Installation¶
This guide is about installing a public CryptPad instance available on the internet. For instructions about installing and running a local development instance please see the Developer Guide.
Prerequisites¶
Domains¶
2 domains or subdomains are needed to take full advantage of CryptPad’s security features. Please see the domains section below for more details.
Hardware¶
The development team uses and recommends the following hardware requirements as a minimum on the host machine:
Debian 11
2GB RAM
2 CPUs
20GB storage (depending on planned usage)
Avertissement
CryptPad is engineered to maximise privacy, and to minimize the amount of useful information that can be gained even if the host machine is compromised. However it is up to the administrator(s) to ensure that the host machine is secure. The instructions for this are beyond the scope of this guide but best practices include:
Disabling password-based SSH access
Updating the operating system regularly with any security patches
Limiting the number of people who have server access
Avoiding insecure applications running in parallel on the same host
Updating CryptPad itself regularly
Software¶
Before starting the installation, ensure the following software is installed:
GIT
Nodejs (we use the official NodeJs LTS release)
Using nodesource is recommended
NPM
Docker engine (if using Docker, see Install with Docker)
Install Cryptpad¶
Recommended¶
Note
The development team recommends creating a dedicated user to install and run CryptPad in production rather than using the root user.
Clone the CryptPad repository
git clone https://github.com/cryptpad/cryptpad.git cryptpad
Switch to the latest published tag
git checkout $(git tag -l | grep -v 'v1.*$' | sort -V | tail -n 1)
Dependencies¶
cd cryptpad
npm install
npm run install:components
Configuration¶
Copy the example configuration
cd cryptpad/config
cp config.example.js config.js
Please read the configuration file, and modify variables as needed. The domains are particularly important.
As part of the installation process, be sure to read Instance customization and to modify customize/application_config.js
as some settings cannot be changed once user accounts have been created.
The server can now be started with
cd cryptpad
node server
The instance is now ready to run but cannot yet be accessed from the internet.
Daemonization¶
In production you may want to run CryptPad as a daemon that restarts automatically.
Systemd¶
To run CryptPad as a systemd service, please follow the example cryptpad.service file.
Save the example as
cryptpad.service
in/etc/systemd/system/
Make necessary adjustments (e.g. user name, path, nodejs version)
Enable the service at startup with
systemctl enable cryptpad
.
Other ways of daemonizing nodejs applications include for example foreverjs or pm2.
FreeBSD¶
To run CryptPad as a rc.d unit, please follow the example rc.d-cryptpad file.
Save the example as
cryptpad
in/usr/local/etc/rc.d/
Make necessary adjustments (e.g. user name, path)
Enable the service at startup with
service cryptpad enable
Docker¶
New in version 5.4
While we still prefer the recommended installation method, Docker is now officially supported.
We provide the following files in the CryptPad repository:
.dockerignore
is useful to remove parts of the repository from the image (avoid making it use too much storage)Dockerfile
is used to build the Docker image itselfdocker-entrypoint.sh
allows to configure a few things (domain names and build static assets)docker-compose.yml
used to create a container using the image and keep it running
Build your own Docker image
docker build -t cryptpad/cryptpad:version-5.4.0 .
Modify
docker-compose.yml
with your own valuesCPAD_MAIN_DOMAIN
CPAD_SANDBOX_DOMAIN
Run the container with Docker Compose
docker compose up -d
Domains¶
You need two domains to take full advantage of CryptPad’s security features.
The main domain on which users access your instance
A “sandbox” domain or subdomain to which a set of restrictive Content-Security Policy headers are applied
The intent of this system is to limit the risk of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities allowing attackers to leak user data. Sensitive computation (like the processing of cryptographic keys) is handled on the main domain, while the user-interface is implemented on the sandbox domain.
The example Nginx configuration file includes the relevant headers to enable the sandboxing system, however, you must configure your instance correctly for it to be effective. You will need:
two domains or subdomains
to include both domains in
cryptpad/config/config.js
as described in Configure CryptPadto generate one SSL certificate that covers both domains. The development team uses acme.sh and this is reflected in the example config.
to correctly assign both domains and certificates to the relevant variables in the example Nginx configuration
Avertissement
Using CryptPad in production without the sandboxing system may put users’ information at risk.
The development team is not aware of any third-party configurations (Apache, HAProxy, Lighttpd) that correctly implement the recommended settings. Use them at your own (and your users’) risk!
Install and configure Nginx¶
CryptPad’s application server handles active connections via websocket and serves static assets (HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.). This basic configuration is designed to be very easy to configure for local development, but it does not protect traffic with SSL or handle many concurrent users very well.
In a production environment, the development team recommends Nginx for the following reasons:
Protect traffic with SSL (so your users can reach your instance via HTTPS)
Scale to many more users by serving static content with a more scalable web-server instead of the single-threaded NodeJS web-server that is built-in
Allow the application server to focus exclusively on handling websocket connections
Avertissement
CryptPad cannot run in a subfolder. Make sure you configure your server to access it through the root domain or a subdomain.
Note that the version of Nginx distributed by your operating system may not support websockets. We recommend and only support Nginx stable.
To configure Nginx for CryptPad:
Copy the CryptPad example Nginx config file so that it is used/imported by the main Nginx config, for example by placing it in
/etc/nginx/conf.d/cryptpad.conf
.Edit the configuration file with the correct domains and paths to certificates.
Run
openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/dhparam.pem 4096
if you haven’t done so already on the host machine.
Static assets and pages such as https://cryptpad.yourdomain.com/index.html
should now be accessible at the main domain.
Configure CryptPad¶
To finalise the installation, ensure cryptpad/config/config.js
contains at least:
The correct domains:
The main domain in place of:
httpUnsafeOrigin: 'http://localhost:3000',
The Sandbox domain in place of:
httpSafeOrigin: "https://some-other-domain.xyz",
Diagnostics¶
CryptPad provides a diagnostics page that runs instance configuration tests. Visit https://cryptpad.yourdomain.com/checkup/
after completing all of the steps above to ensure everything is correctly configured.
Configure administrators¶
Once CryptPad is installed, create an account via the Register button on the home page. To make this account an instance administrator:
Copy their public key found in User Menu (avatar at the top right) > Settings > Account > Public Signing Key
Paste this key in
cryptpad/config/config.js
in the following array (uncomment and replace the placeholder):
adminKeys: [
"[cryptpad-user1@my.awesome.website/YZgXQxKR0Rcb6r6CmxHPdAGLVludrAF2lEnkbx1vVOo=]",
],
Restart CryptPad
Configure support mailbox¶
The support mailbox can be configured from the Administration panel.
With an instance administrator account, visit the
/admin/#support
pageClick Generate Support Keys
The support mailbox is now active
Flush the cache to access the mailbox: General tab > Flush HTTP Cache
To allow other administrators to access the support mailbox:
Copy the key at the bottom of the support page
Send it to another administrator account
They can use the Add private key field on the support page to gain access to the support mailbox
Build static pages & Open Graph metadata¶
To build some of CryptPad static pages & enable social media link previews, run the following command:
npm run build
This creates an index.html
page for each application in the customize/www
directory. It is not recommended to perform manual modifications on these pages as they will be overridden the next time npm run build
is run.
To modify the preview images please see Open Graph preview images
Note
Updating to a newer version of the software in the future without re-running this command may result in outdated code.
Support¶
The development team is available to provide paid support contracts (see our organizational plans for an idea of our pricing), otherwise, requests for assistance can be directed to the community.
We recommend you to go over our forum and or admins Matrix channel.
Note that community support is provided by volunteers, please be aware of what you are asking of them and respect our Code of Conduct at all time.