rns.recipes

I keep finding huge bugs in BeechatNetworkSystems's Rust reticulum implementation. I've been experimenting with using it as a backend for a public interface, however keep running into issues.

I've fixed one major issue, and "helped" another moderate one... but haven't gotten much of a response from them.

• https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/Reticulum-rs/issues/95
• https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/Reticulum-rs/issues/92

Just tossing this out there. The code is pretty solid, and just needs a little love... but it seems like so far Beechat Network Systems is no longer reviewing PRs?

There is some work being done on one of the branches to be fair https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/Reticulum-rs/tree/channel after no commits for a while, so I think the devs are just intermittently checking and updating stuff cause it's just not that popular yet.

Alternative ("yet another Rust port"): https://github.com/ratspeak/rsReticulum

kallisti5 wrote:

I keep finding huge bugs in BeechatNetworkSystems's Rust reticulum implementation. I've been experimenting with using it as a backend for a public interface, however keep running into issues.

I've fixed one major issue, and "helped" another moderate one... but haven't gotten much of a response from them.

• https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/Reticulum-rs/issues/95
• https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/Reticulum-rs/issues/92

Just tossing this out there. The code is pretty solid, and just needs a little love... but it seems like so far Beechat Network Systems is no longer reviewing PRs?

I came to the same conclusion as you; my read is that they ported enough for their drone/kaonic stuff needs and just have little incentive to push on a really complete parity implementation (no shade, that's how it goes sometimes). There are definitely other Rust efforts that seem more committed to a true parity impl

I spent the afternoon just working on my fork of it :'-) Added support for rnstransport.probes (aka respond_to_probes).

• https://github.com/GhostMeshLabs/reticulum-rs

My Reticulum router using the library (functional!)

• https://github.com/GhostMeshLabs/reticulum-router

I love reticulum and the design, but the way the Python code was designed has always been the "eew" factor.

kallisti5 wrote:

I spent the afternoon just working on my fork of it :'-) Added support for rnstransport.probes (aka respond_to_probes).

• https://github.com/GhostMeshLabs/reticulum-rs

My Reticulum router using the library (functional!)

• https://github.com/GhostMeshLabs/reticulum-router

I love reticulum and the design, but the way the Python code was designed has always been the "eew" factor.

Seeing the journey and how it all got here, I really do think Python was absolutely the right tool for the job. It's easy in retrospect to see how clear it is now, but that's only because that reference impl exists; and there's a very good chance it never would have existed if a systems lang was used from the beginning.

BUt more importantly, the ecosystem definitely welcomes other implementations! It's a little chaotic and fragmented right now, but that's only because there's actually a lot of deep interest, and the system is so good it holds its own, so I think people see the very deep value in it. Good problems to have, basically.

quick q: are you trying to push toward a fully usable Rust impl, or was a lot of this in part the joy and intrigue of contributing? (i have a specific reason I'm asking, I promise haha)

KenAKAFrosty wrote:

quick q: are you trying to push toward a fully usable Rust impl, or was a lot of this in part the joy and intrigue of contributing? (i have a specific reason I'm asking, I promise haha)

Yup! I want a small, usable Rust implementation. I really do think Reticulum implemented within a compiled language like Rust will help it take off.

I agree wholeheartedly about the Python implementation being a great proving ground for Reticulum as an idea.. but i'm not a fan of how it transformed into a monolith. Things can get confusing quick when you mix in MeshChat, RNode interfaces, etc.

Update: I just implemented TCPServerInterface discoverability within reticulum-router :-)

also, I just had a revelation that it would be pretty easy to attack Reticulum as it stands. It wouldn't take much to:

• Rapidly generate random identities
• Rapidly broadcast discovery packets with random bind_host / bind_ports / names

I just tossed this out into the ether without any real checks on receiving clients from reticulum-router...

[[Local]]
type = BackboneInterface
enabled = yes
remote = 0.0.0.0
target_port = 4242
transport_identity = 82bbad92048a9e5c05a58a27cfbeddb9

https://rns.wirebase.org/?selected=82bbad92048a9e5c05a58a27cfbeddb9

Anyway... The experimental Rust Reticulum node is at e41accf45983432cf5c9ee667bd1e77f and announcing. Feel free to use it! (or try and break it)

kallisti5 wrote:

also, I just had a revelation that it would be pretty easy to attack Reticulum as it stands. It wouldn't take much to:

• Rapidly generate random identities
• Rapidly broadcast discovery packets with random bind_host / bind_ports / names

I just tossed this out into the ether without any real checks on receiving clients from reticulum-router...

[[Local]]
type = BackboneInterface
enabled = yes
remote = 0.0.0.0
target_port = 4242
transport_identity = 82bbad92048a9e5c05a58a27cfbeddb9

https://rns.wirebase.org/?selected=82bbad92048a9e5c05a58a27cfbeddb9

This is pretty much the reason for announcements being cap to 2% of the traffic but it's not that great of a solution, you might not brick the entire network but anyone trying to connect for the first time in your local area might be screwed for a bit while you are spamming. Announcements are kinda the riskiest thing in reticulum because of the flood filling, I could imagine that they might require some kind of proof of work similar to how interface announcements work today or some other more clever solutions (if a transport node is getting 150 new announcements per second from one backbone interface client, maybe it's best to rate limit them)

There is rate limiting in place. https://reticulum.miraheze.org/wiki/Announce#Rate_limiting

I believe this is what shows up as held announces in rnstatus.

joakim wrote:

There is rate limiting in place. https://reticulum.miraheze.org/wiki/Announce#Rate_limiting

I believe this is what shows up as held announces in rnstatus.

Ah ok, I had the realization late last night but didn't dig into it too far. I also just confirmed the BeeChatNetworkSystems implementation already has the Announce limit implemented

kallisti5 wrote:

KenAKAFrosty wrote:
> quick q: are you trying to push toward a fully usable Rust impl, or was a lot of this in part the joy and intrigue of contributing? (i have a specific reason I'm asking, I promise haha)

Yup! I want a small, usable Rust implementation. I really do think Reticulum implemented within a compiled language like Rust will help it take off.

I agree wholeheartedly about the Python implementation being a great proving ground for Reticulum as an idea.. but i'm not a fan of how it transformed into a monolith. Things can get confusing quick when you mix in MeshChat, RNode interfaces, etc.

Update: I just implemented TCPServerInterface discoverability within reticulum-router :-)

Ok gotcha! For clarity though, what do you mean by small, here? (it's a bit oblique, but I'm gathering you might be actually thinking more perf-focused? some of the other stuff you've mentioned like stress testing etc. gives me that impression)