Rebuild Arti from audited source with enforced provenance

Vendored arti.xcframework rebuilt from source (Rust 1.96.0, normalized
archive metadata for reproducible hashes). New ARTI-BINARY-PROVENANCE.md
records toolchain, rebuild steps, and a SHA256 manifest for every file
in the xcframework. A new CI workflow turns that policy into a gate:
PRs must keep the binary matching the manifest, and binary changes must
ship with source/lockfile/build-script evidence.

Also raises TorManager.awaitReady's default timeout from 25s to 75s to
match the bootstrap monitor deadline - a shorter wait reported "not
ready" while Arti was still legitimately bootstrapping, silently
stranding queued relay work.

Privacy policy, Tor integration doc, and privacy assessment updated to
match the current implementation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
jack
2026-06-10 16:22:15 +01:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 3eb4f2bd72
commit 4093ee6733
14 changed files with 333 additions and 65 deletions
+18 -3
View File
@@ -4,14 +4,16 @@ BitChat Privacy Assessment
Scope
- Mesh transport (BLE) behavior and metadata minimization
- Nostr-based private message fallback (gift-wrapped, end-to-end encrypted)
- Nostr-backed public geohash channels, presence heartbeats, and location notes
- Optional CoreLocation use for geohash channel discovery
- Read receipts and delivery acknowledgments
- Logging/telemetry posture and controls
Summary
- No accounts, no servers for mesh; Nostr used only for mutual favorites, with end-to-end Noise encryption encapsulated in gift wraps.
- No accounts and no project-operated servers. Mesh traffic is peer-to-peer; Nostr is used for mutual-favorite private fallback and public geohash features.
- BLE announces contain only nickname and Noise pubkey. No device name, no plaintext identity beyond what the user broadcasts.
- Discovery and flooding incorporate jitter and TTL caps to reduce linkability and propagation radius of encrypted payloads.
- UI and storage remain ephemeral; message content is not persisted to disk. Minimal state (e.g., read-receipt IDs) is stored for UX and is bounded/cleaned.
- UI and storage remain mostly ephemeral; message content is not persisted to disk by default. Minimal local state (e.g., read-receipt IDs, favorites, selected/bookmarked geohashes) is stored for UX and is bounded or user-wipeable.
- Logging defaults to conservative levels; debug verbosity is suppressed for release builds. A single env var can raise/lower threshold when needed.
BLE Privacy Considerations
@@ -35,6 +37,14 @@ Nostr Private Messaging Fallback
- Read/delivery acks: Also encapsulated in gift wraps, preserving content secrecy and minimizing metadata.
- Relay policy variance: Some relays apply “web-of-trust” policies and may reject events; BitChat tolerates partial delivery and still prefers mesh when available.
Location Channels and Geohash Public Chats
- Location permission: Optional when-in-use CoreLocation access computes local geohash channel options. Exact coordinates are held in memory only and are not included in BitChat or Nostr payloads.
- Local state: Selected channel, teleported geohashes, bookmarks, and bookmark display names are stored in `UserDefaults`; the panic action clears location presence state along with identity/session state.
- Geohash precision: User-selected channels can range from region-level to building-level. Public geohash messages and location notes expose the selected geohash tag to relays and participants.
- Presence minimization: Automatic presence heartbeats are restricted to low-precision region/province/city geohashes and use randomized timing.
- Per-geohash identities: Public geohash Nostr identities are derived from a device seed stored in the keychain, reducing cross-channel linkability compared with a single stable public key.
- Relay metadata: Relays can observe event kind, geohash tag, public key, timestamp, and network metadata. Content in public geohash channels is intentionally public to that channel.
Read Receipts and Delivery Acks
- Routing policy: Prefer mesh if Noise session established; otherwise use Nostr when mapping exists.
- Throttling: Nostr READ acks are queued and rate-limited (~3/s) to prevent relay rate limits during backlogs.
@@ -44,6 +54,9 @@ Data Retention and State
- Messages: Ephemeral in-memory only; history is bounded per chat and trimmed.
- Read-receipt IDs: Stored in `UserDefaults` for UX continuity; periodically pruned to IDs present in memory.
- Favorites: Noise and optional Nostr keys with petnames; can be wiped via panic action.
- Location channels: Exact coordinates are not persisted by BitChat. Selected/bookmarked geohashes, teleport flags, and bookmark display names persist locally until removed, panic-wiped, or the app is deleted.
- Geohash identities: Device seed is stored in the keychain and used to derive per-geohash Nostr identities deterministically.
- Relay persistence: Public geohash events, location notes, and encrypted gift wraps may be retained by relays according to each relay's policy.
- Panic: Triple-tap clears keys, sessions, cached state, and disconnects transports.
Logging and Telemetry
@@ -56,9 +69,11 @@ Residual Risks and Mitigations
- RF fingerprinting: BLE presence is observable at the RF layer; mitigated by minimal announce content and platform MAC randomization.
- Timing correlation: Announce/relay jitter reduces but does not eliminate timing analysis. Avoids synchronized bursts.
- Relay metadata: Nostr relays can see that an account posts gift wraps; content remains end-to-end encrypted. Favor mesh path when in range.
- Geohash inference: Public location-channel tags reveal approximate area. Mitigated by explicit channel selection, low-precision automatic presence, and per-geohash identities.
- Bookmark persistence: Locally stored geohash bookmarks may reveal places of interest on a seized/unlocked device. Mitigated by panic wipe and local-only storage.
Recommendations (Next)
- Add optional coalesced READ behavior for large backlogs.
- Expose a “low-visibility mode” to reduce scanning aggressiveness in sensitive contexts.
- Allow user-configurable Nostr relay set with a “private relays only” toggle.
- Add a user-facing precision warning before posting in block/building-level geohash channels.