taky

taky - A simple COT server for ATAK

Features (and anti-Features!)

• Supports multiple ATAK clients simultaneously! You can see them on the map!
• SSL support with optional client keys!
• Some design consideration for XML security!
• Actually somewhat decent CoT routing uses Marti for other items. If unspecified, packets are considered broadcast.
• A hacked up XML parser written by someone who barely understands XML!
• Advanced Pythonic implementation of CoT model, with only 5 hours of combined industry experience in implementing CoT technology!
• Server shuts down with only one Ctrl+C!
• Does not require root to run!
• Thread safety? Where we're going, we don't need threads!
• Slightly less-than-broken Data Package Server!
• Handy CLI utilities for generating systemd service files and client keys!
• Stupid fast for no good reason! Routes 1000 packets / second on an old Core i5-2500k!
• Optional redis backed object persistence storage!
• Still no requirement for SQlite / database!

Requirements

• Python 3.6 or greater (strongly recommend 3.7+)
• lxml
• dateutil
• flask
• pyopenssl
• gunicorn
• redis

This application was developed with Python 3.8 on Ubuntu 20.04, and tested with ATAK v4.2.0.4 and WinTAK. It is now in a beta state, and should work relatively well.

Most of the testing so far has been with "simulated" clients, instead of real users. I still wouldn't recommend using this for an important exercise where lives are at stake, but if you want to test it out, please let me know how it goes!

Installation

Open a shell, and run:

$ git clone https://github.com/tkuester/taky
$ cd taky
taky $ python3 setup.py install

Alternatively, you can use pip!

$ python3 -m pip install taky

Usage

Right out of the box, with no configuration, you can build a simple COT server for you and your friends to play with over TCP!

$ taky -h
usage: taky [-h] [-l {debug,info,warning,error,critical}] [-c CFG_FILE] [--version]

Start the taky server

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -l {debug,info,warning,error,critical}
                        Log verbosity
  -c CFG_FILE           Path to configuration file
  --version             show program's version number and exit

# Run taky on 0.0.0.0:8087
$ taky
INFO:root:taky v0.7
INFO:COTServer:Listening for tcp on :8087

Deploying Taky

Taky has been written with ease of administration in mind. It should be easy to install, upgrade, build (and run) multiple instances, manage with systemd scripts, and adhere to standard Linux service organization and package management. Additionally, there is no tie in to operating systems. This should be just as easy to setup on Fedora as it is on Ubuntu -- though the instructions have been written for Ubuntu.

See the deployment guide in the /doc folder for instructions on deploying a server of your own!

Development Status

As far as the "Unicorn Test Readiness Level" goes, taky is not a high heritage space unicorn. We are somewhere between TRL 5 and 6. The horse is outside, and we're tentatively calling it a unicorn.

The COT server is the most mature part of the codebase. While some of the more esoteric configurations have not been tested, the standard SSL setup seems to be rather solid, and performs well with heavy loads.

The Data Package server (DPS) is starting to mature, but has not been as extensively tested. Simple client-to-client and client-to-server transfers seem to work well, although some features like Video and posting tracks have not been implemented yet.

Feel free to checkout the milestones page to see what is planned for the next version of taky! Pull requests and issues are welcome!