Bring main up to date with the live UKMesh production tree, reconciled per-file (tree-wins for deployed features; main-wins where main evolved past the tree's lineage; hand-merges for mixed files). Verified locally on the deploy host: backend + frontend typechecks, backend unit suite (543 pass / 0 fail), frontend suite (147 pass / 0 fail), OpenAPI contract check, frontend production build, scripts typecheck. Highlights: - Deployed features land: tags + recent tags, owner public feed, Viterbi path prewarm and prior rebuilds, region participation, owner packet-sharing JWT scope, pathing docs, README updates. - Main-side hardening retained: CI RAM steps + smoke cleanup trap, hardened scripts, gitleaks/logging rules, stale-MQTT observer protections, alert-receiver queue module, health-status refactor with tree retention additions (owner_packet_share_deliveries + public_feed_deliveries @30d, node_status_samples @30d — matching live TimescaleDB policies). - Credential-generation client close restored on the tree's ownerAccess so the operator revocation tool (owner-auth:revoke) keeps working. - Migrations renumbered to follow main's 058/059 ledger migrations: 055_public_feed, 060_region_scope_participation, 061_packet_share_owner_scope_and_jwt; migration-registry test assertions updated to the final numbering. - Planning/report artifacts removed from the repo; local plans/, *.bak* patterns gitignored (deploy tree tidied to match).
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MeshCore channel decryption
How the UK Mesh site decrypts group-text (packet type 5) traffic live, and how historical traffic was retroactively decrypted.
Key store
backend/src/mqtt/channelRegistry.tsis the single source of truth:VALIDATED_CHANNELS— default secrets baked into the image (39 entries incl. Public; recovered 2026-08-06 and validated to decrypt real human-readable group text).buildCombinedKeyStore()— merges baked defaults withMESHCORE_CHANNEL_SECRETS(env, comma-separatedname:hexor bare hex; dedupes by secret) for secrets that shouldn't be committed.buildSummary()/identifyChannel()— shared by ingest and offline tools.
- ⚠️ The repo is public: keys in
channelRegistry.tsare public. Keep non-derivable/community keys in the env var only. - Reading env at startup only — after a change:
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.live.yml up -d --no-deps --force-recreate backend.
Decryption format
GRP_TXT payload = [channel hash 1B][MAC 2B][AES-128-ECB ciphertext].
Hashtag channel keys are derivable: sha256("#name")[:16]. The public
channel key (8b3387e9c5cdea6ac9e5edbaa115cd72, hash byte 11) is published
in MeshCore docs. Other derivation schemes exist in the wild (sha1/md5
variants, direct ASCII passphrases).
Stored decrypted data
- Live ingest stores decrypted content inline in
payload.decrypted(message/sender/timestamp/flags) and_summary=[ChannelName] sender: message. - Historical decryption lives in the
packet_decryptionsside table (migration 035), filled by the backfill tool. The feed joins it withCOALESCE(p.payload->>'_summary', pd.summary). - ⛔ Never bulk-UPDATE the
packetshypertable — TimescaleDB plans a seq-scan over every chunk. INSERT into the side table instead.
Backfill tool
node dist/tools/backfillDecrypt.js (run inside the backend container).
Two-phase keyset-paginated scan over packets_hash_idx (~1,250 hashes/s).
2026-08-06 run: 387,161 packets processed, 173,778 decrypted.
Feed integration
GET /api/feed/messages?channel=<scope>&limit<=50— up to 50 unique historical messages per channel (90-day bound, dedup by packet hash).- The feed sidebar lists every decrypted channel
(
MESSAGE_SCOPE_CHANNELSinfrontend/src/pages/ukmesh/feedModel.ts); new channels need a frontend rebuild to appear as filters.
Validation gate (Ben, 2026-08-06)
Never deploy a recovered key whose plaintext isn't verified USEFUL — sane
epoch timestamps + printable UTF-8 on a time-spread sample. 1-byte hash
buckets collide across channels (MAC pass rate can reach ~97% on junk);
always validate before .env deploy. Honest decrypt coverage measured at
~43.5% of the 90-day volume (raw hash-bucket sums overcount).
Out-of-band keys
~/ukmesh/meshcore-discord-bot/.env holds NORTHEAST_CHANNEL_SECRET
(== #northeast) and THENORF_CHANNEL_SECRET (hash 8A) — the discord bot
forwards those channels. Check it before attacking new keys.