Nickserver

Nickserver is a server running the Nicknym protocol. This daemon can be run by service providers in order to support Nicknym.

Nicknym is a protocol to map user nicknames to public keys. With Nicknym, the user is able to think solely in terms of nickname, while still being able to communicate with a high degree of security (confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity). Essentially, Nicknym is a system for binding human-memorable nicknames to a cryptographic key via automatic discovery and automatic validation.

For more information, see https://leap.se/nicknym

About nickserver:

• Written in Ruby 2.1, licensed GPLv3
• Lightweight and scalable (high concurrency, reasonable latency)
• Uses asynchronous network IO for both server and client connections (via EventMachine)

API

You query the nickserver via HTTP. The API is very minimal:

curl -X POST -d address=alice@domain.org https://nicknym.domain.org:6425

The response consists of a signed JSON document with fields for the available public keys corresponding to the address.

For more details, see https://leap.se/nicknym

Requirements

• Ruby (tested with 2.1.5)
• CouchDB

Installation

You have three fine options for installing nickserver:

Install prerequisites

$ sudo apt-get install ruby-dev libssl-dev

Note: libssl-dev must be installed before installing the gem EventMachine, otherwise the gem will get built without TLS support.

Install from source:

$ git clone git://leap.se/nickserver
$ cd nickserver
$ rake build
$ rake install

Install for development:

$ git clone git://leap.se/nickserver
$ cd nickserver
$ bundle
$ rake test

Configuration

Nickserver loads the configuration files config/default.yml and /etc/nickserver.yml, if it exists. See config/default.yml for the available options.

The default HKP host is set to https://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net. The CA for this pool is available here https://sks-keyservers.net/sks-keyservers.netCA.pem

Usage

Usage: nickserver [OPTION] COMMAND

where COMMAND is one of:
  start         start an instance of the application
  stop          stop all instances of the application
  restart       stop all instances and restart them afterwards
  status        show status (PID) of application instances
  version       print version and exit

where OPTION is one of:
  --verbose     log more

Running Tests

To run the test suite, run:

rake

The tests that actually make real network calls are enabled by default. To only run local, do this:

ONLY_LOCAL=true rake