(he)xchat-ircrypt

This is an implementation of the IRCrypt protocol for XChat and its forks like HexChat. It provides an encryption layer for IRC using standardized and well proven techniques for encryption.

This plug-in is still work-in-progress, but can already be used to send and receive messages encrypted with cryptographically strong symmetric ciphers within regular channels. Private conversations are not yet encrypted.

Requirements

• (he)xchat with support for Python extensions
• GnuPG

Installation

Linux:

   curl -o $HOME/.config/hexchat/addons/ircrypt.py \
      https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IRCrypt/ircrypt-xchat/master/ircrypt.py

Windows (using HexChat - experimental)

• Download the latest stable version of HexChat
  • Install HexChat on your system
  • Make sure to enable the Python support
  • Select Python 2.7.x as runtime
• Download GnuPG vrom http://gnupg.org (direct link)
  • Install the application
  • Find out the path to the gpg.exe. Should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe
• Download https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IRCrypt/ircrypt-xchat/master/ircrypt.py
  • Save ircrypt.py to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\HexChat\addons
• Launch HexChat
  • Enable the IRCrypt plug-in (if that does not happen automatically)
  • Join an IRC network and channel. For testing IRCrypt, you might want to join #ircrypt on freenode.
  • Set the path to the gpg binary by typing /ircrypt set-option binary C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe

Configuration

To set up encryption for a channel simply add a passphrase to use by typing into (he)xchat:

/ircrypt set-key #CHANNEL PASSPHRASE