From 51705056a578d2649a989bf14a056fbcfae58a6b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Christophe Besson <cbesson@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2026 13:34:47 +0200
Subject: feat(hub): replace reCAPTCHA with a self-hosted proof of work

Sign-up and passphrase reset sent every visitor's address and browser
details to Google, which needed a consent the sign-up form could not ask
for freely. The hub now issues its own challenge (ALTCHA's scheme, signed
with a key derived from the hub's private key, single-use, 30 minutes)
and the page solves it with SubtleCrypto while the form is filled in.

- GET /v1/users/captcha issues a challenge; 404 captcha_disabled when off.
- [captcha] enabled / max_number replace site_key / secret_key, which are
  now ignored with a warning; MESHBAY_CAPTCHA_ENABLED replaces the old
  variables.
- No Google origin left in the CSP of the hub, the desktop shell or the
  Android shell; captcha_site_key leaves /v1/hub/info.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .../app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/MainActivity.kt |  7 +++----
 .../src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/shell/UiAssets.kt   | 14 ++++----------
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

(limited to 'packages/meshbay-android/app')

diff --git a/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/MainActivity.kt b/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/MainActivity.kt
index 699e0c3..6bd2a3f 100644
--- a/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/MainActivity.kt
+++ b/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/MainActivity.kt
@@ -198,9 +198,8 @@ class MainActivity : Activity() {
                     return docs.firstNotNullOfOrNull { it.serve(path) } ?: refused()
                 }
                 if (url.host == UiAssets.HOST) return loader.shouldInterceptRequest(url) ?: refused()
-                // reCAPTCHA (sign-up) and nothing else goes to the network from
-                // the page; the policy says the same, this is the second wall.
-                if (UiAssets.isRecaptcha(url.host) && url.scheme == "https") return null
+                // Nothing goes to the network from the page; the policy says
+                // the same, this is the second wall.
                 if (url.scheme == "blob" || url.scheme == "data") return null
                 return refused()
             }
@@ -211,7 +210,7 @@ class MainActivity : Activity() {
                 // The hub must never become the document origin. A link out
                 // opens in the person's browser, not in a window holding keys.
                 if (request.isForMainFrame && (url.scheme == "https" || url.scheme == "http")) openExternally(url)
-                return !(UiAssets.isRecaptcha(url.host) && !request.isForMainFrame)
+                return true
             }
         }
         web.webChromeClient = object : WebChromeClient() {
diff --git a/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/shell/UiAssets.kt b/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/shell/UiAssets.kt
index 2300668..0721db3 100644
--- a/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/shell/UiAssets.kt
+++ b/packages/meshbay-android/app/src/main/kotlin/org/meshbay/client/shell/UiAssets.kt
@@ -45,10 +45,6 @@ class UiAssets(private val context: Context) : WebViewAssetLoader.PathHandler {
         const val PREFIX = "/ui/"
         const val START = "$ORIGIN${PREFIX}index.html"
 
-        // reCAPTCHA gates sign-up here as it does in a browser and on the
-        // desktop; these two hosts and no others.
-        private const val RECAPTCHA_SRC = "https://www.google.com https://www.gstatic.com"
-
         /**
          * meshbay-client/src/main.js's CSP, directive for directive
          * (test_android_shell.py holds them together). `'wasm-unsafe-eval'` is
@@ -56,22 +52,20 @@ class UiAssets(private val context: Context) : WebViewAssetLoader.PathHandler {
          */
         val CSP = listOf(
             "default-src 'none'",
-            "script-src 'self' 'wasm-unsafe-eval' $RECAPTCHA_SRC",
+            "script-src 'self' 'wasm-unsafe-eval'",
             "style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'",
-            "img-src 'self' data: blob: $RECAPTCHA_SRC",
+            "img-src 'self' data: blob:",
             "media-src 'self' blob:",
             "font-src 'self'",
-            "connect-src 'self' $RECAPTCHA_SRC",
+            "connect-src 'self'",
             "worker-src 'self'",
             "object-src blob:",
-            "frame-src blob: $RECAPTCHA_SRC",
+            "frame-src blob:",
             "frame-ancestors 'none'",
             "base-uri 'none'",
             "form-action 'none'",
         ).joinToString("; ")
 
-        fun isRecaptcha(host: String?) = host == "www.google.com" || host == "www.gstatic.com"
-
         fun contentType(name: String): String = when (File(name).extension.lowercase()) {
             "html" -> "text/html"
             "js", "mjs" -> "text/javascript"
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