Encryption

Encryption is one of the key parts of the on-chain communication infrastructure.

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Encryption is one of the key parts of the infrastructure. There are three options available within the OCC SDK; (1) Custom encryption; (2) AES-randomly generated secret key, and; (3) AES-secret key produced by ECDH. The OCC technology uses GCM (Galois/Counter Mode), which is often considered the safest among all AES modes.

(1) No encryption

Plain unencrypted content is shared between wallet client A (i.e. sender) and wallet client B (i.e. receiver).

(2) Custom encryption

Integrators have the option to develop their specific encryption implementations.

(3) AES (symmetric, secret key encryption)

Natively AES-256-GCM is used for the encryption algorithm.

(3.1) AES (randomly generated secret key)

A random secret key is generated to encrypt content, which is shared between wallet client A (i.e. sender) and wallet client B (i.e. receiver). Content is encrypted with AES encryption. The receiver obtains the secret key from a sender using external communication (i.e. email, chat…) to decrypt the content.

Explainer: AES encryption with a randomly generated secret key is used within w3xshare data file transfers.

(3.2) AES (secret key produced by ECDH secret key exchange enabled by Encryptor extension)

The secret key is produced with ECDH secret key exchange. The sender needs the receiver Encryptor extension public key to be recorded on the blockchain. Encryptor extension is used to calculate the shared secret key.

Explainer: The calculation is made using the receiver Encryptor extension public key and sender Encryptor extension private key. Content is encrypted with AES encryption and shared between wallet client A and wallet client B. The receiver decrypts the content using a calculated shared secret key. The secret key is calculated with the receiver Encryptor extension private key and the sender Encryptor extension public key. AES encryption with a secret key produced by ECDH secret key exchange is used within Email & Chat use cases.

Resources

sdk-js/packages/encryption at main · 4thtech/sdk-jsGitHub