Installing and Running TextSecure (Signal) Server on Windows

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Installing and Running TextSecure (Signal) Server on Windows

While working at Plexus, I had to implement Signal Server’s end to end encryption on certain project. Though Open Whisper System had the code in github, the instructions were quite unclear on installing the server on local machine. I stumbled upon few Github posts and got this amazing guide. So this is my take on installing TextSecure (Signal) Server on a local Windows 10 machine.

Meta

About

If you are using Whatsapp then you must have seen “end-to-end” encryption thingy! Well, After Apple’s beef with FBI, Whatsapp just turned on encryption for a billion people.

Whatsapp End-to-end security
(Image Courtesy : SecureBeam)

Prerequisites

  • Java 1.7.
  • Windows 10
  • Redis (for caching purposes)
  • PostgreSQL instance
  • Twillio account for SMS registration process confirmation
  • Amazon AWS S3 bucket service for messages’ attachments
  • A GCM account from google developer console: a senderId add a ApiKey. Create a project, senderId is the projectNumber. For ApiKey, go to API management -> credentials -> create credentials -> API Keys -> Server Key and save this key
  • APN account for Apple Push Notifications (two pem certificates) [ask]

Building and Compiling

  1. Clone TextSecure (Signal) Server
    git clone https://github.com/lucaconte/Signal-Server.git
  2. Clone Push Server
    git clone https://github.com/lucaconte/PushServer.git
  3. Clone WebSocket Resources
    git clone https://github.com/lucaconte/WebSocket-Resources.git
  4. In Push Server pom.xml, change capsule.maven.plugin.version version to 1.0.1
  5. Build Push Server (from inside this folder)
    mvn clean install
  6. Download & install gpg4win gpg tool for signing)
    https://www.gpg4win.org/download.html : https://files.gpg4win.org/gpg4win-vanilla-2.3.3.exe
  7. Make sure Environment Variables are set for gpg
    GNUPGHOME : c:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\gnupg //or whatever path it is
  8. Create default secring and pubring by opening gpg2.exe file from installed location
  9. Exit the opened terminal which says “type message”
  10. Build Push Websocket-Resource (from inside thsi folder)
    mvn clean install
  11. The build will fail at javadoc signing but its okay as we have got the main binary in target folder (websocket-resources-0.4.1)
  12. Link this file in maven repo ( make sure the versions are same in the file and in teh command)
    mvn install:install-file -Dfile=./library/target/websocket-resources-0.4.1.jar -DgroupId=org.whispersystems -DartifactId=websocket-resources -Dversion=0.4.1 -Dpackaging=jar
  13. Now build the Signal Server (from inside the Signal Server folder)
    mvn clean install -DskipTests
  14. We skip the tests because they will fail for not finding a key which we will cover later

Creating Config files

pushserver.yml

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redis:
  url: redis://localhost:6379/2

authentication:
  servers:
    -
      name: 123
      password: 123
gcm:
  xmpp: false
  apiKey:  HERE>
  senderId:  HERE>
  redphoneApiKey: AIddSyAsviyMy8jKe8chCEfr8NbeqGghy7oOCi4 #fake


apn:
  feedback: false
  pushKey: /path/to/your/apnpushcertificates/apns-dev-key-noenc.pem #fake
  voipKey: /path/to/your/apnpushcertificates/apns-dev-key-noenc.pem #fake
  voipCertificate: /path/to/your/apnpushcertificates/apns-dev-cert.pem #fake
  pushCertificate: /path/to/your/apnpushcertificates/apns-dev-cert.pem #fake

server:
    applicationConnectors:
    - type: http
      port: 9090
    adminConnectors:
    - type: http
      port: 9091
    gzip:
        enabled: true

logging:
  level: INFO
  appenders:
    - type: file
      currentLogFilename: /tmp/pushserver.log
      archivedLogFilenamePattern: /tmp/pushserver-%d.log.gz
      archivedFileCount: 5
    - type: console

textsecure.yml

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# This is the sample config/textsecure.yml file for the TextSecure Server
# Pay attention! To start TextSecur server you will need to install and start PushServer

twilio:
  accountId:  HERE>
  accountToken:  HERE>
  numbers:
    -
      +33756796138 #fake
  localDomain: foo.org

push:
  host: localhost
  port: 9090
  username: 123
  password: 123

s3:
   accessKey: ABCDEFGCUFYDHVM2LXXX #fake
   accessSecret: W0UfGDddfAbqYyCTIIbSQlDtreTGokOs0OTpL0SE #fake
   attachmentsBucket: thenameofyouts3buket #fake

directory:
  url: "redis://localhost:6379/0"

cache:
  url: "redis://localhost:6379/1"

server:
  applicationConnectors:
    - type: http
      port: 8080
      #keyStorePath: config/example.keystore
      #keyStorePassword: example
      #validateCerts: true
  adminConnectors:
    - type: http
      port: 8081
      #keyStorePath: config/example.keystore
      #keyStorePassword: example
      #validateCerts: true


websocket:
  enabled: true

messageStore: # Postgres database configuration for message store
  driverClass: org.postgresql.Driver
  user: "postgres"
  password: "postgres"
  url: "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/messagedb"

database:
  driverClass: org.postgresql.Driver
  user: "postgres"
  password: "postgres"
  url: "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/accountsdb"
  properties:
    charSet: UTF-8

#federation: # is disabled

logging:
  level: INFO
  appenders:
    - type: file
      currentLogFilename: /tmp/textsecureshserver.log
      archivedLogFilenamePattern: /temp/textsecureserver-%d.log.gz
      archivedFileCount: 5
    - type: console


redphone:
  authKey: 1234567890 #fake

Place pushserver.yml in Push Server Folder.
Place textsecure.yml in Text Sexure /config folder.

Disabling iOS Features ( Temporarily)

useful part if you plan to test Android only as first

  1. Remove @NotEmpty annotation above “private ApnConfiguration apn;” field definition into org.whispersystems.pushserver.PushServerConfiguration class, so into yml PushServers’s file the APN related params become optional.

  2. Into org.whispersystems.pushserver.PushServer‘s “run” method comment every row with apnSender var and pass null in the jersey Controller registration of the PushController:

environment.jersey().register(new PushController(null, gcmSender));
instead of
environment.jersey().register(new PushController(apnSender, gcmSender));
Lines : 55, 58 and 62

Configuring & Running Database

Postgresql

  1. Download and Install Postgres
    https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/
  2. Create Databases (Exit all postgres cli instances first)
    createdb -U postgres accountsdb
    createdb -U postgres messagedb
  3. Import Table Schemas: (from inside Signal-Server folder)
    java -jar target/TextSecureServer-.jar accountdb migrate config/textsecure.yml
    java -jar target/TextSecureServer-.jar messagedb migrate config/textsecure.yml

Redis

  1. Download and Install Redis
    https://github.com/rgl/redis/downloads

Running Everything Together

  1. Run Redis
    redis-server
  2. Run Push Server
    java -jar Push-Server--capsule-fat.jar server pushserver.yml
  3. Run Text Secure ( Signal) Server
    java -jar target/TextSecureServer-.jar server config/textsecure.yml

Testing with Android App

Coming soon …