Applied Cryptography in a Surveillance System

⚠️ Disclaimer

This project is part of a school assignment. It is not intended for production use.

Client TUI

Overview

This codebase is a simple client-server model. The server is an FTP service and the client is a script that repeatedly sends mock surveillance captures/images. The initial codebase has 0 security measures.

This project aims to apply cryptographic algorithms to secure this vulnerable surveillance system, adhering to the CIA triad.

Implementation

A challenge-based system using RSA is implemented for authentication. Then, a shared symmetric key is generated with the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. This initial connection is part of a 4-way handshake.

Finally, Authenticated Encryption (AE) with MAC-then-Encrypt (EtM) is used to secure the data transfer and ensure the integrity of the data.

Additional Features

• Client Text-based User Interface (TUI)
• Client logging

Prerequisites

1. Install Python 3.9 or later
2. Install required package(s) using the command pip install -r requirements.txt

To Run

Client

1. Open another new terminal window and change directory into src/client
2. Run the command python ./src/client/index.py to start the client.
   • Ensure the private key is unlocked by pressing 2. The default passphrase is pass, or a new keypair can be generated by pressing 3.

Server

1. Open a new terminal window and change directory into the src/server
2. Run the command python ./src/server/index.py to start the server.

User Configuration

Client

1. Edit src/client/config.ini and change the username

Server

• Manually edit the src/admin/data/users.csv file
• (WIP) Use the web interface to add/edit/del users

Keypairs

The keypair will be generated on the client via its GUI interface. The public key must be located on the server prior to connection, else the server will not be able to authenticate the client. There are several ways to transfer the keys

• Using a secure protocol, such as via SSH
• Physically, such as via USB

Folder Structure

Client

auth/ - handles api calls to authd
controllers/ - contains flow control logic
keys/ - contains public key pair
util/ - conatins helper functions
views/ - contains display data for GUI
config.ini - application settings
index.py - main application entry-point
logs.txt - camera logs

Server

auth/ - handles api requests to authd
build/ - contain webinterface files
data/ - contains ftp files and userlist file, users.csv
models/ - allows access and manipulation to .csv files
util/ - contains helper functions
authd.py - authorisation server logic
ftpd.py - ftp server logic
httpd.py - web interface server logic
index.py - main application entry-point