darkfi/doc/src/misc/ircd/private_message.md

Configuring a Private chat between users

Any two users on the ircd server can establish a fully encrypted communication medium between each other using a basic keypair setup.

Configuring ircd_config.toml

ircd_config.toml should be created by default in ~/.config/darkfi/ when you first run ircd.

Generate a keypair using the following command:

% ircd --gen-keypair

This will generate a Public Key and a Private Key.

Save the Private key safely & add it to the ircd_config.toml file as shown below.

[private_key.”your_private_key_goes_here”]

To share your Public Key with a user over ircd you can use one of the public channels or via an external app like Signal, as plaintext DMs are disabled in ircd.

Note: If you use the first method your message will be publically visible on the IRC chat.

See the example ircd_config.toml for more details

It's always a good practice to save your keys somewhere safe, but in case you lost your Public Key and you still have your Private key in ircd_config.toml file, you recover the Public Key like so:

% ircd --recover-pubkey {your_private_key}

Example

Lets start by configuring our contacts list in the generated ircd_config.toml file (you can also refer to the examples written in the comments of the toml file)

[contact.”User_A”]
contact_pubkey = “XXXXXXX”
[contact.”User_B”]
contact_pubkey = “YYYYYYY”

Note: After configuring our ircd_config.toml file, you will need to restart your irc demon for the changes to reflect.

Lets see an Example where 'User_A' sends “Hi” message to 'User_B' using the /msg command

 /msg User_B Hi

IRCD logs of 'User_A'

9:36:59 [INFO] [CLIENT 127.0.0.1:xxxx] Msg: PRIVMSG User_B :Hi
09:36:59 [INFO] [CLIENT 127.0.0.1:xxxx] (Plain) PRIVMSG User_B :Hi
09:36:59 [INFO] [CLIENT 127.0.0.1:57964] (Encrypted) PRIVMSG: Privmsg { id: 12345, nickname: “xxxxxxx”, target: “xxxxx”, message: “xxxxxx”, timestamp: 1665481019, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }
09:36:59 [INFO] [P2P] Broadcast: Privmsg { id: 7563042059426128593, nickname: “xxxx”, target: “xxxxx”, message: “xxxx”, timestamp: 1665481019, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }

IRCD logs of 'User_B'

09:36:59 [INFO] [P2P] Received: Privmsg { id: 123457, nickname: “xxxx”, target: “xxxx”, message: “xxxx”, timestamp: 1665481019, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }
09:36:59 [INFO] [P2P] Decrypted received message: Privmsg { id: 123457, nickname: "User_A", target: "User_B", message: "Hi", timestamp: 1665481019, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }    

Note for Weechat Client Users:\ When you private message someone as shown above, the buffer will not pop in weechat client until you receive a reply from that person.

For example here 'User_A' will not see any new buffer on his irc interface for the recent message which he just send to 'User_B' until 'User_B' replies, but 'User_B' will get a buffer shown on his irc client with the message 'Hi'.

Reply from 'User_B' to 'User_A'

/msg User_A welcome!

IRCD logs of 'User_B'

10:25:45 [INFO] [CLIENT 127.0.0.1:57396] Msg: PRIVMSG User_A :welcome! 
10:25:45 [INFO] [CLIENT 127.0.0.1:57396] (Plain) PRIVMSG User_A :welcome! 
10:25:45 [INFO] [CLIENT 127.0.0.1:57396] (Encrypted) PRIVMSG: Privmsg { id: 123458, nickname: “xxxx”, target: “xxxx”, message: “yyyyyyy”, timestamp: 1665483945, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }
10:25:45 [INFO] [P2P] Broadcast: Privmsg { id: 123458, nickname: “xxxxx”, target: “xxxxx”, message: “yyyyyyyy”, timestamp: 1665483945, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }

IRCD logs of 'User_A'

10:25:46 [INFO] [P2P] Received: Privmsg { id: 123458, nickname: “xxxxxxx”, target: “xxxxxx”, message: “yyyyyy”, timestamp: 1665483945, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }
10:25:46 [INFO] [P2P] Decrypted received message: Privmsg { id: 123458, nickname: "User_B”, target: "User_A”, message: "welcome! ", timestamp: 1665483945, term: 0, read_confirms: 0 }

Or instead of /msg command, you can use:

/query User_B hello

This works exactly the same as /msg except it will open a new buffer with the User_B in your client regardless.

Note: The contact name is not the irc nickname, it can be anything you want, and you should use it when DMing.