SkunkNet

• A secure, encrypted messaging protocol for intranets. It is a simple messaging "protocol" that uses the UDP protocol to send encrypted messages between devices inside the same network.

• SkunkNet is designed as a multicast protocol that sends data from the host machine to everyone in the network, expecting it to be received by another session of SkunkChat, decrypted, and displayed to the user.

• The end-goal to SkunkNet is just to really show how basic networking and encryption algorithms work.

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Messaging

• The SkunkNet protocol sends UDP packets from a source port 4753 to a destination port 3574, with the identifiers x and y. The x-marked packets represent a signature signed by the private key, while the y-marked packets represent the actual message encrypted by the public key (which requires the private key and a valid signature to decrypt, constructing a working Asymmetric encryption algorithm ~ C137).

• Ideally, the "Chat Admin" will generate the private and public keys, sends it to the other users, and securely communicates with them.

• It's a pretty stupid concept but it has helped me deepen my understanding of networks and encryption algorithms, and hopefully it can help you too 😃.

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Getting Started

• SkunkNet's cli requires the following arguments to render a SkunkChat window:

  • --iface $IFACE: The interface to communicate through.
  • --priv_key $PATH: The private key path.
  • --pub_key $PATH: The public key path.

• SkunkChat is the PyQt5-based GUI that is used for sending and receiving of the encrypted messages. No users, no databases, just pure, "structured chaos".

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Future Iterations

• In the near future, I'll re-write the src.skunknet as a Cython file, enforcing (semi) static types and building it as a C-lib/shared object (.so).