From 28c77b7648b2a44a18be64ec44344d91cccfd742 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christophe Besson Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2026 14:25:00 +0200 Subject: feat(auth): the recovery key never reaches the hub MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Ticking "also e-mail it to me" at registration sent the recovery key R in the register body, and the hub appended it to the verification e-mail: the hub saw R in clear on its way out, and the resend door — no captcha — let anyone who knew a pending username and address have the hub mail a "recovery key" of their choosing. The box is gone. The recovery screen offers "E-mail it to myself", a mailto: link that opens the person's own mail application with the key filled in; the desktop shell hands mailto: to the system (http, https and mailto only) and the Android shell to a mail application (ACTION_SENDTO). The CLI drops --email-recovery-key and prints the key, as before. The hub mails the code alone, and refuses a register that still carries a recovery_key rather than dropping it, so an older client offering the option cannot tell someone their key was sent when it was not. A mailbox holding R remains, with the reset code that reaches the same mailbox, enough to recover the account's identities; the link says so, and it is the person's choice. Checked in Chrome and Firefox (headless, the real page against a stubbed hub) and by the CLI's end-to-end registration against a local hub. The Android change was not built here, and the desktop link was not clicked in the application. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 --- packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/client/hub.py | 6 +++--- .../meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/commands/account.py | 17 ++++------------- 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) (limited to 'packages/meshbay-cli') diff --git a/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/client/hub.py b/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/client/hub.py index 5b301f8..5726816 100644 --- a/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/client/hub.py +++ b/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/client/hub.py @@ -132,10 +132,10 @@ class Hub: raise async def register(self, username: str, email: str, auth_key: str, - recovery_key: str | None, captcha_token: str | None) -> dict: + captcha_token: str | None) -> dict: + # Never the recovery key: the hub does not see it and refuses a + # register that carries one (docs/MESHBAY_DESIGN.md §3.6). body = {"username": username, "email": email, "auth_key": auth_key} - if recovery_key: - body["recovery_key"] = recovery_key if captcha_token: body["captcha_token"] = captcha_token return await self._call("POST", "/v1/users/register", json=body) diff --git a/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/commands/account.py b/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/commands/account.py index 2137995..4499f0b 100644 --- a/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/commands/account.py +++ b/packages/meshbay-cli/src/meshbay_cli/commands/account.py @@ -66,9 +66,6 @@ def add_parser(sub, parent) -> None: p.add_argument("--recovery-key-file", metavar="FILE", help="reset: read the recovery key from FILE, to restore your keys " "on the nodes") - p.add_argument("--email-recovery-key", action="store_true", - help="register: also send the recovery key with the verification " - "e-mail") p.add_argument("--no-remember", action="store_true", help="reset: sign in afterwards without storing the session") p.add_argument("-y", "--yes", action="store_true", @@ -206,29 +203,23 @@ async def _register(ctx: Context) -> int: raw, mnemonic = generate_recovery() try: try: - reg = await ctx.hub.register(username, email, ak, - mnemonic if a.email_recovery_key else None, - await _captcha(ctx)) + reg = await ctx.hub.register(username, email, ak, await _captcha(ctx)) except HubError as e: if e.detail not in ("captcha_failed", "captcha_required"): raise # An answer is spent once checked; a fresh one, once. - reg = await ctx.hub.register(username, email, ak, - mnemonic if a.email_recovery_key else None, - await _captcha(ctx)) + reg = await ctx.hub.register(username, email, ak, await _captcha(ctx)) except HubError as e: raise _hub_refusal(e, "Not registered") from e if ctx.args.json: print(json.dumps({"user_id": reg.get("user_id"), "username": username, "recovery_key": mnemonic, - "recovery_key_emailed": bool(a.email_recovery_key), "email_verification_required": True})) else: print(f"Account {safe(username)} created on {ctx.hub.url}.\n\n" - "Your recovery key — shown this once, kept nowhere by MeshBay" - + (" (it is also in the verification e-mail)" if a.email_recovery_key - else "") + ":\n\n" + "Your recovery key — shown this once, kept nowhere by MeshBay, never " + "sent to the hub:\n\n" f" {mnemonic}\n\n" "Keep it somewhere safe, apart from your passphrase. If you forget the " "passphrase, it is what gives you your groups back.") -- cgit v1.2.3