[freenet-support] CHK/SSK

[Melvin Mawhin]

Hi,
Im doing a paper for school on Freenet and i have a small question concerning the way files are requested.
When the request is sent to the Freenet network is the complete SSK/CHK sent? I dont imagine so because that would
mean you send the decryption key too? I have been running through the code but it is difficult to read for a layman.
Cheers for any help you might be able to offer.
KRMelvin Mawhin

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Hi Melvin,

When a request is sent, you request the blocks the key points
to. There’s a routing part and a decryption part.

See https://wiki.freenetproject.org/SSK#How_SSKs_work

“The SSK is made up of a hash of the public key, and the symmetric
key. The hash of the public key acts as the index to the data for
searching purposes. Also, the actual public key is stored with the
data. This is so that Freenet nodes can verify the signature when the
SSK file comes into their node, and also so that clients can verify the
signature when retrieving the file. The symmetric key is so that clients
can decrypt the file.”

Good luck with your project!
Arne

Post by Melvin Mawhin
Hi,
Im doing a paper for school on Freenet and i have a small question concerning the way files are requested.
When the request is sent to the Freenet network is the complete SSK/CHK sent? I dont imagine so because that would
mean you send the decryption key too? I have been running through the code but it is difficult to read for a layman.
Cheers for any help you might be able to offer.
KRMelvin Mawhin
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[Steve Dougherty]

Hi Steve,
Thank you for the reply. How can i reply to the support thread
because this not completely what I asked for. The real question for
me is when a malicious node is placed within the network and request
is routed through thisnode, how much of the key can this malicious
node see? The complete key or the complete key minus the decryption
key.
Many thanksMelvin Mawhin

If you subscribe to the support mailing list [0] and reply to messages
you receive from it they will go to the thread in question (provided you
ensure your mail client includes ***@freenetproject.org as a
recipient). To that end I've included a reply-to Arne's original message
and CC'd the list. If you're up for IRC (please be patient - we are all
part-time volunteers) we are in #freenet on chat.freenode.net. [1]

The decryption key is not sent along with the request for the block - a
malicious node cannot observe it from the request.

- Steve

[0] https://emu.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
[1] https://freenetproject.org/help.html#irc