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fah-node

Authenticate, monitor and control your swarm of Folding@home clients remotely

fah-node architecture diagram

*fah-node architecture diagram*

fah-node makes it possible to securely monitor and control swarms of Folding@home clients remotely, no matter where they are on the Internet. A node can be used by more than one user at a time. Multiple nodes are used to distribute the network load.

F@H clients can be configured to connect to and attempt to register with a node. Authorized users can approve nodes via their Folding@home account. Once approved, nodes will automatically appear on your account screen.

Debian Linux Quick Start

Build

The following commands will build and install fah-node on Debian based Linux systems.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y scons build-essential libssl-dev binutils-dev \
  libleveldb-dev libsnappy-dev git nodejs npm bind9-dnsutils ssl-cert

mkdir build
cd build

git clone https://github.com/cauldrondevelopmentllc/cbang
git clone https://github.com/foldingathome/fah-node

export CBANG_HOME=$PWD/cbang

scons -C cbang
scons -C fah-node
scons -C fah-node package

Install

sudo dpkg -i fah-node/fah-node_$(cat fah-node/version.txt)_amd64.deb
sudo fah-node-ports
sudo apt-get install -y iptables-persistent

Setup

Domain name

Add the node's domain name to /etc/fah-node/config.xml.

  <domains>node.example.com</domains>

Setup Google OAuth2

Follow these steps to configure OAuth2 logins for your node:

  1. Go to https://console.developers.google.com/apis/dashboard
  2. Login to your Google account
  3. Create a new project
  4. Configure the OAuth consent screen
  5. Click on Credentials then CREATE CREDENTIALS
  6. Select OAuth client ID
  7. Select Application type: Web application
  8. Give your OAuth application a name
  9. Add the Authorized JavaScript origin: https://node.example.com
  10. Add the Authorized redirect URI: https://node.example.com/login
  11. Click the CREATE button
  12. Note the Client ID and Client secret.

Note, Google tends to change the interface fairly often so you may have to adjust the above described process.

Add the following to your config.xml:

  <google-client-id>YOUR_CLIENT_ID</google-client-id>
  <google-client-secret>YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET</google-client-secret>
  <google-redirect-base>https://node.example.com</google-redirect-base>

Add an admin account

Add one or more email addresses which will have admin access to your node:

  <admins>[email protected]</admins>

Note, admin email addresses must match the OAuth login.

Complete config.xml

Your /etc/fah-node/config.xml should look something like this:

<config>
  <admins>[email protected]</admins>
  <domains>node.example.com</domains>
  <google-client-id>YOUR_CLIENT_ID</google-client-id>
  <google-client-secret>YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET</google-client-secret>
  <google-redirect-base>https://node.example.com</google-redirect-base>
</config>

Increase system open file limit

As root, edit /etc/security/limits.conf. Add the following:

# For F@H AS
* soft nofile 10240
* hard nofile 10240
root soft nofile 10240
root hard nofile 10240

Logout and back in for new limits to take effect.

Start the node

Start the node with:

sudo systemctl start fah-node

Monitor the log file:

sudo tail -F -n 1000 /var/log/fah-node/log.txt

Login to the node

To login, visit your node's web page. E.g. https://node.example.com/. Then click on the protein icon to login. If everything is setup correctly, you should reach the admin web page.

Security

fah-node makes it possible to control many folding clients remotely, so security is of the utmost importance. To ensure that only authorized persons can access the clients in your swarm, fah-node has several layers of security.

Limited actions

The first line of defense is to limit what actions can be performed on the remote clients in your swarm. Authorized users can perform only the following actions on clients in the swarm via a fah-node:

  • Start and stop folding.
  • Change the client's user, project or resource usage settings.
  • View the client's log or protein snapshots.

Client Authentication

To prevent unauthorized clients from joining your swarm, each client must be configured with a swarm token. A swarm token is a time-limited small file that contains secret information which can only be obtained via your Folding@home login. The token allows one or more more clients to request to join your swarm. These clients will appear on your account, at which point you can approve or disapprove their membership in the swarm.

Isolating the swarm from itself

Since the clients in your swarm can exist anywhere on the Internet, it is possible they could be compromised through some other route. For this reason, swarm members are only able to report their status. In the worst case, a compromised client could report false information about itself.

Isolation from the node

Even if the machine a fah-node runs on was compromised or it is run by someone you do not trust, your swarm is still protected. The token used to authenticate your clients with the swarm sets up a secure communication channel that ensures the node itself cannot tamper with or eavesdrop on the communication between your F@H account and your swarm. The worst a hostile fah-node could do is deny remote access to your swarm.

Folding@home account login

Your F@H account is secured via the OAuth2 protocol. This the industry standard security protocol for "federated logins". It allows you to login to your F@H account using an account with Google or other OAuth2 provider.

However, anyone who gains access to your OAuth2 account will have the ability to control your swarm. If this occurs, they will be able to perform the limited actions described above. If you believe your account has been compromised, you can disassociate all your swarm clients and/or close your Folding@home account.

End-to-end double encrypted communication

Each of the following communication channels in the swarm are encrypted using the HTTPS protocol:

  • Browser <-> F@H account
  • F@H account <-> fah-node
  • F@H client <-> fah-node

HTTPS is the protocol used by banks and shopping sites to secure the Internet.

In addition, communication from your browser to your swarm clients via the fah-node is double encrypted using RSA and AES. This prevents the fah-node itself from being able to control or monitor your swarm.