/encrypted-chat

Primary LanguageTypeScriptGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Encrypted Chat

Screenshot

This is an encrypted chat web app. You can set your name and the room where you want to chat. No account to create, no privileges to worry about, no passwords to remember, no data stored on the server or in the browser, no file uploads, nothing fancy. Just plain text chat.

You wanna try it out? Try it out!

Check out the demo!

Features

  • Messages are encrypted and decrypted in the browser with OpenPGP.js. The chat server only sees encrypted messages, and it doesn't store anything* on the server.

    • *So, there is a log file - server.log - but it's not storing anything useful. Just check out the server startup script to see how the server is started and the check out chat server code and you can see what's getting logged by searching for instances of console.log.

  • Chat happens over Socket.IO so it should be pretty snappy and widely compatible.

  • Messages disappear as soon as you close or refresh the browser/tab.

  • Mobile friendly. It might be a little slow on older devices (PGP stuff is expensive) but it should work.

  • Desktop notifications. If you've got the chat tab in the background, and your browser and OS support it, you'll get a desktop notification whenever a new message arrives.

Built With

Installation

Obviously, you'll need to clone this repo before you do anything below. Once you've done that...

Install Packages

Install the npm packages described in the package.json and verify that it works:

npm install

Install SSL Certs

Add SSL cert and key (.crt and .key) files into the src/server directory. How you obtain these is up to you, but I recommend Let's Encrypt.

Configure Enviornment

Update src/environment/environment*.ts files and set the socketUrl property to the URL where the SocketIO server will live. This will most likely be on the same server as the frontend on port 4000.

Build

Generate a prod build with the following command:

npm run build

If you want a prod build with the--aot flags, you can run:

npm run build-aot

If you just wanna play around with the code, fire up the old angular server:

npm run start

Finally, start the SocketIO server.

Start the server with...

start-server.sh

That's it!!

Now you can start using your own self-hosted PGP encrypted chat. Just go to the address where you set it up (https://server-address-here:3000) and you should be chatting in no time!

To Do

  • Router
  • Lock rooms
  • Copy link for room invite
  • Desktop Notifications
  • PWA/Save to home screen/whatever. Obviously this can't work without internet.

Why

I made this because I wanted to play with OpenPGP, and I thought this could be a fun and useful project. I was inspired to create this after signing up for Proton Mail and seeing how they encrypt/decrypt your email messages.