🚀 Raftify: Distributed Secure Messaging with RAFT Consensus & gRPC

📌 Project Summary

Raftify is a distributed system that implements leader election, secure message broadcasting, and decentralized decryption using the RAFT consensus algorithm and gRPC.

The system includes:

• A RESTful Core Server that encrypts input data using AES-128
• Multiple Node instances that coordinate using RAFT
• Secure leader selection and decentralized decryption
• Email delivery of decrypted data by the elected leader

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🧠 System Scenario

1. A client calls the REST API:

   curl --location 'http://<CORE_IP>:8080/encrypt' \
   --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
   --data-raw '{
     "email": "user@example.com",
     "plainText": "SensitiveMessage123"
   }'

2. The Core:

   • Encrypts the plainText using AES-128
   • Stores the public key in MySQL (table A)
   • Stores the private key in a separate MySQL database (table B)

3. The Core broadcasts the email and publicKey to all nodes using gRPC.

4. Each node:

   • Acknowledges readiness and exchanges votes
   • Runs RAFT to elect a leader
   • Reports the chosen leader to the Core via gRPC

5. The Core:

   • Waits for at least ⌈n/2⌉ + 1 confirmations + a leader self-confirmation
   • Sends the private key only to the elected leader

6. The leader node:

   • Decrypts the message using its received private key + stored public key

   • Sends a formatted email to the user via SMTP containing:

     Decrypted Information
     Node Name: node-1
     
     Decrypted Text: SensitiveMessage123
     
     Public Key: f410c7bb8f59a0db8d794868b0eaac81f282aae0ab20e1cd488d57bc9373fcd9
     
     Random Value: 1745635625
     
     Timestamp: 2025-07-31 16:56:15
     

---

⚙️ Architecture

flowchart TD
    A[Client REST Request] --> B[Core Server]
    B --> C[(DB: Encrypted Text + Keys)]
    B --> D[Broadcast PublicKey + Email]
    D --> E1[Node-1]
    D --> E2[Node-2]
    D --> E3[Node-N]
    E1 --> F[RAFT Election]
    E2 --> F
    E3 --> F
    F --> G[gRPC Back to Core: Leader Report]
    G --> H[Core Sends PrivateKey to Leader]
    H --> I[Leader Decrypts + Sends Email]

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⚙️ Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Core Server	Go (REST API + gRPC client/server)
Node Service	Java + Spring Boot (gRPC)
Leader Election	RAFT Algorithm
Messaging	gRPC over HTTP/2
Config Format	YAML
Service Control	systemd on Linux
Databases	MySQL (two DBs for key separation)
Encryption	AES-128 (symmetric encryption)
Email Delivery	SMTP (configurable server)

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📦 Setup & Deployment

A full deployment is automated using a Bash script: setup.sh

🔧 Step-by-step:

1. Extract file

2. Make script executable (if not already):

   chmod +x setup.sh

3. Run script:

   ./setup.sh

4. Enter number of node you want:

   ✅ All existing services removed.
    🔧 How many nodes do you want? [1-20]

5. Done all node create in /opt/Raftify

if you want to delete software just run delete.sh script

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🧪 Testing the System

1. Test the REST Encryption API

Send a POST request to the Core server’s REST endpoint to encrypt a plaintext message:

curl --location 'http://<CORE_SERVER_IP>:8080/encrypt' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
  "email": "Parsa10007@gmail.com",
  "plainText": "Skkkpalkam"
}'

• Replace <CORE_SERVER_IP> with your Core server IP or hostname.

• This request will trigger encryption, key storage, and broadcast to nodes.

2. Verify Node Status

Check if all raft-node services are running:

systemctl status raft-node-1
systemctl status raft-node-2
# ... up to the number of nodes you created

3. Confirm Email Delivery

Check the recipient email inbox for a message like this:

  Decrypted Information
  Node Name: node-1

  Decrypted Text: Skkkpalkam

  Public Key: f410c7bb8f59a0db8d794868b0eaac81f282aae0ab20e1cd488d57bc9373fcd9

 Random Value: 1745635625

 Timestamp: 2025-07-31 16:56:15

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🎓 Academic Context

This project is part of a Bachelor’s Final Project in Distributed Systems, designed to simulate real-world secure coordination using consensus protocols and microservice communication.

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📬 Contact

• Author: Parsa (پارسا)
• Email: parsa10007@gmail.com
• LinkedIn/GitHub: [(https://github.com/GavinRuff007)]