Bridge dedup: content-derived stable mesh message ID (#1419)

* Bridge dedup keys on a content-derived stable mesh message ID

Public mesh messages carry no message ID on the BLE wire, so every
non-origin device minted a fresh UUID and the bridge's m-tag dedup only
matched on the origin device: duplicate bridged rows, misattributed
"across the bridge" counts, redundant downlink rebroadcasts, and an
m-tag spoof vector (an attacker could claim a victim's message ID).

Every device now derives the same stable ID from the signed wire fields
(sender ID + ms timestamp + trimmed content, SHA256/32 hex) via the new
MeshMessageIdentity — zero BLE wire change. The bridge event's m tag
carries the origin coordinates ["m", senderIDHex, timestampMs] and
receivers recompute the key from those plus the event's own content
instead of trusting a claimed ID; old-format/absent tags fall back to
the event ID as before.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Fix mixed-version message loss: m tag leads with the derived stable ID

The previous layout (["m", senderIDHex, timestampMs]) broke v1.7.0
receivers: their parser takes m[1] unconditionally as the timeline
dedup key whenever the tag has >= 2 elements, so every bridged message
from a new-version sender keyed on the CONSTANT sender hex and
inject-dedup dropped all but the first. The tag is now
["m", <derived stable ID>, senderIDHex, timestampMs]: old parsers get a
per-message-unique m[1] (exactly today's semantics), while the new
parser recomputes the ID from elements 2-3 plus the event's own content
and never trusts element 1, keeping the recompute-don't-trust property.

Also:
- Soften the overstated security claim in MeshMessageIdentity and the
  BridgeService classify comment: forging a chosen ID onto different
  content is infeasible, but all three hash inputs are cleartext on the
  radio, so identical-content front-running by a radio-local attacker
  remains possible (no worse than the unbridged mesh).
- Fix the stale archivedEchoKeys rationale: re-synced copies of others'
  messages now carry the derived stable ID (insert-by-ID catches them);
  the content key remains for echo--prefixed archive rows + self echoes.
- Tests: old-parser semantics on the new tag (m[1] per-message-unique
  and equal to the derived ID) and a forged-m[1] event that cannot
  pre-poison a genuine message's dedup slot.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: jack <jackjackbits@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
jack
2026-07-09 16:44:47 +02:00
committed by GitHub
co-authored by jack Claude Opus 4.8
parent dd6b624cae
commit 84d315e62d
10 changed files with 328 additions and 44 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
//
// MeshMessageIdentity.swift
// bitchat
//
// This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.
// For more information, see <https://unlicense.org>
//
import BitFoundation
import Foundation
/// Content-derived identity for public mesh messages.
///
/// The BLE wire carries no message ID for public broadcasts, so every device
/// recomputes the same stable ID from the signed wire fields (sender ID,
/// millisecond timestamp, content). That gives the mesh bridge a
/// cross-device-consistent dedup/attribution key with zero wire change and
/// because receivers derive the key themselves instead of trusting a claimed
/// ID, forging a bridge tag that binds a chosen ID to *different* content is
/// infeasible. The inputs are cleartext on the radio, though: an attacker in
/// radio range can re-sign the identical sender/timestamp/content under
/// their own Nostr key and win first-wins injection on remote islands
/// duplicate-content spoofing the unbridged mesh already permits, so no
/// worse than before.
enum MeshMessageIdentity {
/// Matches the wire truncation in `BLEService.sendMessage`.
static func millisecondTimestamp(_ date: Date) -> UInt64 {
UInt64(date.timeIntervalSince1970 * 1000)
}
static func stableID(senderIDHex: String, timestampMs: UInt64, content: String) -> String {
let input = senderIDHex.lowercased() + "|" + String(timestampMs) + "|" + content.trimmed
return String(Data(input.utf8).sha256Hex().prefix(32))
}
}