# redapricot architecture This document explains *how* redapricot is built and *why*. For the exact bytes on the wire, read [PROTOCOL.md](../PROTOCOL.md). ## 1. Roles and topology ``` ┌───────────────────────── public internet ─────────────────────────┐ │ │ ┌──────────┐ MC handshake (Intent 2/…) ┌───────────────┐ │ │ Player │ ───────────────────────────────▶│ │ │ └──────────┘ raw Minecraft bytes │ Hub │ │ │ (Java/Vert.x)│ │ ┌──────────┐ Intent 17, magic 0x01 │ │ │ │ Client │ ◀──────── control session ──────│ • pattern reg │ │ │ (Go) │ ────────────────────────────────│ • CID table │ │ │ │ Intent 17, magic 0x02 │ • mux demux │ │ │ │ ═════════ worker conns ═════════│ │ │ └──────────┘ multiplexed player streams └───────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ MC bytes (+ optional HAProxy v2) │ ┌───────────────┐ │ │ Real MC server│ (behind NAT, next to the client) │ └───────────────┘ │ ``` Everything reaches the hub on **one TCP port**. The hub distinguishes three kinds of inbound connection purely from the first Minecraft **Handshake**: | Handshake `Intent` | Handled as | |--------------------|------------| | `17` + magic `0x01` | a **control session** from a client | | `17` + magic `0x02` | a **worker connection** from a client | | `18` | reserved (management/status) — never treated as a player | | anything else | a **player** to be pattern-matched and tunneled | Because players use ordinary intents (`1` status, `2` login, `3` transfer), **vanilla clients need no changes**. ## 2. Connection lifecycle ### 2.1 Client establishes a control session ``` Client Hub │ TCP connect │ │─ Handshake(Intent=17, addr=hex(SHA3-224(PSK))) ─▶ verify addr == expected │ │ │ (both derive Phase-A keys = ChaCha20(SHA3-256(PSK ‖ dir))) │─ Frame#1 [magic=0x01, rand, ts] ──────▶ check |now-ts| ≤ window │ (both switch to Phase-B keys = ChaCha20(SHA3-256(rand‖ts ‖ dir))) │◀──────────── Frame [SessionReady] ─────│ │─ Register("mc\.example\.com") ────────▶ patterns["mc\.example\.com"] = (regex, session) │◀──────────── RegisterAck ──────────────│ │ ... periodic Ping/Pong ... │ ``` Only frame #1 is encrypted with the PSK-derived key; a fresh random `rand‖ts` becomes the per-connection key for everything after, so two connections never share a keystream beyond that first frame. ### 2.2 A player arrives and is tunneled ``` Player Hub Client Destination │─ Handshake(addr="mc.example.com", Intent=2)─▶ normalize + regex-match │ (+ maybe pipelined Login Start) │ pause player socket, │ │ buffer bytes, mint CID │ │─ ControlRequest(CID, pattern, ip:port, user) ─▶ │ │ allocate worker+stream │ │◀──────── SYN(streamId, CID) ────────────│ │ │ takePending(CID) → bind dial destination, │ │ forward buffered bytes write HAProxy v2 hdr │ │─ DATA(streamId, handshake…) ───▶ ── handshake ──▶│ │ resume ─────────────────────────────│ bridge stream ⇄ dest │══════════════ player bytes ══ DATA ══▶│════ DATA ═══▶ dest.write │ │◀═══════════ dest bytes ═══ DATA ══════│◀═══ DATA ════ dest.read │ │ player closes ──────────────────────│─ FIN(streamId) ────────▶ close dest │ ``` Key points: * **Patterns are regexes.** Each registered pattern is a case-insensitive regular expression, matched against the *whole* normalized hostname (anchored, first match wins). The hub echoes the **matched pattern string** — not the player's hostname — in `ControlRequest`, so the client can look it straight up in its own route table. Invalid patterns are rejected at registration with a non-zero `RegisterAck` status. * The hub **pauses** the player socket the instant it matches, so no player bytes are lost while the takeover is arranged; the buffered handshake is forwarded **verbatim**, so the real server sees exactly what the player sent (including the original hostname — used for virtual-host routing there). * **CID** is 16 random bytes minted by the hub and delivered only over the encrypted control session, so only the intended client learns it. Any worker connection presenting the correct CID is allowed to take over — that secrecy is what binds a worker stream to the right pending player without any explicit client identity. * Disconnects are symmetric: player-close → hub sends `FIN` → client closes the destination; destination-close → client sends `FIN` → hub closes the player. ## 3. Multiplexing (worker connections) A worker connection is one encrypted TCP link carrying many **streams**. The frame is intentionally tiny (PROTOCOL.md §7): ``` [plaintext VarInt length][ FrameType u8 | StreamID VarInt | Data… ] (payload encrypted) ``` Only the client opens streams (`SYN`), so stream-id allocation is a simple per-connection counter with no coordination. ### 3.1 Pool & allocation The client keeps 1…`maxConn` worker connections and places each new stream on the **least-loaded** one. It opens an additional connection only when the least-loaded connection is *saturated* (more than 8 active streams) and the pool is below `maxConn`: ``` pick least-loaded conn if leastLoaded.streams > 8 and pool.size < maxConn: dial a new worker conn and use it else: use leastLoaded ``` The e2e test `TestConcurrentStreamsUseMultipleConns` drives 20 simultaneous streams with `maxConn=4` and observes them deterministically spread over 3 connections (9 + 9 + 2), confirming the algorithm. ## 4. Encryption * **Cipher:** ChaCha20 (RFC 8439) as a raw stream cipher over frame *payloads*. The length prefix is plaintext, which makes the cipher **phase switch** at rekey trivial (a reader always knows exactly how many ciphertext bytes belong to the current frame and never decrypts the next frame with the wrong key). * **Keys:** `SHA3-256(phaseKey ‖ 0x01)` for client→server and `SHA3-256(phaseKey ‖ 0x02)` for server→client. Distinct per-direction keys with a fixed zero nonce avoid a two-time pad without nonce management. * **Interop:** Java's JCE `ChaCha20` and Go's `x/crypto/chacha20` produce byte- identical keystreams (including across partial-block, arbitrarily-split writes), and both `crypto/sha3` implementations agree — verified directly and pinned by unit tests on both sides against a shared SHA3-224 vector. ## 5. Threading model * **Hub:** a single Vert.x verticle instance. All accepted connections are handled on that verticle's one event loop, so the pattern registry, CID table, and per-connection state are touched by a single thread — no locks on the hot path (concurrent maps are used only defensively). Every socket operation is non-blocking; crypto is CPU-cheap. This trades multi-core scaling for simplicity and correctness. * **Client:** goroutine-per-concern. One goroutine reads each connection (control or worker); `WriteFrame` is mutex-serialized so many stream goroutines can share a worker connection safely. A per-stream mutex guards the small "buffer until the destination is connected, then write directly" handoff so the forwarded handshake never races ahead of later bytes. ## 6. Back-pressure There is no per-stream credit window. Flow is governed by TCP back-pressure on each worker connection: * Hub → player: if a player socket's write queue fills, the hub pauses the worker connection socket and resumes on drain. * Destination → hub: the client's `WriteFrame` blocks when the worker socket is congested, which naturally stops the client reading the destination. The consequence is head-of-line blocking *within* a worker connection: one very slow player can stall other streams sharing that connection. `maxConn` spreads streams across connections to mitigate this. For interactive Minecraft traffic (small client→server packets, bursty server→client chunk data) this is a good trade for a near-zero-overhead mux. ## 7. Failure & recovery * **Control session drop:** the client reconnects with capped exponential backoff and re-registers all patterns. Existing worker connections and their live streams are unaffected. * **Worker connection drop:** every stream on it is torn down (destinations closed); the hub closes the corresponding player sockets; the client removes the connection from the pool and will dial a fresh one on the next allocation. * **Pending timeout:** if no worker takes over a matched player within `pendingTimeoutMs`, the hub drops the pending entry and closes the player. * **Bad PSK / bad timestamp / bad magic:** the hub closes the TCP connection; the client's session establishment fails fast. ## 8. Known limitations 1. No AEAD — payload integrity/authenticity is not cryptographically guaranteed. 2. No per-stream flow control (see §6). 3. Single-event-loop hub (see §5) bounds throughput to one core. 4. `Intent 18` is reserved but only stubbed (the hub logs and closes). 5. Pattern ownership is last-writer-wins; two clients registering the identical pattern string will silently reassign it. Overlapping-but-distinct regexes are both kept, and when several match one hostname the winner is unspecified. These are deliberate scope choices for a connectivity-focused P2P tool, not oversights; each is a small, well-isolated change away from being hardened.