Using Termux to create a tiny selfhosted hidden chat server with E2EE.

Comments

• CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is there a link?

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Ok this is still super early but it’s working on the few devices I tried with a fresh install of termux.

    pastebin.com/cRL6MnKe

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Working on a slightly more polished version. I can release soon.

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    • solrize@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wow, it is cute. I’m still having trouble imagining using it, but I like the idea of a curses chat client under tmux.

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    • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thanks, looks cool

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Ok,

    Here is a more polished version with MIT license.

    Improvements

    -User counts

    -Connection Status Indicator

    -Ability to turn on persistent rooms. By default, the server only relays in real time. /persist turns on chat logs. The server then stores encrypted messages and users can chat asynchronously.

    -Rotating onion address and keeping existing onion now work correctly. If you rotate a onion address, since encryption keys are partially derived from the onion address, the client will be unable to decrypt messages even if the same password is used.

    • /filter command can be used to bootstrap private rooms in a scenario where multiple people want to use the same server, yet chat privately. All it does is filter out messages that it can’t decrypt because it has the wrong password.

    -Got rid of ncurses set up menus to slim down the script a bit.

    -Removed redundant server manager commands and now only list two. Quit and Quit and Flush (this deletes everything in the server directory except persistent chat logs if they were turned on)

    New UI Image

    Example of Encrypted Chat Logs on Server Side Image

    I noticed some of my devices during testing wouldn’t connect without hosting a server in a seperate instance. I’m not sure why this is happening but if you can’t connect, try to host a server and then connect to another host. This seemed to fix the issue.

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• hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  here is another screenshot of how it looks after install

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• Geometrinen_Gepardi@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Was this coded on a phone touchscreen?

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yes

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    • solrize@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      OMG

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• Flatfire@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Echoing the sentiment of the other commenter. A link would be great!

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• solrize@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I don’t get it, how to other clients connect and do they use the same program? It does look cool though the tmux keyboard is bare bones.

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The install script contains all the pieces needed to be the host server or just a client. Because termux allows you to run multiple sessions, if you are the host, you have to run the server in one session and then connect in a different session.

    What’s not shown in the screen shot is that if you choose to host, a onion address is generated. This is how other clients connect.

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    • solrize@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I did see some onion code in the script, but didn’t figure out that it was listening on an onion port. Cool. I’m not sure of the attraction of running it on a phone, but I’ll take your word for it ;). Do you actually use it? Yeah I can see wanting to reorganize it in some ways, and maybe try to use some more standard protocols (irc?) or a subset. Does tor not already provide its own crypto?

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  • Johnmannesca@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Use unexpected keyboard, nobody expects the unexpected keyboard!

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• Jayjader@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Kudos for developing this on your phone! I’ve played around with termux, even have a Bluetooth keyboard, but I’ve never had the courage to actually code through it.

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• possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I honestly would prefer something like Briar

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I thought briar was known to leak Wifi and BT identifiers is that fixed?

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• phase@lemmy.8th.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is Termux still up to date? I thought it wasn’t available on android anymore. Is it on something else?

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  • hereforawhile@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think you can but the developers recommend getting it from GitHub or F-Droid because of google play policy issues.

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