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>
---
 .../meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/captcha.js  | 47 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 47 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 packages/meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/captcha.js

(limited to 'packages/meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/captcha.js')

diff --git a/packages/meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/captcha.js b/packages/meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/captcha.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc174a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/captcha.js
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+// The proof of work that gates sign-up and passphrase reset (the hub's
+// captcha.py). The hub sends the SHA-256 of `<prefix><number>` and the page
+// finds the number by trying them from 0, so a person waits for nothing: it is
+// solved while the form is being filled in. Nothing leaves for a third party.
+//
+// On the main thread, in batches handed to SubtleCrypto, rather than in a Web
+// Worker: the Android shell serves the interface through its own request
+// interceptor, and a worker's script is a request that interceptor is not
+// guaranteed to see. Each batch is a turn of the event loop, so typing in the
+// form is not held up by it.
+
+const BATCH = 1000;
+
+function fromHex(hex) {
+  const out = new Uint8Array(hex.length / 2);
+  for (let i = 0; i < out.length; i++) out[i] = parseInt(hex.substr(i * 2, 2), 16);
+  return out;
+}
+
+function same(buf, want) {
+  const got = new Uint8Array(buf);
+  for (let i = 0; i < want.length; i++) if (got[i] !== want[i]) return false;
+  return true;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The answer to a challenge from `GET /v1/users/captcha`, as the token the
+ * register and reset-request bodies carry — or null if no number below
+ * `max_number` matches, which only a challenge that is not the hub's produces,
+ * or once `signal` is aborted: the form was left before it was needed.
+ */
+export async function solve({ prefix, challenge, max_number: max, signature }, signal) {
+  const enc = new TextEncoder();
+  const want = fromHex(challenge);
+  for (let start = 0; start < max; start += BATCH) {
+    if (signal && signal.aborted) return null;
+    const end = Math.min(start + BATCH, max);
+    const pending = [];
+    for (let n = start; n < end; n++) {
+      pending.push(crypto.subtle.digest('SHA-256', enc.encode(prefix + n)));
+    }
+    const digests = await Promise.all(pending);
+    const hit = digests.findIndex(d => same(d, want));
+    if (hit >= 0) return `${prefix}${start + hit}.${signature}`;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
-- 
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