded URL-safe Base64, as the device ID.
-encoded as unpadded Base64, as the device ID.
+encoded as unpadded URL-safe Base64, as the device ID.
+
+The `device_keys`, `one_time_keys`, and `fallback_keys` fields use the same
+structure as for the [`/keys/upload`] request.
+
+`PUT /dehydrated_device`
+
+```jsonc
+{
+  "device_id": "dehydrated_device_id",
+  "device_data": {
+    "algorithm": "m.dehydration.v1.olm"
+    "other_fields": "other_values"
+  },
+  "initial_device_display_name": "foo bar", // optional
+  "device_keys": {
+    "user_id": "<user_id>",
+    "device_id": "<device_id>",
+    "valid_until_ts": <millisecond_timestamp>,
+    "algorithms": [
+        "m.olm.curve25519-aes-sha2",
+    ]
+    "keys": {
+        "<algorithm>:<device_id>": "<key_base64>",
+    },
+    "signatures": {
+        "<user_id>": {
+            "<algorithm>:<device_id>": "<signature_base64>"
+        }
+    }
+  },
+  "fallback_keys": {
+    "<algorithm>:<device_id>": "<key_base64>",
+    "signed_<algorithm>:<device_id>": {
+      "fallback": true,
+      "key": "<key_base64>",
+      "signatures": {
+        "<user_id>": {
+          "<algorithm>:<device_id>": "<key_base64>"
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  },
+  "one_time_keys": {
+    "<algorithm>:<key_id>": "<key_base64>"
+  }
+}
+```
+
+Result:
+
+```json
+{
+  "device_id": "dehydrated device's ID"
+}
+```
+
+### Rehydrating a device
+
+To rehydrate a device, a client first calls `GET /dehydrated_device` to see if
+a dehydrated device is available.  If a device is available, the server will
+respond with the dehydrated device's device ID and the dehydrated device data.
+
+`GET /dehydrated_device`
+
+Response:
+
+```json
+{
+  "device_id": "dehydrated device's ID",
+  "device_data": {
+    "algorithm": "m.dehydration.v1.olm",
+    "other_fields": "other_values"
+  }
+}
+```
+
+If no dehydrated device is available, the server responds with an error code of
+`M_NOT_FOUND`, HTTP code 404.
+
+If the client is able to decrypt the data and wants to use the dehydrated
+device, the client retrieves the to-device messages sent to the dehydrated
+device by calling `POST /dehydrated_device/{device_id}/events`, where
+`{device_id}` is the ID of the dehydrated device.  Since there may be many
+messages, the response can be sent in batches: the response must include a
+`next_batch` parameter, which can be used in a subsequent call to `POST
+/dehydrated_device/{device_id}/events` to obtain the next batch.
+
+```
+POST /dehydrated_device/{device_id}/events
+{
+  "next_batch": "token from previous call" // (optional)
+}
+```
+
+Response:
+
+```jsonc
+{
+  "events": [
+    // array of to-device messages, in the same format as in
+    // https://spec.matrix.org/unstable/client-server-api/#extensions-to-sync
+  ],
+  "next_batch": "token to obtain next events"
+}
+```
+
+Once a client calls `POST /dehydrated_device/{device_id}/events` with a
+`next_batch` token, unlike the `/sync` endpoint, the server should *not* delete
+any to-device messages delivered in previous batches. This should prevent the
+loss of messages in case the device performing the rehydration gets deleted. In
+the case the rehydration process gets aborted, another device will be able to
+restart the process.
+
+For the last batch of messages, the server will still send a
+`next_batch` token, and return an empty `events` array when called with that
+token, this signals to the client that it has received all to-device events and
+it can delete the dehydrated device and create a new one.
+
+If the given `device_id` is not the dehydrated device ID, the server responds
+with an error code of `M_FORBIDDEN`, HTTP code 403.
+
+### Deleting a dehydrated device
+
+A dehydrated device will get replaced whenever a new device gets uploaded using
+the `PUT /dehydrated_device`, this makes a `DELETE /dehydrated_device`
+unnecessary, though for completeness sake and to give client authors to get back
+to a state where no dehydrated device exists for a given user we will introduce
+one.
+
+`DELETE /dehydrated_device`
+
+Response:
+
+```json
+{
+  "device_id": "dehydrated device's ID"
+}
+```
+
+### Device Dehydration Format
+
+TODO: define a format.  Unlike MSC2679, we don't need to worry about the
+dehydrated device being used as a normal device, so we can omit some
+information.  So we should be able to get by with defining a fairly simple
+standard format, probably just the concatenation of the private device keys and
+the private one-time keys.  This will come at the expense of implementations
+such as libolm needing to implement extra functions to support dehydration, but
+will have the advantage that we don't need to figure out a format that will fit
+into every possible implementation's idiosyncrasies.  The format will be
+encrypted, which leads to ...
+
+```text
+   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
+   │                        Pickle                             │
+   ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
+   │Name                    │ Type          │ Size (bytes)     │
+   ├────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────┤
+   │Version                 │ u32           │ 4                │
+   │Ed25519 key pair        │ KeyPair       │ 64               │
+   │Curve25519 key pair     │ KeyPair       │ 64               │
+   │Number of one-time keys │ u32           │ 4                │
+   │One-time keys           │ [OneTimeKey]  │ N * 69           │
+   │Fallback keys           │ FallbackKeys  │ 2 * 69           │
+   │Next key ID             │ u32           │ 4                │
+   └────────────────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────────┘
+   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
+   │                        KeyPair                            │
+   ├────────────────────────┬───────────────┬──────────────────┤
+   │Name                    │ Type          │ Size (bytes)     │
+   ├────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────┤
+   │Public key              │ [u8; 32]      │ 32               │
+   │Private key             │ [u8; 32]      │ 32               │
+   └────────────────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────────┘
+
+   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
+   │                      OneTimeKey                           │
+   ├────────────────────────┬───────────────┬──────────────────┤
+   │Name                    │ Type          │ Size (bytes)     │
+   ├────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────┤
+   │Key ID                  │ u32           │ 4                │
+   │Is published            │ u8            │ 1                │
+   │Curve 25519 key pair    │ KeyPair       │ 69               │
-   │Curve 25519 key pair    │ KeyPair       │ 69               │
+   │Curve 25519 key pair    │ KeyPair       │ 64               │
-   │Curve 25519 key pair    │ KeyPair       │ 69               │
+   │Curve 25519 key pair    │ KeyPair       │ 64               │
+   └────────────────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────────┘
+
+   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
+   │                     FallbackKeys                          │
+   ├────────────────────────┬───────────────┬──────────────────┤
+   │Name                    │ Type          │ Size (bytes)     │
+   ├────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────┤
+   │Number of fallback keys │ u8            │ 1                │
+   │Fallback-key            │ OneTimeKey    │ 69               │
+   │Previous fallback-key   │ OneTImeKey    │ 69               │
+   └────────────────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────────┘
+```
+
+TODO: Explain why we must ignore public keys when decoding them and why they are
+included in the first place.
+
+When decoding, clients *must* ignore the public keys and instead derive the
+public key from the private one.
+
+#### Encryption key
+
+TODO: Explain why the double derivation is necessary.
+
+The encryption key used for the dehydrated device will be randomly generated
+and stored/shared via SSSS using the name `m.dehydrated_device`.
+
+The randomly generated encryption key *must* be expanded using the HMAC-based
+Key Derivation function defined in [RFC5869].
+
+```math
+\begin{aligned}
+    DEVICE\_KEY
+    &= \text{HKDF} \left(\text{``Device ID``}, RANDOM\_KEY, \text{``dehydrated-device-pickle-key"}, 32\right)
+\end{aligned}
+```
+
+The `device_key` is then further expanded into a AES256 key, HMAC key and
+initialization vector.
+
+
+```math
+\begin{aligned}
+    AES\_KEY \parallel HMAC\_KEY \parallel AES\_IV
+    &= \text{HKDF}\left(0,DEVICE\_KEY,\text{``Pickle"},80\right)
+\end{aligned}
+```
+
+The plain-text is encrypted with [AES-256] in [CBC] mode with [PKCS#7] padding,
+using the key $`AES\_KEY`$ and the IV $`AES\_IV`$ to give the cipher-text.
+
+Then the cipher-text are passed through [HMAC-SHA-256]. The first 8 bytes of the
+MAC are appended to the cipher-text.
+
+The cipher-text, including the appended MAC tag, are encoded using unpadded
+Base64 to give the device pickle.
+
+The device pickle is then inserted into the `device_pickle` field of the
+`device_data` JSON message.
+
+ ```json
+{
+  "device_data": {
+    "algorithm": "m.dehydration.v1.olm",
+    "device_pickle": "encrypted dehydrated device"
+  }
+}
+```
+
+#### Test vectors
+
+Device pickle:
+```
+Gc0elC7k7NISzWW/C2UIuzRMDSHzzRLfM3lMnJHMLMcuyLtZHljhV/YvIctIlepxevznEcwBc40Q0CtS3k5SI9gGyN7G+95hnQan0rKe64a1Vx1Vx4Ky8i+m1y9JVT++WcQ54CGhMuCGoN2O1xEQb+4fM+UVS/bLNJ4Pzzqa1ilzCrs4SCTz70eriShvzt7y1cn2A6ABNhK4aXnLB8gK9HuMLyctyX5ikvIjkAIAdVr1EI1azetZDQ
+```
+
+
+## Potential issues
+
+The same issues as in
+[MSC2697](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2697) are present for
+this proposal.  For completeness, they are repeated here:
+
+### One-time key exhaustion
+
+The dehydrated device may run out of one-time keys, since it is not backed by
+an active client that can replenish them.  Once a device has run out of
+one-time keys, no new olm sessions can be established with it, which means that
+devices that have not already shared megolm keys with the dehydrated device
+will not be able to share megolm keys.  This issue is not unique to dehydrated
+devices; this also occurs when devices are offline for an extended period of
+time.
+
+This may be addressed by using fallback keys as described in
+[MSC2732](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2732).
+
+To reduce the chances of one-time key exhaustion, if the user has an active
+client, it can periodically replace the dehydrated device with a new dehydrated
+device with new one-time keys.  If a client does this, then it runs the risk of
+losing any megolm keys that were sent to the dehydrated device, but the client
+would likely have received those megolm keys itself.
+
+Alternatively, the client could perform a `/sync` for the dehydrated device,
+dehydrate the olm sessions, and upload new one-time keys.  By doing this
+instead of overwriting the dehydrated device, the device can receive megolm
+keys from more devices.  However, this would require additional server-side
+changes above what this proposal provides, so this approach is not possible for
+the moment.
+
+### Accumulated to-device messages
+
+If a dehydrated device is not rehydrated for a long time, then it may
+accumulate many to-device messages from other clients sending it Megolm
+sessions.  This may result in a slower initial sync when the device eventually
+does get rehydrated, due to the number of messages that it will retrieve.
+Again, this can be addressed by periodically replacing the dehydrated device,
+or by performing a `/sync` for the dehydrated device and updating it.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+As mentioned above,
+[MSC2697](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2697) tries to solve
+the same problem in a similar manner, but has several disadvantages that are
+fixed in this proposal.
+
+Rather than keep the name "dehydrated device", we could change the name to
+something like "shrivelled sessions", so that the full expansion of this MSC
+title would be "Shrivelled Sessions with Secure Secret Storage and Sharing", or
+SSSSSS.  However, despite the alliterative property, the term "shrivelled
+sessions" is less pleasant, and "dehydrated device" is already commonly used to
+refer to this feature.
+
+The alternatives discussed in MSC2697 are also alternatives here.
+
+
+## Security considerations
+
+A similar security consideration to the one in MSC2697 also applies to this
+proposal: if SSSS is encrypted using a weak passphrase or key, an attacker
+could access it and rehydrate the device to read the user's encrypted
+messages.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+While this MSC is in development, the `/dehydrated_device` endpoints will be
+reached at `/unstable/org.matrix.msc3814.v1/dehydrated_device`, and the
+`/dehydrated_device/{device_id}/events` endpoint will be reached at
+`/unstable/org.matrix.msc3814.v1/dehydrated_device/{device_id}/events`.  The
+dehydration algorithm `m.dehydration.v1.olm` will be called
+`org.matrix.msc3814.v1.olm`.  The SSSS name for the dehydration key will be
+`org.matrix.msc3814` instead of `m.dehydrated_device`.
+
+## Dependencies
+
+None
+
+[RFC5869]: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5869
+[AES-256]: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips197/fips-197.pdf
+[CBC]: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-38a/sp800-38a.pdf
+[PKCS#7]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2315
+[Curve25519]: http://cr.yp.to/ecdh.html
+[identity key]: https://gitlab.matrix.org/matrix-org/olm/-/blob/master/docs/olm.md#initial-setup
+[Megolm]: https://gitlab.matrix.org/matrix-org/olm/blob/master/docs/megolm.md
+[SSSS]: https://spec.matrix.org/v1.7/client-server-api/#storage
+[MSC2697]: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2697
+[`/keys/upload`]: https://spec.matrix.org/v1.7/client-server-api/#post_matrixclientv3keysupload
+[device keys]: https://spec.matrix.org/v1.7/client-server-api/#device-keys
+[HMAC-SHA-256]: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2104