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MeroChat - Open Source Random Chat (mero.chat)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Bored on holidays or miss Omegle? Come chat with us on MeroChat!

It's a web based random chat where you're presented with a flow of user profiles, whom you can choose to chat with. And of course someone else might find you the same way and send you a message out of the blue (provided your privacy settings allow it).

And here's the code. (Written in PureScript!) A lot remains to be done but it's a joyful thing already.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Messages are not end to end encrypted and can thus be read from service provider.

Additionally Google is integrated into website.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

yey, more friends to chat with.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's true. It's due to lack of implementation.

Getting e2ee right is tricky business. Any help or insight would be appreciated.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Look into libaxolotl (AKA "OMEMO"), it is the same system Signal uses and is highly standardized.

[–] waffle 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know Matrix has E2EE with some public documentation on its implementation. Maybe it could help you? Idk how familiar you're with E2EE or what kind of implementation you'd want, anything will have drawbacks :/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Thanks for the tip!

I have somewhat of a grasp on how Signal does it, but that's very client oriented. How to go about it a web app is a mystery to me.

[–] waffle 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I'm not used to E2EE in the browser either and StackExchange seems to agree that there's no nice solution :/

The sanest option in terms of user practicality to me appears to be storing the private key on the server, maybe encrypted with the user's password, and sending it to the user on successful login where it would be decrypted client side. It seems like it's more or less what MEGA is doing since they have a similar issue

If the server having temporary access to the user's password is an issue maybe the password could be partially pre-hashed before being sent?

It's be interesting to talk about it with someone with more experience, especially since implementing all of that will be a pain so it can't be redone every Thursday

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The sanest option in terms of user practicality to me appears to be storing the private key on the server, maybe encrypted with the user's password, and sending it to the user on successful login where it would be decrypted client side.

That does seem reasonable, but it doesn't solve the trust issue. The server might always send a modified script that just uploads the plaintext private key.

That said it would still be useful in other ways. Like in a breach the data would be secure.

[–] waffle 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The server might always send a modified script that just uploads the plaintext private key.

Yeah, you'd need a way to validate the client code before it's executed to solve that issue

Section "2. Client application security" of MEGA's Security Whitepaper discusses this exact problem. Their best solution to that issue is to just cram the whole frontend in a signed web extension and not serve any code to the user when the extension is active, which is not very user friendly but works for those who want an extra layer of protection

I just can't find a good user-friendly implementation, sorry for not being of more help. The web just isn't E2EE-friendly ig :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You've helped enough :)

Hmmm I see.

We have an app in the making, so I guess we will eventually implement proper e2ee there and then just try our best in the browser.

[–] waffle 2 points 1 day ago

Damn already working on an app? That's so cool! Starting E2EE there is definitely a good idea then!

MeroChat is such a nice project, thank you for working on it <3