MLS++

Implementation of the proposed Messaging Layer Security protocol in C++. Depends on C++17, STL for data structures, and OpenSSL or BoringSSL for crypto.

Prerequisites

MLSPP requires a few prerequisite libraries in order to fully build.

• nlohmann::json - Tested with latest versions.
• Cryptography Library - OpenSSL 1.1.1, OpenSSL 3.0, BoringSSL compatible (see details below)
• doctest - Tested with latest versions. Only required when building the test suite.

Installing Prerequisites

The following should satisfy the prerequisites for these popular platforms. However, vcpkg is recommended for developer builds.

# Linux - Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04
$ sudo apt install libssl-dev nlohmann-json3-dev doctest-dev

# MacOs - Homebrew
$ brew install nlohmann-json doctest

Quickstart

A convenience Makefile is included to avoid the need to remember a bunch of CMake parameters. It will use vcpkg to satisfy all dependencies.

> make        # Configures and builds the library 
> make dev    # Configure a "developer" build with tests and checks using OpenSSL 1.1
> make dev3   # Configure a "developer" build with tests and checks using OpenSSL 3.0
> make devB   # Configure a "developer" build with tests and checks using OpenSSL 3.0
> make test   # Builds and runs tests
> make format # Runs clang-format over the source

Conventions

• Following Mozilla clang-format style. If you use the top-level Makefile (as suggested above), it will auto-format for you.
• General naming conventions:
  • Camel case for classes (RatchetNode)
  • Snake case for variables, functions, members (derive_epoch_keys)
  • Private member variables start with underscore (_)
  • In general, prefer descriptive names

OpenSSL / BoringSSL

MLS++ requires OpenSSL of at least version 1.1.1, or BoringSSL compatible with the same requirement. MLS++ is compatible with OpenSSL >= 3.0.

Pass OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR to guide CMake to select a specific OpenSSL/BoringSSL installation. You may also need to specify OPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR, OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY, and OPENSSL_SSL_LIBRARY depending on the file and folder structure of your installation. When manually passing OPENSSL_* options one should carefully verify that both the includes and libraries match the expected installation.