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Chainmail

Protecting email recipients using the blockchain.

License

This work is licensed under Apache 2.0.

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

Setup

Install GnuPG

Install GPG and GPA https://www.gnupg.org/.

For Mac:

brew install GnuPG
brew install gpa

Install Foundry and Anvil

You will need Foundry to make cast send RPC calls to the Ethereum testchain. You will also need to use anvil if you want to have a local test node.

curl -L https://foundry.paradigm.xyz | bash
foundryup

Configure Virtual Environment

To create a virtual environment, execute the following commands

# Create virtual environment .venv in local dir
python3 -m venv ./.venv

# start virtual environment
source ./.venv/bin/activate

# Install packages (this will take a few minutes).
pip install -r requirements.txt

To exit the virtual environment

deactivate

To restart the virtual environment

source ./.venv/bin/activate

(Optional) Generate your own PGP key

The project comes with a default PGP key in test_data/alice_private_key.asc that will be automatically installed when you run register-for-demo.py. You can generate your own key using GPG that you installed earlier. Update the sender field in config.yaml with the email address and fingerprint associated with the key. Note: PGP format automatically inserts the key's username and email address into every signature.

(Optional) Install Mailvelope

Mailvelope can sign emails with PGP and automatically verifies PGP signed messages.

Add Mailvelope to Google Chrome https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mailvelope/kajibbejlbohfaggdiogboambcijhkke

Add a PGP key for signing here: chrome-extension://kajibbejlbohfaggdiogboambcijhkke/app/app.html#/settings/general

When you compose a new email in the browser, a Mailvelope red logo will appear in the corner of the New Email window. Click it to send a secure email.

Run

Overview of all the steps, with more details provided above/below.

To send emails:

  1. Open a fresh terminal window to run the web server. Activate the virtual environment and then run python runwebsite.py.
  2. Open your browser to http://127.0.0.1:5000
  3. There is a form at the bottom of the page for sending emails. Since this is a demo, no email will actually be sent. Instead, the signed email text will appear in the side panel.

To verify emails using an anvil node

  1. (Default) The configuration file config.yaml is set to use anvil by default. If you have modified the configuration file, you need to set local_key_file: './test_data/anvil_keys.yaml'.
  2. Open a separate window, activate the virtual environment, and run the script python register-for-demo.py. This will deploy a fresh contract and register the email sender in the config.yaml file and the sender address in test_data/anvil_keys.yaml.
  3. Open a fresh terminal window to start the web server. Activate the virtual environment and then run python runwebsite.py.
  4. Open your browser to http://127.0.0.1:5000. You can now enter emails to verify.

To verify emails using the deployed testnet contract

  1. Follow the instructions below to connect to Ethereum using an Infura RPC key.
  2. Open a fresh terminal window to start the web server. Activate the virtual environment and then run python runwebsite.py.
  3. Open your browser to http://127.0.0.1:5000. You can now enter emails to verify.

To run the webserver

If you are using anvil as your network, run anvil in a separate window.

Activate your virtual environment and run python runwebsite.py

Open a browser window to http://127.0.0.1:5000

Enter the raw text of a message sent by Chainmail into the textarea and click on the Verify button. The send email form signs the email message and displays the result.

Connect to anvil

You can run a local anvil node to test Chainmail. Make sure that the config file config.yaml has the line:

local_key_file: './test_data/anvil_keys.yaml'

The file ./test_data/anvil_keys.yaml is configured with the correct rpc_url and an owner and sender anvil account. These are all default keys that ship with every anvil.

In a separate window, execute the command anvil. This will start a fresh instance of local anvil node. You will need to deploy a fresh copy of the Chainmail.sol contract each time you start anvil. Start the virtual environment and run python register-for-demo.py. You can also deploy and interact with the contract on the commandline using python chainlink.py.

Connect to Ethereum using Infura

To connect to Ethereum, you need to create a local_test_data/keys.yaml file with private key information and an RPC URL.

Make a copy of test_data/anvil_keys.yaml and rename it something like local_test_data/keys.yaml. Configure config.yaml to point to this new file:

# config.yaml

local_key_file: './local_test_data/keys.yaml'

You will need to do the following to your new key file:

  • (Optional) Obtain Ethereum accounts for contract owner and message sender. Set the owner and sender information in the keys.yaml file using funded accounts. You can skip this step if you don't plan to deploy a contract or register email addresses. Email verificatin does not require funded accounts.
  • Obtain an Infura API key by registering here: https://app.infura.io/register
  • Set your rpc_url in the keys.yaml file to point at the appropriate network and include an Infura API key. The URL will look something like rpc_url: 'https://goerli.infura.io/v3/<token>'
  • Set the contract address in the file .chainmail_env. We currently have a contract on the Goerli test network at 0x1866053Ec573dC3a50EB4A27f3836d867c622D41 that you can view at https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x1866053ec573dc3a50eb4a27f3836d867c622d41
# .chainmail_env

contract_address: '0x1866053Ec573dC3a50EB4A27f3836d867c622D41'

Command Line Interface

The chainlink.py script interacts with an Ethereum network. Use the configuration file config.yaml to configure your connection to use anvil, testnet, or mainnet.

Activate the virtual environment and run python chainlink.py to get the exact usage instructions. You can

  • Deploy an instance of the Chainmail contract.
  • Register an email address, fingerprint, and sender Ethereum address.
  • Register an email message.
  • Verify a fingerprint corresponds to an email address.
  • Verify an email message has been registered.

There is a script python register-for-demo.py that will automatically deploy a contract, register the email sender in config.yaml and the email in test_data/good_sent_email.asc.

Test Files

The directory test_data has some test email messages. You can use them as test data on the command line with python chainlink.py or copy+paste into the web browser for verification (don't forget to activate your virtual environment).

  • good_sent_email.asc. This email is signed using the default PGP fingerprint and the script register-for-demo.py will register both the PGP fingerprint and the contents of the email.
  • ok_sent_email.asc. This email has a valid PGP signature and register-for-demo.py will register the signer PGP key. However, the text of the message is not registered.
  • unregistered_signed_email.asc. This email has a valid PGP signature, however the PGP fingerprint is not registered.
  • bad_sent_email.asc. This email has an invalid PGP signature.

Generate mainnet/testnet address

You need an Ethereum address with ETH to register keys. The following command line command will generate an Ethereum account and private key. Activate your virtual environment and execute:

python3 -c "from web3 import Web3; w3 = Web3(); acc = w3.eth.account.create(); print(f'private key={w3.to_hex(acc._private_key)}, account={acc.address}')"

Store the information in local_test_data/keys.yaml in the format:

testnet_account:
  private key: # private key goes here
  address: 0x4a7b50811D0ADbE2A1AB6218eA4a5EC0a47c9DCb