CTngV3

README

CTng: Certificate and Revocation Transparency

This is a Proof of Concept/Prototype code for Periodic Consistent Broadcast Protocol in CTng. Each entity can be found in their corresponding folder.

Code Structure

• Monitor, Logger, and CA:
  Each has its own folder containing the corresponding implementation.

• CTngV3/def:
  Contains most variable definitions, wrapper functions, and configuration files for local testing.

• CTngV3/deter:
  Includes the model used on Sphere, configuration files for Sphere testing, a simple Python script for computing convergence time, and the CTngexp folder.

• CTngV3/deter/CTngexp:
  Contains all automation scripts used to:

  • Set up the software toolchain on all VMs on Sphere.
  • Automate experiment execution.
  • Collect and timestamp experiment results.

Software Requirements (for local testing)

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Golang 2.23
• g++ (Ubuntu 11.3.0-1ubuntu1~22.04.1) 11.3.0
• tmux terminal multiplexer

Running Tests Locally

Change the variables in the def/testsettings.json file.

Modify the run.sh file to run more entities.

And execute

sh run.sh 

in the project root directory

Disclaimer:

• 1. Only the Logger related functionalities are actively maintained.
• 1. This repository does not simulate Logger/CA misbehaviors.

Running Tests with Deterlab TestBed (Sphere Research infrastructure)

Link to the testbed:

https://launch.sphere-testbed.net/

Model

The model file creates a star topology as shown in the figure below:

Every entity (including a control node) is connected to the backbone router via a 1000Mbps access link.

Operations from the XDC

1. Generate Inventory

Note: Replace <USERNAME>, <PATH_TO_CTNGEXP>, and <SOURCE_HOST> with your actual details.

You will also need to modify the automation scripts for replication.

1. Open a root shell in a new terminal and navigate to your CTngexp directory:

   cd <PATH_TO_CTNGEXP>
   

   sudo su          
   

2. Generate the Ansible inventory file:

   python3 genini.py   
   

3. Switch back to your non-root user:

   exit              
   

   su <USERNAME>     
   

2. Distribute Playbooks

Distribute the CTngexp folder:

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini distribute.yml  

From the CTngexp directory, run:

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini ssh.yml         

Operations from the control Node

3. Configure Ansible

Create or update an ansible.cfg file in the project root with:

[defaults]
forks = 60
timeout = 60
retry_files_enabled = False
async_poll_interval = 5

[ssh_connection]
pipelining = True

Reminder: If you modify control-node settings or delete this file, recreate it accordingly.

4. Install Prerequisites

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible

5. Bootstrap All Hosts

Run these playbooks to install prerequisites and Go on every host:

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini gpp.yml      
ansible-playbook -i inv.ini newgo.yml    

Verify on any host:

ssh <HOSTNAME>

g++ --version

go version

6. Running Experiments

6.1 Initial checkout/setup

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini repo.yml

6.2 Modify variables

Modify the variables in

CTngV3/deter/gen_test.go

and run (while in CTngV3/deter)

go test

to apply the changes to the control node. The new setting files now need to be distributed to all the other hosts.

6.3 Redistribute

To distribute the new configuration files to other hosts, navigate to

CTngV3/deter/CTngexp

and run

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini redis.yml

To make sure changes are applied properly to all the monitors,open up a new terminal and execute

su jik18001

to switch to user mode and ssh to any monitor by running

ssh monitor8

Then navigate to the CTngV3/deter to check if the changes have been applied by running

cat detersettings.json

6.4 Run and collect result

Nevigate to CTngV3/deter/CTngexp and execute

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini ctngv3.yml

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini collect.yml

or Run experiment for 30 iterations and automatically collect results for every run :

sh run.sh

6.5 compute the result

Navigate to the folder where the output folder is placed in (/tmp), make sure the compute.py is in the same folder (copy from CTngV3/deter/compute.py if not) and run

python3 compute.py output [Replace _with_number_of_monitors]

Clean up temporary files on control node:

rm -rv output output.tar.gz monitor_files 

6 Copy to local machine

Copy from control to XDC:

ansible-playbook -i inv.ini copy.yml

Copy from XDC to local:

mrg xdc scp download -r <path_to_folder_on_XDC> <path_local_destination_folder>

mrg xdc scp download  <path_to_file_on_XDC> <path_local_destination_folder>

Results

We present the results with EEA version with different choice of K (number of data shards), K = f+1 is the results we included in our initial submission to NDSS' 2026 and we later changed to K = floor (n/2) due to its better overall performance. Note that the default version was not modified; thus, the green line in both graphs represents the same data. Any apparent difference is only due to the scaling of the y-axis.

K = f + 1

Results were obtained by Damon James from the University of Connecticut using CTngV3 repository with Commit ID:

fe0941c

Link:

https://github.com/jik18001/CTngV3/commit/fe0941cc115a9085c43b0c48cf64c95086f338dd

K = floor (n/2)

Results were obtained using CTngV3 repository with Commit ID (Only 4 LoC change):

6270562

Link:

https://github.com/jik18001/CTngV3/commit/62705624cb16bdd9e9a7eb46281bc43590a4b61e