Implementation of a web-based data collection and aggregation infrastructure that utilizes secure multi-party computation techniques to allow individual contributors to submit their data without revealing it to the other participants.

• Node.js
• MongoDB
• JIFF (Bundled as a Git submodule)

These instructions are for demonstration and development purposes only. For a full, secure deployment, follow one of the two full instructions below.

• Install and start MongoDB
• Clone WEB-MPC

git clone https://github.com/BU-Spark/web-mpc.git
cd web-mpc/

• Clone the JIFF submodule

git submodule init
git submodule update

• Install WEB-MPC dependencies

npm install

• Install JIFF dependencies

cd jiff/
npm install
cd ../

Note that installing WEB-MPC dependencies will break JIFF's dependencies. Hence, JIFF dependencies must be installed at least once after each install of WEB-MPC dependencies.

• Select the WEB-MPC deployment. See the Deployments section
• Start the WEB-MPC server

npm start

• Navigate to the website at https://localhost:8080

These instructions are written for an GCP Compute Engine instance running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It should also allow SSH on port 22 and TCP on port 8080.

• SSH onto the Compute Engine instance
• First, install the Node.js version manager and activate it

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash
. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

• Next, install the latest version of Node.js. This also installs the Node package manager (npm).

nvm install node

• Install MongoDB: https://www.mongodb.com/docs/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-ubuntu/
• Clone the WEB-MPC repository

git clone https://github.com/BU-Spark/web-mpc.git
cd web-mpc/

• Set up the JIFF submodule:

git submodule init
git submodule update

• Install WEB-MPC dependencies

npm install

• Install JIFF dependencies

cd jiff/
npm install
cd ../

Note that installing WEB-MPC dependencies will break JIFF's dependencies. Hence, JIFF dependencies must be installed at least once after each install of WEB-MPC dependencies.

• Install the forever global dependency to ensure the server runs continuously

npm install -g forever

• Install authbind:

sudo apt-get install -y authbind

• Next, set up the database file and start the MongoDB server:

sudo mkdir -p /data/db
sudo mongod &

• Select the WEB-MPC deployment. See the Deployments section
• Start the WEB-MPC server

cd server/
authbind --deep forever start -o log.txt -e error.txt index.js

• Navigate to the domain or to the Compute Engine instance's public IP address to view the page

The application does not work over HTTP traffic. In order to enable HTTPS:

• Add an DNS A record to the VM's external IP
• SSH into Compute Engine
• Install Nginx

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

• Configure Nginx to serve node app

sudo su -
cd ..
cd /etc/nginx/sites-available
touch myserver.config

• Open the configuration file

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/myserver.config

• Paste in the following configuration

#The Nginx server instance
server{
    listen 80;
    server_name your.domain;
    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

• Enable the configuration file

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myserver.config /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

• Obtain the SSL/TLS certificate

apt-get update
sudo apt-get install certbot
apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d myserver.com -d

• Restart Nginx and allow access through firewall

sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

• Restart the app server

authbind --deep forever start -o log.txt -e error.txt index.js

These instructions describe steps to deploy WEB-MPC on a local machine.

• Install and start MongoDB
• Clone WEB-MPC

git clone https://github.com/BU-Spark/web-mpc.git
cd web-mpc/

• Clone the JIFF submodule

git submodule init
git submodule update

• Install WEB-MPC dependencies

npm install

• Install JIFF dependencies

cd jiff/
npm install
cd ../

Note that installing WEB-MPC dependencies will break JIFF's dependencies. Hence, JIFF dependencies must be installed at least once after each install of WEB-MPC dependencies.

• Install the forever global dependency to ensure the server runs continuously

sudo npm install -g forever

• Create the database file:

mkdir -p /data/db

• Start the MongoDB server

mongod

• Set environment variables for a production deployment

export NODE_ENV=production

• Select the WEB-MPC deployment. See the Deployments section
• Start the WEB-MPC server

forever start server/index.js

• Open up the browser and navigate to "localhost:8080"

WEB-MPC supports multiple deployments. A deployment refers to one particular data collection campaign. Each deployment may have different data formats, domain names, and HTTPS certificate settings.

The server/config/ directory contains configuration files for each deployment specifying their respective HTTPS parameters and data templates.

Data templates are .json files that define the structure of the input data. The templates are also used to render the HTML UI. Paths to the each data template is defined in its respective server/config configuration file and are typically located in client/app/data/.

The deployment is set to Pacesetters by default. To change it, set a deployment environment variable.

export WEBMPC_DEPLOYMENT=<deployment_name>

If the deployment template file at server/config/<deployment_name>.json does not exist or is invalid, the server will fail to start.

The instructions below demonstrate how to operate the WEB-MPC application. All steps below are performed on the WEB-MPC web application in the browser.

• Navigate to localhost:8080/create
• Click on Generate Session and save the two given files, one contains the session key and password which are needed for managing the session. The other contains a secret key needed to unmask the results.

• Navigate to localhost:8080/manage
• Input your session key and password
• Generate participation links
• Start the session

• All participants will open a unique participation link, and proceed to fill out the information. Once completed, click Submit.

• Stop the session in localhost:8080/manage
• Click the unmask link
• Paste the session key and password in its designated fields
• Click Browse and upload the private key file that was downloaded when generating the session key
• Click Unmask Data and view the result

WEB-MPC has end-to-end tests verifying each deployment. To run the full test suite on Linux or Mac OS, run the following command:

npm run test

The test automatically spawns the appropriate server and runs the end-to-end tests for each deployment, shutting down the previous server in between tests.

Node.js is not able to kill the previous server on Windows. Hence, each test suite must be run separately.

To run a specific test suite, run the specific suite with mocha:

mocha test/selenium/<deployment_name>.js

or run the test with a filter:

npm run test -- --grep <test_suite_name>

For example, to run the BWWC tests, run one of the following:

mocha test/selenium/bwwc.js
npm run test -- --grep BWWC

WEB-MPC is freely distributable under the terms of the MIT license. This release supports Handsontable's "Nested headers", a Pro feature. A valid license must be obtained when using this feature.