Help worth hosting irc reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EncryptedJunkie · 2020-05-22 04:39 Hi. Im looking to host a private irc server, only people in would be my friends. I’m looking for something that really boasts privacy, I want the whole thing to be run with my own software/hardware, could I do something like this with an rpi 4? On top of that, how do I make sure I know it really is a private chat? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProgVal · 2020-05-22 05:14 > could I do something like this with an rpi 4? Yes, you can host an irc server on a raspberry pi. irc servers require very little resources, so the rpi 4 is more than enough. You'll just need to configure a port redirect in your router for it to be available from the outside (you're probably already familiar with it if you already host anything on your rpi 4). There are many choices to run an irc server: inspircd, charybdis, unrealircd, oragono, ... > On top of that, how do I make sure I know it really is a private chat? TLS is good enough to protect from snooping. Just make sure you don't use a self-signed certificate (eg. sign it with Let's Encrypt) and/or give your friends the fingerprint of your certificate, to prevent MITM attacks. (Again, there's nothing specific about IRC here, it works the same way as a website or mail server.) As the network's admin, you'll technically be able to see all messages (it's not easy, but possible). If your friends don't trust you not to do that, you should tell them to use OTR, to get end-to-end encryption of their messages. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sneakatdatavibe · 2020-05-22 10:44 You're better off using Signal. That's going to be your best way to know it "really is a private chat". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-22 11:23 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wheeze_NL · 2020-05-22 11:49 I read privacy and IRC in there, which are totally different things. I don't know why you want to self-host, but I'd recommend looking into Matrix (and the client for that called Riot). It's to heavy for a Rpi4 though. If you just want a secure chat, Signal might be the way to go. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dijit · 2020-05-22 13:52 If I were going "fully privacy focused" (which, bearing in mind will come at the cost of: reliability, ease of use, maybe even performance), this is what I would do: 1) Look into hosting a hidden service on Tor, or making it accessible only via i2p or Yggdrasil (or your "hidden mesh networking service" of choice). This will solve a few things for you. firstly, it will hide the hosters real location, secondly it will handle encryption for you, thirdly it will hide the users real location from the hoster, meaning you don't need to do anything with hostmasks or anything like that. 2) I would issue server passwords to people I trust, rotate this key on a cycle, to stop people who are no in the loop from getting access to the server -at all-, should a key leak then your rotation of the key will force them off in time anyway. 3) OTR, using a similar (but not the same) mechanism as above for sharing pre-shared keys, this will encrypt all traffic that is going over the server, so the server wont know the messages that are being sent. 4) Disable SA* modules, do not enable nickserv, kill any emailing functionality if it exists in your irc software. All of these can be used to leak your hosting address, in fact, I might even selinux jail outbound connections from anything except the tor process. I assume that for privacy what matters is: 1) Don't leak the users details 2) Don't leak the hosters details 3) Don't allow the hoster to know/abuse the users details. 4) Don't allow snoopers. My relatively easy approach will solve for those. You will have issues with impersonation, because there's no account control provision. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Treyzania · 2020-05-23 06:50 Signal requires Google Play Services to run and the developers are hostile to third party clients. Telegram is somewhat better, Matrix better than that, but really if you're using a phone that isn't running a more traditional Linux variant and the baseband isn't IOMMUed off then you're already compromised. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sneakatdatavibe · 2020-05-24 12:36 The developers aren't hostile to third party clients. The server operators are. Telegram is snake oil, and anyone recommending it doesn't know what they are talking about. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Treyzania · 2020-05-24 16:50 I mean, Telegram and Signal are both in the "sus crypto people shouldn't use" category to me. But people still use them for some reason.