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Paaster

Paaster is a secure by default end-to-end encrypted pastebin built with the objective of simplicity.

Preview

Features

• End to end encryption.
• Memory efficient.
• File drag & drop.
• Shortcuts.
• Paste history.
• Fast.
• Delete after view or X amount of time.

Looking to build a client for paaster?

Check out our Integration documentation

Security

What is E2EE?

E2EE or end to end encryption is a zero trust encryption methodology. When you paste code into paaster the code is encrypted locally with a secret generated on your browser. This secret is never shared with the server & only people you share the link with can view the paste.

Can I trust a instance of paaster not hosted by me?

No. Anyone could modify the functionality of paaster to expose your secret key to the server. We recommend using a instance you host or trust.

How are client secrets stored?

Client-sided secrets are stored in localStorage on paste creation (for paste history.) Anything else would be retrievable by the server or be overly complicated. This does make paaster vulnerable to malicious javascript being executed, but this would require malicious javascript to be present when the svelte application is built. If this was the case you'd have bigger issues, like the module just reading all inputs & getting the plain text paste.

How are client secrets transported?

Paaster uses URI fragments to transport secrets, according to the Mozilla foundation URI fragments aren't meant to be sent to the server. Bitwarden also has a article covering this usage here.

How are server secrets stored?

Server-sided secrets are stored in localStorage on paste creation, allowing you to modify or delete pastes later on. Server-sided secrets are generated on the server using the python secrets module & are stored in the database using bcrypt hashing.

Cipher

paaster is built using the forge module, using AES-256 in CBC mode with PKCS7 padding & PBKDF2 key derivation at 50,000 iterations. More details are located in our Integration documentation.

Shortcuts

• Ctrl+V - Paste code.
• Ctrl+S - Download code as file.
• Ctrl+A - Copy all code to clipboard.
• Ctrl+X - Copy URL to clipboard.

Requesting features

• Open a new issue to request a feature (one issue per feature.)

What we won't add

• Paste editing.
  • paaster isn't a text editor, it's a pastebin.
• Paste button.
  • paaster isn't a text editor, when code is inputted it will always be automatically uploaded.
• Optional encryption.
  • paaster will never have opt-in / opt-out encryption, encryption will always be present.

Setup

Production with Docker

• git clone --branch Production https://github.com/WardPearce/paaster
• Configure docker-compose.yml
• Proxy exposed ports using Nginx (or whatever reverse proxy you prefer.)
• FRONTEND_PROXIED should be the proxied address for "paaster_frontend". E.g. for paaster.io this is "https://paaster.io"
• VITE_BACKEND should be the proxied address for "paaster_starlette". E.g. for paaster.io this is "https://api.paaster.io"
• sudo docker-compose build; sudo docker-compose up -d

Using Rclone

Using rclone with Docker Compose

Basically the most important part is to install fuse, create /var/lib/docker-plugins/rclone/config & /var/lib/docker-plugins/rclone/cache, install the docker plugin docker plugin install rclone/docker-volume-rclone:amd64 args="-v" --alias rclone --grant-all-permissions, configure the rclone.conf for the storage service you want to use & then configure your docker compose to use the rclone volume. Example rclone docker compose.

Production without docker

This setup is not recommended & requires more research / knowledge.

• git clone --branch Production https://github.com/WardPearce/paaster.
• cd paaster-frontend
• Create .env
  • VITE_NAME - The name displayed on the website.
  • VITE_BACKEND - The URL of the API.
• Install nodejs
  • npm install
  • npm run build
• Serve files generated in dist with Nginx (or whatever reverse proxy you use.)
• cd paaster-backend
• Install Python 3.7+
  • pip3 install -r requirements.txt
  • Configure main.py following the guide for uvicorn.
• Pass environmental variables
  • REDIS_HOST
  • REDIS_PORT
  • MONGO_IP
  • MONGO_PORT
  • MONGO_DB
  • FRONTEND_PROXIED - The URL of the Frontend.
• Proxy port with Nginx (or whatever reverse proxy you use.)

Development

• git clone https://github.com/WardPearce/paaster.
• cd paaster-frontend
• Create .env
  • VITE_NAME - The name displayed on the website.
  • VITE_BACKEND - The URL of the API.
• Install nodejs
  • npm install
  • npm run dev
• cd paaster-backend
• Pass environmental variables
  • REDIS_HOST
  • REDIS_PORT
  • MONGO_IP
  • MONGO_PORT
  • MONGO_DB
  • FRONTEND_PROXIED - The URL of the Frontend.
• Install Python 3.7+
  • pip3 install -r requirements.txt
  • Run main.py