matrix-spec/specification/modules/secrets.rst

.. Copyright 2020 The Matrix.org Foundation C.I.C.
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.. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
.. you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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..     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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Secrets
=======

Clients may have secret information that they wish to be made available to
other authorised clients, but that the server should not be able to see, so the
information must be encrypted as it passes through the server. This can be done
either asynchronously, by storing encrypted data on the server for later
retrieval, or synchronously, by sending messages to each other.

Each secret has an identifier that is used by clients to refer to the secret
when storing, fetching, requesting, or sharing the secret. Secrets are plain
strings; structured data can be stored by encoding it as a string.

Storage
-------

When secrets are stored on the server, they are stored in the user's
`account-data <#module-account-data>`_, using an event type equal to the
secret's identifier. The keys that secrets are encrypted with are described by
data that is also stored in the user's account-data. Users can have multiple
keys, allowing them to control what sets of secrets clients can access,
depending on what keys are given to them.

Key storage
~~~~~~~~~~~

Each key has an ID, and the description of the key is stored in the user's
account_data using the event type ``m.secret_storage.key.[key ID]``.  The
contents of the account data for the key will include an ``algorithm``
property, which indicates the encryption algorithm used, as well as a ``name``
property, which is a human-readable name.  Other properties depend on the
encryption algorithm, and are described below.

A key can be marked as the "default" key by setting the user's account_data
with event type ``m.secret_storage.default_key`` to an object that has the ID
of the key as its ``key`` property.  The default key will be used to encrypt
all secrets that the user would expect to be available on all their clients.
Unless the user specifies otherwise, clients will try to use the default key to
decrypt secrets.

Secret storage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Encrypted data is stored in the user's account_data using the event type
defined by the feature that uses the data. The account_data will have an
``encrypted`` property that is a map from key ID to an object. The algorithm
from the ``m.secret_storage.key.[key ID]`` data for the given key defines how
the other properties are interpreted, though it's expected that most encryption
schemes would have ``ciphertext`` and ``mac`` properties, where the
``ciphertext`` property is the unpadded base64-encoded ciphertext, and the
``mac`` is used to ensure the integrity of the data.

Example:

Some secret is encrypted using keys with ID ``key_id_1`` and ``key_id_2``:

``org.example.some.secret``:

.. code:: json

   {
     "encrypted": {
       "key_id_1": {
         "ciphertext": "base64+encoded+encrypted+data",
         "mac": "base64+encoded+mac",
         // ... other properties according to algorithm property in
         // m.secret_storage.key.key_id_1
       },
       "key_id_2": {
         // ...
       }
     }
   }

and the key descriptions for the keys would be:

``m.secret_storage.key.key_id_1``:

.. code:: json

   {
     "name": "Some key",
     "algorithm": "m.secret_storage.v1.aes-hmac-sha2",
     // ... other properties according to algorithm
   }

``m.secret_storage.key.key_id_2``:

.. code:: json

   {
     "name": "Some other key",
     "algorithm": "m.secret_storage.v1.aes-hmac-sha2",
     // ... other properties according to algorithm
   }

Key representation
++++++++++++++++++

When a user is given a raw key for ``m.secret_storage.v1.aes-hmac-sha2``,
it will be presented as a string constructed as follows:

1. The key is prepended by the two bytes ``0x8b`` and ``0x01``
2. All the bytes in the string above, including the two header bytes, are
   XORed together to form a parity byte. This parity byte is appended to the byte
   string.
3. The byte string is encoded using base58, using the same `mapping as is used
   for Bitcoin addresses
   <https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Base58Check_encoding#Base58_symbol_chart>`_,
   that is, using the alphabet
   ``123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz``.
4. The string is formatted into groups of four characters separated by spaces.

When decoding a raw key, the process should be reversed, with the exception
that whitespace is insignificant in the user's input.

Passphrase
++++++++++

A user may wish to use a chosen passphrase rather than a randomly generated
key.  In this case, information on how to generate the key from a passphrase
will be stored in the ``passphrase`` property of the ``m.secret_storage.key.[key
ID]`` account-data. The ``passphrase`` property has an ``algorithm`` property
that indicates how to generate the key from the passphrase. Other properties of
the ``passphrase`` property are defined by the ``algorithm`` specified.

``m.pbkdf2``
<<<<<<<<<<<<

For the ``m.pbkdf2`` algorithm, the ``passphrase`` property has the following
properties:

============ =========== ========================================================
Parameter    Type        Description
============ =========== ========================================================
algorithm    string      **Required.** Must be ``m.pbkdf2``
salt         string      **Required.** The salt used in PBKDF2.
iterations   integer     **Required.** The number of iterations to use in PBKDF2.
bits         integer     Optional. The number of bits to generate for the key.
                         Defaults to 256.
============ =========== ========================================================

The key is generated using PBKDF2 with SHA-512 as the hash, using the salt
given in the ``salt`` parameter, and the number of iterations given in the
``iterations`` parameter.

Example:

.. code:: json

   {
       "passphrase": {
           "algorithm": "m.pbkdf2",
           "salt": "MmMsAlty",
           "iterations": 100000,
           "bits": 256
       },
       ...
   }

``m.secret_storage.v1.aes-hmac-sha2``
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Secrets encrypted using the ``m.secret_storage.v1.aes-hmac-sha2`` algorithm are
encrypted using AES-CTR-256, and authenticated using HMAC-SHA-256. The secret is
encrypted as follows:

1. Given the secret storage key, generate 64 bytes by performing an HKDF with
   SHA-256 as the hash, a salt of 32 bytes of 0, and with the secret name as
   the info.  The first 32 bytes are used as the AES key, and the next 32 bytes
   are used as the MAC key
2. Generate 16 random bytes, set bit 63 to 0 (in order to work around
   differences in AES-CTR implementations), and use this as the AES
   initialization vector.  This becomes the ``iv`` property, encoded using base64.
3. Encrypt the data using AES-CTR-256 using the AES key generated above.  This
   encrypted data, encoded using base64, becomes the ``ciphertext`` property.
4. Pass the raw encrypted data (prior to base64 encoding) through HMAC-SHA-256
   using the MAC key generated above.  The resulting MAC is base64-encoded and
   becomes the ``mac`` property.

For the purposes of allowing clients to check whether a user has correctly
entered the key, clients should:

1. encrypt and MAC a message consisting of 32 bytes of 0 as described above,
   using the empty string as the info parameter to the HKDF in step 1.
2. store the ``iv`` and ``mac`` in the ``m.secret_storage.key.[key ID]``
   account-data.

For example, the ``m.secret_storage.key.key_id`` for a key using this algorithm
could look like:

.. code:: json

   {
     "name": "m.default",
     "algorithm": "m.secret_storage.v1.aes-hmac-sha2",
     "iv": "random+data",
     "mac": "mac+of+encrypted+zeros"
   }

and data encrypted using this algorithm could look like this:

.. code:: json

   {
     "encrypted": {
         "key_id": {
           "iv": "16+bytes+base64",
           "ciphertext": "base64+encoded+encrypted+data",
           "mac": "base64+encoded+mac"
         }
     }
   }

Sharing
-------

To request a secret from other devices, a client sends an ``m.secret.requests``
device event with ``action`` set to ``request`` and ``name`` set to the
identifier of the secret. A device that wishes to share the secret will reply
with an ``m.secret.send`` event, encrypted using olm. When the original client
obtains the secret, it sends an ``m.secret.request`` event with ``action`` set
to ``request_cancellation`` to all devices other than the one that it received
the secret from. Clients should ignore ``m.secret.send`` events received from
devices that it did not send an ``m.secret.request`` event to.

Clients must ensure that they only share secrets with other devices that are
allowed to see them. For example, clients should only share secrets with the
user’s own devices that are verified and may prompt the user to confirm sharing
the secret.

Event definitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``m.secret.request``
++++++++++++++++++++

Sent by a client to request a secret from another device or to cancel a
previous request. It is sent as an unencrypted to-device event.

.. table::
   :widths: auto

   ===================== =========== =====================================================
   Parameter             Type        Description
   ===================== =========== =====================================================
   name                  string      Required if ``action`` is ``request``. The name of
                                     the secret that is being requested.
   action                enum        **Required.** One of ["request", "request_cancellation"].
   requesting_device_id  string      **Required.** The ID of the device requesting the secret.
   request_id            string      **Required.** A random string uniquely identifying (with
                                     respect to the requester and the target) the target
                                     for a secret. If the secret is requested from
                                     multiple devices at the same time, the same ID may
                                     be used for every target. The same ID is also used
                                     in order to cancel a previous request.
   ===================== =========== =====================================================

Example:

.. code:: json

   {
     "name": "org.example.some.secret",
     "action": "request",
     "requesting_device_id": "ABCDEFG",
     "request_id": "randomly_generated_id_9573"
   }

``m.secret.send``
+++++++++++++++++

Sent by a client to share a secret with another device, in response to an
``m.secret.request`` event. It must be encrypted as an ``m.room.encrypted`` event,
then sent as a to-device event.

============ =========== ========================================================
Parameter    Type        Description
============ =========== ========================================================
request_id   string      **Required.** The ID of the request that this a response to.
secret       string      **Required.** The contents of the secret.
============ =========== ========================================================

Example:

.. code:: json

   {
     "request_id": "randomly_generated_id_9573",
     "secret": "ThisIsASecretDon'tTellAnyone"
   }