Details

Reviewers

tomek
• max

Commits

rCOMMc7d243a7d1a2: [web] Add function (and an 'enum') for creating unique device ID on web

Summary

Add a function and an auxiliary 'enum' (created via Object.freeze) for creating unique
device ID in javascript/flow.
Linear issue: https://linear.app/comm/issue/ENG-1279/initialize-deviceid-on-clients

Test Plan

Run provided tests.

Diff Detail

Repository

rCOMM Comm

Branch

inka/userID

Lint

No Lint Coverage

Unit

No Test Coverage

Event Timeline

There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden. Show Older Changes

Change UUID to ID in all names for clarity

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B10784: Diff 14825.Jul 25 2022, 1:33 AM

In D4587#131995, @ashoat wrote:

I shouldn't be a first-pass reviewer except in cases listed here. It previously made sense to include me since you were updating copy, but now that the work is not copy-related I should be left off the review

Right, I'll get more familiar with the Notion notes to get things like this right in the future.

inka added a child revision: D4616: [native] Add a function for creating unique device ID on mobile in cpp/jsi.Jul 25 2022, 3:28 AM

Thanks for changing the UUID to ID @inka !

In D4587#131634, @max wrote:

I think we should change the function from getDeviceUUID to generateDeviceID because we are generating it here not getting it.

Following my previous comment, I'm pretty sure that the best name for such function is generateDeviceID and not get... because we are not getting it from the storage or from somewhere, we are generating it.
For me, the current function name is pretty confusing.

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Jul 25 2022, 4:35 AM

• max added inline comments.Jul 25 2022, 5:25 AM

web/utils/device-uuid.js
12 ↗	(On Diff #14774)	Actually since I've been using a hex encoding for now, I believe this was correct. 32 bytes = 832 bits = 464 bits = 64 hex digits. (I've also checked manually that it does produce 64 hex digits) But again - I'm not sure about the encoding. If hex is ok, then I think we should change the regex in tunnelbroker to accept only hex format. I've re-checked it, it returns a 64 characters string. Sorry about this, the hex is ok.
15 ↗	(On Diff #14774)	The last thing is that we have a format like `prefix:suffix`, please check the comment in ENG-1279. And you need to check if the value from your function is valid in our regex which I've mentioned in the task comment. It's actually not, because you have `-` delimiter instead of `:` so the regex always fails.

inka added inline comments.Jul 25 2022, 5:32 AM

web/utils/device-uuid.js
15 ↗	(On Diff #14774)	Right, I'll fix that. Thank you!

Fix the return value to match the specification

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B10788: Diff 14832.Jul 25 2022, 6:05 AM

• max added inline comments.Jul 25 2022, 8:01 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
12 ↗	(On Diff #14832)	Thanks for the changes! Why we've updated the string to the upper case?

tomek requested changes to this revision.Jul 25 2022, 9:11 AM

tomek added inline comments.

web/utils/device-id.js
12 ↗	(On Diff #14832)	The regex mentioned by @max https://github.com/CommE2E/comm/blob/f074a9c13b3ba5c33cbdb9a4c1bde54f0d7330ce/services/tunnelbroker/src/Constants.h#L48 contains 64 chars `[a-zA-Z0-9]` (so about 62 chars to choose from). It gives `62^64` (about `2^384`) possible ids. The solution with 32 random bytes gives only `8^32` = `2^96` possible ids. It is still plenty, but we decrease the number significantly. Could you find a solution where we choose from the whole available space of valid ids?

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Jul 25 2022, 9:11 AM

inka added inline comments.Jul 26 2022, 12:17 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
12 ↗	(On Diff #14832)	I've changed to uppercase because on mobile we already had a function creating random hex strings but it produces uppercase hex. Regardless, I'll change that according to Tomek's comment, so it's no longer relevant.

Change how the ID is generated

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B10851: Diff 14914.Jul 26 2022, 1:16 AM

tomek requested changes to this revision.Jul 26 2022, 2:53 AM

tomek added inline comments.

web/utils/device-id.js
15–21	Splitting this string isn't necessary - you can use `charAt` function of string
16–19	It is a good idea to give every constant a meaningful name - create a `const`. It is especially important when the same value is used in multiple places.
20	The generated chars aren't uniformly distributed: the number of available symbols doesn't divide number of possible values of byte (62 doesn't divide 256). This causes an issue when using this logic, because some chars would appear more often than others (`0` will be used when byte value is `0`, `62`, `124`, `186`, and `248`, at the same time `Z` will be used when the value is `61`, `123`, `185`, and `247`, so we can expect `0` to be `25%` more frequent than `Z`). Generating secure, uniform string is complicated and it might be a good idea to search for a library that does that. But in our case the uniformity isn't required - the lack of it slightly changes the probability of some ids, but it shouldn't be a threat to our security. I'd probably keep the current implementation, but I'm also curious what @ashoat thinks about it.

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Jul 26 2022, 2:53 AM

tomek mentioned this in D4616: [native] Add a function for creating unique device ID on mobile in cpp/jsi.Jul 26 2022, 3:00 AM

Cleanup code - add a constant and remove redundant code

inka added inline comments.Jul 26 2022, 5:01 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
20	We have code that does it in the same way in native/cpp/CommonCpp/CryptoTools/Tools.cpp (https://github.com/CommE2E/comm/blob/master/native/cpp/CommonCpp/CryptoTools/Tools.cpp#:~:text=Tools%3A%3A-,generateRandomString,-(size_t%20size%2C) So if we change it I suppose we should change it in this file as well

inka retitled this revision from Add function (and an 'enum') for creating unique device ID in js to [web] Add function (and an 'enum') for creating unique device ID in js.Jul 26 2022, 5:10 AM

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B10881: Diff 14959.Jul 26 2022, 5:14 AM

tomek accepted this revision.Jul 26 2022, 5:47 AM

tomek added inline comments.

web/utils/device-id.js
31 ↗	(On Diff #14959)	It might be a good idea to return `null` here, or even throw - we should never expect this code to be executed. Probably returning `null` is better, because the code that calls this function can then decide what to do with the result - if throwing is a good solution. Returning an empty string isn't ideal solution because the client should be warned that this function might fail. If we simply return empty string, it can get accepted and used without checking if it's empty - for optional string an explicit action needs to be performed.

Adding @ashoat because we need to decide if having non-uniform distribution of ids is good enough for us.

I think we should find a way to generate a uniform distribution of IDs here... hopefully it isn't too hard. I think this is a good idea:

Generating secure, uniform string is complicated and it might be a good idea to search for a library that does that.

If this ends up being too difficult, I'm open to landing this. But would be great to do a little bit of research first to see if we can find something.

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Jul 26 2022, 11:18 AM

inka added a parent revision: D4655: [web] Add a library for generating secure random strings.Jul 27 2022, 7:09 AM

inka added a parent revision: D4731: [web] Add a function for generating random strings.Aug 3 2022, 6:58 AM

Rewrite the function to make the random part of the ID
uniformly distributed

inka retitled this revision from [web] Add function (and an 'enum') for creating unique device ID in js to [web] Add function (and an 'enum') for creating unique device ID on web.Aug 3 2022, 7:20 AM

inka edited the summary of this revision. (Show Details)

inka edited the test plan for this revision. (Show Details)

inka removed a reviewer: ashoat. inka added 1 blocking reviewer(s): tomek.

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B11085: Diff 15264.Aug 3 2022, 7:31 AM

tomek requested changes to this revision.Aug 3 2022, 8:59 AM

tomek added inline comments.

web/utils/device-id.js
27 ↗	(On Diff #15264)	What do you think about making it consistent with `generateRandomString` by adding an invariant at the beginning of the function?
web/utils/device-id.test.js
10 ↗	(On Diff #15264)	Maybe use `deviceIDTypes.KEYSERVER` instead? Also, this line exceeds our limit (80 chars). It could be the case that prettier is ok with that because this is a test description, but it might be a good idea to check if we can reduce this length (by e.g. splitting this string into multiple lines).
13 ↗	(On Diff #15264)	Using https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Template_literals could make this more readable

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Aug 3 2022, 8:59 AM

ashoat added inline comments.Aug 3 2022, 9:56 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
27 ↗	(On Diff #15264)	We should avoid throwing raw strings, please throw `Error`s

inka added inline comments.Aug 4 2022, 1:40 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
27 ↗	(On Diff #15264)	Since it is not possible anyway for `type` to not be one of `deviceIDTypes.KEYSERVER`, `deviceIDTypes.WEB`, `deviceIDTypes.MOBILE` (as it is of type `DeviceIDType`), and the throw was only there so that flow wouldn't show "Cannot expect string as the return type of function because string [1] is incompatible with implicitly-returned undefined." error, I'll just change the last `else if` to an `else`.

Make the code prettier and more readable

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B11110: Diff 15301.Aug 4 2022, 1:56 AM

This looks great and we're really close to finishing it!

web/utils/device-id.js
20–26 ↗	(On Diff #15301)	We're using `false` so that an invariant would always be violated. We want that because, in every valid scenario, we should return before it.
27 ↗	(On Diff #15264)	The issue with this approach is that introducing new `DeviceIDType` becomes a lot harder. This function won't warn a programmer that a new value should be handled in a different way and instead would happily return `mobile...` for it. I think we should keep `else if` and add an invariant. We can put it at the bottom to avoid the duplication in logic.

This revision now requires changes to proceed.Aug 4 2022, 2:04 AM

Fix the casing logic in generateDeviceID

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B11113: Diff 15304.Aug 4 2022, 4:25 AM

tomek accepted this revision.Aug 4 2022, 5:35 AM

Add an empty line after @flow

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B11117: Diff 15308.Aug 4 2022, 6:30 AM

Looks ok to me with a few minor comments.

web/utils/device-id.js
17 ↗	(On Diff #15308)	Not sure we need to repeat `DEVICEID_CHAR_LENGTH` twice.
30 ↗	(On Diff #15308)	I think the comment should look like this.

This revision is now accepted and ready to land.Aug 4 2022, 7:06 AM

• max added inline comments.Aug 4 2022, 7:09 AM

web/utils/device-id.test.js
28 ↗	(On Diff #15308)	It seems like we're repeating the same regex 3 times. It's a good point to create one and reuse it.

inka added inline comments.Aug 4 2022, 7:16 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
30 ↗	(On Diff #15308)	I think since the function accepts DeviceIDType, and as such accepts only values that actually are present in the deviceIDTypes, reaching this point means that the function doesn't handle all types declared in deviceIDTypes. So it actually makes more sense to say "Unhandled" - it's an information for the developer that the function has to be corrected, to handle all declared types.

Clean up code

• max added inline comments.Aug 4 2022, 7:26 AM

web/utils/device-id.js
30 ↗	(On Diff #15308)	I think since the function accepts DeviceIDType, and as such accepts only values that actually are present in the deviceIDTypes, reaching this point means that the function doesn't handle all types declared in deviceIDTypes. So it actually makes more sense to say "Unhandled" - it's an information for the developer that the function has to be corrected, to handle all declared types. Ok, lets use the original one.