The junk marker was a per-key CONSTANT sent in plaintext at a fixed offset in
junk frames. Junk is meant to look like random noise (zapret-style), but a
constant prefix is a recognizable per-user structure: an on-path observer
watching one user sees the same 4 bytes on every junk packet, i.e. an OSTP
fingerprint. (The earlier fix only removed the GLOBAL constant.)
Now the marker rotates every 60s window: junk_marker = HKDF(key, ver, 0x04 ||
window). To an observer the prefix changes each window (no fixed signature),
and a captured marker is only valid for ~1 window — the "bit of protection"
against a leaked marker. Only a key holder can compute it, so an outsider still
can't forge a silently-dropped junk packet (and silent-drop is cheaper than
normal processing anyway, so junk spam was never a DoS lever to begin with).
- core: derive_junk_marker(key, window) + current_junk_window() (60s window),
same version-gated HKDF scheme; junk_marker dropped from DerivedSecrets.
- client: stamps junk with the current window's marker.
- server: checks current AND previous window per key (absorbs ~1 window of
clock skew) before falling through to unauthorized-probe handling.
- Not a wire break: only junk framing changes; real handshake/data untouched.
During mixed rollout, unmatched junk merely logs as a probe (cosmetic).
security / protocol:
- Derive a PER-KEY junk marker (obfuscation.rs, info byte 0x04) instead of the
global constant [0x88,0x1A,0x93,0x5D]. A fixed marker was a universal DPI
signature identifying ALL OSTP users at once — exactly what the HKDF version
gate avoids for the handshake. Server drops junk via a new DispatchOutcome::Junk
inside the existing key-trial loop (secrets already derived → zero extra cost);
client stamps its own key's marker.
- §E: configurable junk/fragmentation params (junk_pc / junk_ps / frag_chunk / frag_sleep).
GUI (desktop):
- Light theme + toggle, GUI version footer in Settings.
- Fix mouse-wheel scroll on Settings (flex child needed min-height: 0).
- Drop the false "process exclusions unsupported in TUN mode" warning — they DO
work (native_handler maps port->process via GetExtendedTcpTable).
release / infra:
- build.ps1: add -PreRelease (tag CURRENT version as v<ver>-beta.N, no bump, no
master commit); guard the panel build when ostp-control ships no source; bump
the real ostp-gui/package.json instead of the nonexistent ostp-control one.
- release.yml: mark hyphenated tags as GitHub pre-releases; don't hard-fail the
web-panel step when there is no source (use committed dist/).
- Versions aligned to 0.4.1; README license badge BSL 1.1 -> AGPL v3.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Applied Kerckhoffs's principle: the protocol's security and obfuscation
now depend SOLELY on the access key. An adversary who reverse-engineers
the binary cannot build a DPI filter without knowing the key.
Changes:
- Replaced hardcoded salt string ('-ostp-psk-salt') with HKDF-SHA256.
The salt is now derived from the key hash itself — no protocol-specific
strings remain in the binary.
- Unified all secret derivation into derive_all_secrets() which produces
PSK, obfuscation key, and handshake padding range from a single HKDF
invocation.
- Handshake padding range is now key-derived: different access keys
produce different size distributions (min: 16-79, max: +48..+175).
A universal size-based filter is impossible without the key.
- HKDF-SHA256 (RFC 5869) implemented inline using existing hmac+sha2
dependencies — no new crate required.
What remains identifiable in the binary:
- 'Noise_NNpsk0_25519_ChaChaPoly_BLAKE2s' — standard Noise pattern
string, shared with many other projects, NOT OSTP-specific.
- Generic HMAC/SHA-256/ChaCha20-Poly1305 code — standard crypto
primitives used by millions of applications.
Previously handshake obfuscation used a FIXED mask derived from
HMAC(obf_key, u64::MAX). This meant bytes [4..6] (noise_len XOR
fixed_mask) produced the SAME 2-byte value on every handshake from
the same access key — a correlation fingerprint for DPI.
Now BOTH data and handshake packets use the same payload-sampling
approach:
mask = HMAC-SHA256(obf_key, payload_sample[0..32])
For data packets: payload_sample = AEAD ciphertext (random per packet)
For handshake packets: payload_sample = Noise ephemeral key (random per connection)
Result: every single byte on the wire is cryptographically independent
across packets. No fixed patterns, no correlation between connections.
Wire analysis after this change:
- Packet sizes: random (84-182 for handshake, variable for data)
- All header bytes: unique per packet (XOR with unique HMAC mask)
- Payload bytes: AEAD ciphertext / Noise handshake (indistinguishable from random)
- No protocol signatures, no version fields, no magic bytes visible on wire
The previous commit added random padding after Noise handshake payloads
but the receiver passed the entire raw buffer (including padding) to
snow::read_handshake(), which cannot handle trailing bytes.
New wire format:
[session_id:4][noise_len:2][noise_payload:N][random_padding:32-128]
Changes:
- wrap_datagram_handshake: puts noise_len (u16 BE) at bytes [4..6]
before the Noise payload, followed by 32-128 random padding bytes
- handle_inbound: reads noise_len from [4..6], passes only
raw_vec[6..6+noise_len] to snow, ignoring trailing padding
- obfuscation: handshake mask extended from 4 to 6 bytes to also
cover the noise_len field (prevents DPI from seeing constant u16)
- dispatcher: key-trial loop updated to deobfuscate 6-byte header
Both client and server now produce/consume the same padded format.
Critical fixes (6):
- protocol.rs: in_flight_count() now counts only retransmittable Data frames,
not Ack/Nack control frames — eliminates false backpressure under load
- protocol.rs: NACK is now rate-limited to once per 30ms — prevents
retransmission storm during normal UDP jitter
- protocol.rs: zombie frames exceeding max_retries+4 are evicted each tick —
prevents unbounded memory growth and stale retransmits
- protocol.rs: Closing state now processes final in-flight packets instead
of silently dropping them — prevents data loss at session teardown
- server/lib.rs: stream_tx changed from bounded(10000) to unbounded_channel —
prevents TCP-reader collapse during Speedtest with 50+ streams
- bridge.rs: liveness timeout raised from 30s to 60s — prevents false
reconnect during heavy Speedtest load
Medium fixes (8):
- protocol.rs: ACK range truncation preserves cumulative range (index 0)
- bridge.rs: Ping now uses send_datagram() for correct TURN wrapping
- dispatcher.rs: replay_cache hard-capped at 100k entries (DoS protection)
- dispatcher.rs: old addr cleaned from addr_to_session on roaming
- server/lib.rs: TCP connect_target() now has 10s timeout
- config.rs: TURN section parsed during hot-reload
- proxy.rs: HTTP header parsing uses 512-byte chunks instead of 1-byte reads
- proxy.rs: stream_id wrap-around skips active IDs to prevent collision
- runner.rs: is_essential_log matches actual log strings from bridge.rs
Other:
- kex.rs: clearly marked as dead PQ stub (not used by protocol)
- README.md + README.ru.md: complete rewrite with architecture diagram
- docs/en/specification.md: updated ARQ section with all new semantics
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