nymphemeral 1.2.2.1

An ephemeral nymserver GUI client

Features

• Created to be used with the new nymserv, a Zax-style nymserver with forward secrecy

• Uses python-gnupg and pyaxo for encryption

• Uses aampy to retrieve messages from alt.anonymous.messages

• Sends messages through mixmaster, sendmail, or outputs the resulting ciphertexts to be sent manually

• Manages the nymservers public keys

Current Release

The current version of nymphemeral is 1.2.2, a prototype, released 2014-11-11.

Installation (on a Debian Wheezy/Ubuntu Trusty system)

Main Dependencies:

The simplest way to install nymphemeral is with pip. For pip versions >= 1.5:

sudo pip install --process-dependency-links nymphemeral

and for pip versions 1.4.x and below:

sudo pip install nymphemeral

The dependencies will be automatically downloaded and installed. You can go to the next section (other dependencies).

If you do not use pip, first make sure that you have the following:

sudo apt-get install python-dev python-tk

nymphemeral also uses curve25519-donna, pyaxo, python-dateutil and python-gnupg, and the easiest way to install those is using setuptools. After making sure you have setuptools, go to pyaxo and install it as well. Finally, from nymphemeral’s source folder, install with:

sudo python setup.py install

python-dateutil and python-gnupg will be installed automatically.

If you do not use setuptools as well, you will have to install each dependency and sub-dependencies manually.

Other Dependencies:

nymphemeral will be ready for use after installation via either of the two methods described above. However, you should install the following dependencies to be able to use all of its features.

mixmaster

Follow the mixmaster instructions to get mixmaster running. Make sure you have OpenSSL 1.0.1g or later. If your mixmaster configuration is located anywhere other than the default ~/Mix directory, you should edit ~/.config/nymphemeral/nymphemeral.cfg to point to your configuration.

news server

aampy’s default news server configured in nymphemeral.cfg is set to localhost, port 119. This default is useful if you use stunnel to encrypt the connection between localhost:119 and your actual news server. If you want to connect directly to the news server, you should edit nymphemeral.cfg and change the address and port of the news server appropriately. Unfortunately, the python 2.7 nntplib module does not support connections over SSL/TLS.

Optional: you can use Tor along with aampy and mixmaster. An example stunnel configuration, useful for encrypting your news feed, is located in /usr/share/nymphemeral/connections. There is also sample socat scripts for tunneling messages and news downloads via Tor.

Usage

To run nymphemeral, type the following at the command line:

nymphemeral

nymphemeral only works with the new nymserv. Currently, nym.now.im is the only nymserv running this code. The nymphemeral GUI is very friendly and should be straightforward. When the client is run for the first time, nymphemeral.cfg will be automatically created in the ~/.config/nymphemeral directory and you can edit it per your liking. You can also read the client instructions to better understand how it works.

Tip: If encryption is taking too long, your system probably does not have enough entropy. Using tools such as haveged or rng-tools may solve this issue.

Bug Tracker

Please report any suggestions, feature requests, bug reports, or annoyances to the GitHub issue tracker.

Thanks to rxcomm for the new nymserv, nym.now.im, pyaxo, aampy and for assisting on the development of this client. Thanks to crooks (Zax) for the original nymserv software.