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🛡️ SYNAPSE SHIELD

Next-Gen Open-Source Behavioral Biometrics & Bot Mitigation Engine

A privacy-first, zero-friction, self-hosted alternative to Cloudflare Turnstile.

PyPI License: MIT CI/CD FastAPI Python 3.10+ Inference SLA Zero-PII


Key Features • Architecture • Quickstart • Developer Guide • Benchmarks • Math


⚡ Overview

Synapse Shield replaces intrusive legacy CAPTCHAs and expensive proprietary cloud WAFs with sub-millisecond behavioral biomechanics.

By evaluating natural human neuromuscular micro-tremors (Jerk: $\frac{da}{dt}$), Fitts's Law terminal deceleration profiles, cursor curvature, and millisecond keystroke dynamics, Synapse Shield autonomously classifies and mitigates bots, scrapers, and credential stuffers before they touch your backend logic.


✨ Key Features & Security Architecture (v0.7.5)

Feature Description
⚡ Distributed State & Redis Cluster Enterprise multi-server architecture (SYNAPSE_REDIS_URL). Atomic cross-worker replay protection (SET NX EX), synchronized IP quarantine, and zero-downtime SQLite fallback (v0.7.5).
🧩 Dynamic Yielding Proof-of-Work Sub-second client-side SHA-256 cryptographic puzzle with UI yielding to prevent main-thread blocking. Replay-attack resistant on retries (v0.7.2).
🛡️ Iframe-based Prototype Unhooking Advanced anti-stealth mechanism using hidden iframes to access clean native browser prototypes (Canvas, WebGL), bypassing attacker overwrites (v0.7.2).
🔒 SDK Runtime Immutability Object.freeze protects internal SDK states/configurations from malicious tampering on the host page (v0.7.2).
📱 Zero-Jank Mobile Events Passive touch listeners ({ passive: true }) ensure seamless 60 FPS mobile scrolling without blocking the UI thread (v0.7.2).
🪟 Sliding Window IP Ban Shield Stateful 60-second sliding time-window (SSRT-2026-004 defense). Prevents streak-reset evasion attacks even when attackers inject synthetic human requests.
🔄 NumPy-Only Active Learning Built-in synapse-shield retrain command enabling transfer learning on 1D-CNN FC layers in <3s directly from SQLite logs without PyTorch/TensorFlow.
🕵️ Anti-Stealth & Tamper Proofing Dynamically detects headless browser fingerprints (navigator.webdriver), fake plugin arrays, and native toString overwrites in WebGL/Canvas APIs.
🗄️ Continuous Learning Collector Integrated drop-in store.html telemetry collector endpoint (/api/collect_dataset) for continuous 1D-CNN Fine-Tuning with raw human datasets.
🤖 Pure-NumPy 1D-CNN Micro-Brain The Sequence Tokenizer fuses kinematics and keystroke stats into an 8D and 5D tensor architecture, fully processed by a 15KB NumPy-based 1D-CNN (Zero-PyTorch).
🛡️ Max Gating (Fusion Engine) Dynamically unifies Heuristic/Mathematical rules with the 1D-CNN AI confidence score. If either engine flags the telemetry as a Bot, the request is unconditionally blocked.
🔗 Zero-Dependency Multimodal Tokenizer Fuses 5D Mouse Sequence [dx, dy, dt, velocity, jerk] with 8D Static Keystroke/Scroll Vector via Late Fusion.
🧩 100% Invisible UX Zero annoying puzzles, image selections, or audio challenges. Legitimate humans pass friction-free.
⚡ Async Non-Blocking SLA (<0.5 ms) Heavy CPU-bound kinematics processed via asyncio.to_thread, guaranteeing zero event-loop blocking under high concurrency.
🔐 Cryptographic Replay Defense Every session is bound to a single-use HMAC-SHA256 signed nonce. Intercepted tokens cannot be replayed.
🧠 Fitts's Law Deceleration Kinematics Distinguishes advanced Bézier curve bots (ghost-cursor) from organic human hands by analyzing terminal velocity drops before click actions.
⚛️ React, Next.js & Vue 3 / Nuxt 3 Support Native packages (synapse-shield-react & synapse-shield-vue) with hooks/composables and <SynapseProtect /> drop-in protection components.
🐍 Multi-Framework Adapters Native middlewares and decorators for Django (SynapseShieldMiddleware) and Flask (@shield_protect_flask).
♿ Accessibility Mode Graceful risk scaling (accessibility_mode=True) prevents false positives for motor-impaired and assistive device users.
📈 Enterprise Prometheus Metrics Built-in /metrics endpoint supporting multi-process Gunicorn/Uvicorn aggregation via PROMETHEUS_MULTIPROC_DIR.
🔒 100% Zero-PII & Privacy-First No keystroke characters or form values collected — strictly relative millisecond timing deltas processed (GDPR & KVKK compliant).
📊 Poisson Flooder Defense Statistical Poisson anomaly detection identifies high-frequency headless API flooders and applies dynamic IP rate penalties.
💾 SQLite WAL with Auto-Pruning In-memory TTL nonce management + Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) with 10s timeouts prevents database locks during async BackgroundTasks.
🧱 Memory Exhaustion Defense Strict 256KB/512KB payload body limits evaluated at stream-read time (await request.body()) protecting against chunked-transfer inflation attacks.
🔑 Secure Admin APIs Administrative operations (/api/clear) are cryptographically authenticated via the SYNAPSE_ADMIN_SECRET environment variable to prevent unauthorized telemetry tampering.

🏛️ Architecture & Sequence Diagram

┌─────────────────┐             ┌─────────────────────┐             ┌─────────────────────────┐
│  Client Browser │             │  FastAPI Gateway    │             │  Kinematic Decision     │
│  (synapse-sdk)  │             │  (Synapse Shield)   │             │  Engine (<0.5ms SLA)    │
└────────┬────────┘             └──────────┬──────────┘             └────────────┬────────────┘
         │                                 │                                     │
         │── 1. GET /api/challenge ───────►│                                     │
         │◄── 2. { nonce, ts, hmac_sig } ──│  (Generates single-use signed nonce)│
         │                                 │                                     │
   [User moves cursor / types]             │                                     │
   [SDK bundles 50Hz telemetry]            │                                     │
         │                                 │                                     │
         │── 3. POST /api/score {token} ──►│  (1. Validates HMAC signature)      │
         │                                 │  (2. Checks 60s TTL freshness)      │
         │                                 │  (3. Checks Replay Attack nonce)    │
         │                                 │                                     │
         │                                 │── 4. asyncio.to_thread ────────────►│ (19D Kinematics)
         │                                 │                                     │ (Jerk & Fitts's Law)
         │                                 │                                     │ (Poisson Anomaly)
         │                                 │◄── 5. (bot_score, ALLOW/BLOCK) ─────│
         │                                 │                                     │
         │                                 │── 6. Save Log to SQLite (WAL)       │
         │◄── 7. HTTP 200 {ALLOW/BLOCK} ───│                                     │

🚀 30-Second Quickstart

Option 1: Install via PyPI

pip install synapse-shield

Run the server and live cockpit directly from your terminal:

synapse-shield run --port 8000

Run the automated 7-vector adversarial security test suite:

synapse-shield test

Retrain the 1D-CNN AI model autonomously on local SQLite telemetry (Active Learning):

synapse-shield retrain --epochs 5 --lr 0.01

Option 2: Clone & Local Development

git clone https://github.com/0xStoic-bit/Synapse_Shield.git
cd Synapse_Shield
pip install -e .
python test_suite.py

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser to launch the Live Security Cockpit.

Run the entire Synapse Shield stack, including the backend engine, SQLite WAL persistence, and the telemetry collector in a single container.

# Start the container in detached mode
docker-compose up -d

# View real-time logs
docker-compose logs -f

The Synapse API and Live Cockpit will be available at http://localhost:8000.


💻 Developer Integration

1. FastAPI Integration

Protect any API endpoint using the @shield_protect decorator or global middleware:

from fastapi import FastAPI, Request
from synapse_shield import shield_protect, SynapseShieldMiddleware

app = FastAPI()
app.add_middleware(SynapseShieldMiddleware, protected_paths=["/api/auth"])

@app.post("/api/login")
@shield_protect(max_risk_score=50.0, accessibility_mode=False)
async def login(request: Request):
    return {"status": "authenticated"}

2. Django & Flask Integration

Native support for Django and Flask environments.

Django (settings.py):

MIDDLEWARE = [
    # ...
    'synapse_shield.django.SynapseShieldMiddleware',
]
SYNAPSE_SHIELD_PROTECTED_PATHS = ['/api/login']
SYNAPSE_SHIELD_MAX_RISK = 50.0
SYNAPSE_SHIELD_ACCESSIBILITY = False

Flask:

from flask import Flask
from synapse_shield.flask import shield_protect_flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/login", methods=["POST"])
@shield_protect_flask(max_risk_score=50.0)
def login():
    return {"status": "authenticated"}

3. React / Next.js Integration

We provide a drop-in "use client" compatible React package.

import { useSynapseShield, SynapseProtect } from 'synapse-shield-react';

export default function LoginForm() {
  const { getProtectedPayload } = useSynapseShield();

  const handleSubmit = async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
    const payload = getProtectedPayload();
    // Send payload.token to your backend
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
      <SynapseProtect />
      <button type="submit">Login</button>
    </form>
  );
}

4. Vue 3 / Nuxt 3 Integration

Official Vue 3 composable and component package (synapse-shield-vue). Fully SSR-safe for Nuxt 3.

<script setup>
import { ref } from 'vue';
import { useSynapseShield, SynapseProtect } from 'synapse-shield-vue';

const { getProtectedPayload } = useSynapseShield();
const username = ref('');
const password = ref('');

const handleSubmit = async () => {
  const payload = getProtectedPayload();
  // Submit payload.token to backend
};
</script>

<template>
  <form @submit.prevent="handleSubmit">
    <SynapseProtect />
    <input v-model="username" type="text" placeholder="Username" />
    <input v-model="password" type="password" placeholder="Password" />
    <button type="submit">Login</button>
  </form>
</template>

5. Prometheus Metrics

Enterprise observability out of the box. Automatically exposes latency and block rates. To enable multi-process support (e.g., Gunicorn workers), set the environment variable:

export PROMETHEUS_MULTIPROC_DIR=/tmp/synapse_metrics

5. Vanilla JS / HTML SDK

Add the lightweight SDK (<5 KB) to your vanilla project:

<script src="http://localhost:8000/static/synapse-sdk.js"></script>
<script>
  SynapseShield.init();
  async function handleLogin() {
    const payload = SynapseShield.getPayload();
    // Submit payload
  }
</script>

🤖 Attack Simulation Benchmarks

Run the full adversarial suite anytime:

synapse-shield test
Attack Vector Simulated Signature Detection Mechanism Decision Risk Score Latency
Selenium Crawler navigator.webdriver = true WebDriver API Detection 🔴 BLOCK 100.0% 0.01 ms
Linear Bot Straightness = 1.000 & Zero Jerk Straightness > 0.985 & Jerk ~ 0 🔴 BLOCK 100.0% 0.18 ms
Bézier Stealth Bot Mathematical curved trajectory Fitts's Law + Zero Accel Variance 🔴 BLOCK 65.0% 0.22 ms
Robotic Auto-Typer Fixed-interval key injections Keystroke Variance < 1.0 ms² 🔴 BLOCK 50.0% 0.15 ms
Poisson Flooder 8 rapid requests in <500 ms Poisson anomaly (P > 99%) 🔴 BLOCK 60.0% 0.08 ms
Replay Attack Re-sending captured valid token Single-use HMAC Nonce reuse 🔴 BLOCK 100.0% 0.05 ms
Natural Human Organic curves with tremors Biologic Jerk & Deceleration 🟢 ALLOW 0.0% 0.24 ms

🧠 Kinematic & Mathematical Foundations

1. Jerk — Neuromuscular Tremor Fingerprint

$$\text{Jerk} = \frac{da}{dt} = \frac{d^3x}{dt^3}$$

Human muscle tremors produce continuous high-frequency Jerk. Mathematical bot curves (Bézier/Linear) produce near-zero or static Jerk.

2. Fitts's Law Terminal Deceleration Index

$$\text{Terminal Decel Ratio} = \frac{\bar{v}{\text{terminal (last 25%)}}}{v{\text{peak}}}$$

Humans naturally decelerate ($< 0.40$) as they approach the target click point.

3. Cumulative Poisson Anomaly Distribution

$$P(X < k) = \sum_{i=0}^{k-1} \frac{\lambda^i e^{-\lambda}}{i!}$$


📁 Repository Structure

Synapse_Shield/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ci.yml             # Automated CI matrix (Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12)
├── src/
│   └── synapse_shield/
│       ├── __init__.py        # Public API exports
│       ├── cli.py             # CLI Controller (run / test commands)
│       ├── engine.py          # Real-time Decision & Poisson Engine
│       ├── features.py        # 19D Kinematics, Fitts's Law & Multimodal Tokenizer
│       ├── models.py          # Zero-Dependency NumPy 1D-CNN Inference Engine
│       ├── weights.npz        # 4KB Serialized Neural Network Weights
│       ├── main.py            # Async FastAPI Gateway & SQLite Logger
│       ├── middleware.py      # @shield_protect & Middleware classes
│       ├── django.py          # Django Middleware Adapter
│       ├── flask.py           # Flask Route Decorator
│       ├── metrics.py         # Prometheus Multi-Process Exporter
│       ├── tokens.py          # HMAC-SHA256 Challenge & Replay Defense
│       ├── train.py           # Zero-Dependency NumPy Active Learning Pipeline
│       ├── live_attacker.py   # 7-Vector Red Team Simulation Suite
│       └── static/            # Embedded 3D Cockpit & Client SDK
│           ├── index.html
│           └── synapse-sdk.js
├── synapse-shield-react/      # React / Next.js SDK Package
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── SynapseProtect.tsx # "use client" Drop-in Component
│   │   ├── useSynapseShield.ts# React Hook with event throttling
│   │   └── index.ts
│   ├── package.json
│   └── tsconfig.json
├── tests/                     # Modular Pytest Suite
│   ├── test_features.py
│   ├── test_tokens.py
│   ├── test_engine.py
│   └── test_api.py
├── test_suite.py              # Standalone Zero-Dependency Test Runner
├── pyproject.toml             # PEP 517/621 Package Definition
├── requirements.txt           # Core Dependencies
├── LICENSE                    # MIT License
└── README.md

📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. Free for commercial and personal use.

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