CRYPTOWL

Send and Read encrypted messages

CRYPTOWL is a simple web application written in Python (Flask) for sending and reading encrypted messages.

It uses:

• DB: MariaDB or MySQL + PyMySql
• Cryptography: pycryptodome, cryptography and secrets
• WSGI HTTP Server: Gunicorn

Installation

1. Consider you already unpacked the app archive file. First you have to create virtual environment and activate it:

cd cryptowl
python3 -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate

NOTE: If you want to make some changes to CRYPTOWL - make it while virtual environment is activated. Don't forget to exit virtual environment after you finish your work:

deactivate

2. Install all required modules using:

pip install -r requirements

3. Create database (MariaDB/MySQL) on your server and then edit this values in app_config_prod.py configurration file:

MYSQL_HOST = 'Your host value'
MYSQL_DB = 'Name of your DB'
MYSQL_USER = 'DB username'
MYSQL_PASSWORD = 'Password for DB username'

4. Install certificate and private key pair to have fully secured connection (this is required unless you believe that users just have a GOOD FAITH in your web site). Edit this lines in gunicorn_config.py configuration file and then uncomment these lines:

certfile = '/etc/somedirpath/cert.crt' <--- Edit to your path value
keyfile = '/etc/somedirpath/privkey.pem' <--- Edit to your path value
ca_certs = '/etc/somedirpath/ca_cert.crt' <--- Edit to your path value

Make other Gunicorn and application configuration changes if needed.

5. Run the application with this command:

gunicorn --config gunicorn_config.py app:app

Recommendations

As Gunicorn developers advise on their web page you should use Nginx HTTP server in pair with Gunicorn. How to setup all of it? Just google it or read the Gunicorn official manual.