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``` | ||
bLIP: 14 | ||
Title: Sender authentication | ||
Status: Draft | ||
Author: Joost Jager <[email protected]> | ||
Created: 2022-02-04 | ||
License: CC0 | ||
``` | ||
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## Abstract | ||
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By default, the lightning protocol protects the sender identity by means of | ||
ephemeral keys and onion routing. There are however use cases that ask for | ||
inclusion of the sender identity with a payment. | ||
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This bLIP serves to document a way to authenticate the sender of a payment via a | ||
custom TLV record. | ||
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## Copyright | ||
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This bLIP is licensed under the CC0 license. | ||
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## Specification | ||
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Sender: | ||
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* MUST include a TLV record keyed by type `83231` with the following TLV value: | ||
* [`33*byte`:`pubkey`] | ||
* [`32*byte`:`hmac`] | ||
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`pubkey` is set to the public key of the sender. Note that `pubkey` doesn't | ||
need to be the sender's node public key. It can also be a more general | ||
identity. | ||
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`hmac` is calculated over `payment_secret`, using a shared secret as the key. | ||
This shared secret is calculated using Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman between | ||
sender private key and receiver public key. | ||
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Receiver: | ||
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* Derives the shared secret key using Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman between | ||
`pubkey` and receiver private key. | ||
* Verifies `hmac` using the shared secret. | ||
* If verification fails, SHOULD error with | ||
`PERM|15 incorrect_or_unknown_payment_details`. | ||
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## Motivation | ||
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There are many ways to authenticate the sender of a payment in Lightning. This | ||
documentation is an attempt prevent the emergence of too many variants that all | ||
do more or less the same thing. | ||
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## Rationale | ||
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* The TLV record key is an odd number, meaning that the record is ignored by | ||
receivers that do not support sender authentication. No feature bit is needed. | ||
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* The choice for Diffie-Hellman rather than a signature is to preserve the | ||
privacy of the sender as much as possible. Senders are authenticating | ||
themselves to receivers, but receivers cannot prove anything to a third party | ||
because they could have made up the proof themselves. | ||
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* `hmac` is calculated over `payment_secret` and not `payment_hash`. With | ||
`payment_hash`, an intermediate node could possibly attempt to pay to the same | ||
hash authenticated with their own identity key. |