Email Flow

In creating an email flow that maintains PRIVACY and SECURITY whilst also being convenient to use, the following principles were observed:

Keypair must be generated client-side
Keypair must be protected by a long and complex password
It must be possible to change the password
It must remain possible to work offline
Network traffic must not contain identifying metadata

All of the above is achieved using a high level signup flow as follows:

User provides email and complex password
These are used to encrypt a locally generated keypair into a backup
Email address, Public Key and encrypted backup are sent to the server
Account is validated

The password is only used to encrypt/decrypt the local backup and is never stored or sent anywhere.

When perforing a login, the flow is:

Generate a temporary key pair for secure server communication
Validate the email
Provide the encrypted keypair for the user to unlock

All key signing / encryption operations happen on client side using private class properties.

sequenceDiagram
    autoNumber
    actor U as SIGit User
    participant W as SIGit Website
    participant D as Server
    Participant DB 
    Note over W,D: All comms encrypted with throwaway <br>(ephemeral) client keys and a <br>.well-known server key
    U->>W: Click SIGNUP 
    U->>W: Provide Email and Complex Password
    Note over W: Validate Email<br>Ensure Complex Password

    Note right of U: User is warned that they CANNOT<br>RESET PASSWORD, should USE <br>PASSWORD MANAGER etc

    
    Note over W: Nostr Keypair Generated <br> & Encrypted inside a <br> PRIVATE method,<br>with COMPLEX password.<br> Password variable is not <br>stored, sent or printed <br> anywhere. <br>Any sensitive variables <br>are immediately destroyed.
    W->>D: Request account activation 
    Note right of W: Event uses PoW and<br> encrypts PUBKEY, EMAIL,<br> and the encrypted BACKUP<br> to the dvm@sigit.io pubkey<br> using the ephemeral key
    Note over D: Verify PoW, <br>event.created_at,<br>event.id
    D -x DB: Check if email exists
    Note over D: If email already exists, and <br>user.last_seen <> null then <br>send user to LOGIN.<br><br>If email exists and last_seen<br> is null, then DELETE the <br>current entry.<br><br> Otherwise#58;
    D->>DB: Create DB entries
    Note over DB: USER insert#58;<br>#128274;user.id=uid()<br>user.pubkey=lowcase($PUBKEY)<br>user.email=lowcase($EMAIL)<br>user.last_seen=null<br>user.created_at=now()<br>user.bkp=$BACKUP
    Note over DB: SESSION insert#58;<br>#128274;session.pubkey="ephemeral pubkey"<br>session.email_code=INT (6 digits)<br>session.user_id=user.id<br>session.created_at=now()
    D->>U: Send session.email_code via email
    D->>W: Account created
    Note left of D: Payload is the user.id and/or<br> an encrypted (and detailed)<br> error message
    Note over W: Verify DVM pubkey, <br> event.created_at,<br>event.id
    W->>U: Tell user to check email and<br>to open it in the <br> SAME BROWSER SESSION
    Note over W: Screen to accept the 6 digits <br> is already displayed<br>(mobile optimised if relevant)
    U->>W: User opens link or enters the code
    W->>D: Verify Account
    Note right of W: Event uses PoW and <br>encrypts both user_id <br>and email_code<br> to DVM pubkey
    D -x DB: Check email_code where <br>session pk=event pk
    D->>DB: If email_code matches, <br>update USER table where<br> session.user_id=user.id


    Note over DB: USER update#58;<br>user.last_seen=now()
    D->>W: Account activated
    Note left of D: Payload is an empty string or<br> an encrypted (and detailed)<br> error message
    Note over W: Verify DVM pubkey, <br> event.created_at,<br>event.id
    W->>U: User is automatically logged in
    Note over W: Ephemeral key is destroyed<br>Default relay list is broadcast<br> using the user pubkey

3.9 KiB Raw Blame History

Email Flow

SIGNUP FLOW

3.9 KiB

Raw Blame History