Message System

Message system was implemented to allow sending emergency messages to Trezor Suite app to a user with specific stack.

Example messages

Issue on Github

Notion for production deployment

Types of in-app messages

There are multiple ways of displaying message to a user:

  • banner
    • looks like a cookie bar above the page
  • modal
    • TODO: missing implementation
  • context
    • messages on specific places in app (e.g. settings page, banner in account page)
  • feature
    • disabling some feature with an explanation message

Implementation

Config

The system of messages is based on a configuration file in which messages with specific conditions ​are described. If specific conditions are satisfied, the message is shown to a user.

Current configuration file is located in suite-common/message-system/config folder. Its name is config.vX.json. The X express current version messaging system.

The config is fetched at launch of the application and then every minute. It remembers the previously fetched config to inform the user even if he is offline. For this reason, the latest available config during build time is bundled with the application.

If fetching of a new config fails, the fetching process is repeated every 30 seconds.

Schema

The configuration structure is specified in JSON file using JSON schema. The file can be found in suite-common/message-system/schema folder. Its name is config.schema.vX.json.

We use JSON schema for 2 reasons:

  • generating TypeScript types
  • validating configuration file

Types

Types are generated from JSON-schema during the build:libs process or can be generated manually by yarn workspace @suite-common/message-system msg-system-types. A messageSystem.ts file is created in suite-common/suite-types/src folder.

  • This file should never be changed manually.
  • This file is committed into the repository.

Signing

To ensure the authenticity of a configuration file, JSON Web Signatures are used. The configuration file is signed by a private key using elliptic curves (ES256) and the data specified in the config are used. The authenticity is verified on client side using corresponding public key.

CI job

Validation

  • Validation of configuration file is performed in CI job in validation phase. It is used to detect possible structure and semantic errors.
  • It can be run locally by yarn workspace @suite-common/message-system validate-config script.

Signing

  • Signing of the configuration file is performed:
    • in CI job in prebuild phase for distribution and
    • manually by yarn message-system-sign-config (or yarn build:libs) script for local development.
  • The results are saved into suite-common/message-system/files as two files:
    • config.v1.jws to be uploaded to https://data.trezor.io/config/$environment/config.vX.jws
    • config.v1.ts to be bundled with application
  • Development private key is baked into project structure together with public keys for both development and production.
  • Production private key is available only on codesign branch in CI (both Gitlab and Github).
  • Development private key can be found in suite-common/message-system/scripts/sign-config.ts file, the public keys can be found in packages/suite-build/utils/jws.ts file.

Versioning of implementation

If changes made to the message system are incompatible with the previous version, the version number should be bumped in messageSystemConstants.ts file and CI jobs has to be adapted. There are also few places where the version is defined statically so search for config.v1 over the whole project.

Config Structure

Structure of config, types and optionality of specific keys can be found in the schema or in generated types. Example config is commented below.

{
    // Version of message system implementation. Bump if new version is not backward compatible.
    "version": 1,
    // Datetime in ISO8601 when was config created.
    "timestamp": "2021-03-03T03:48:16+00:00",
    // Version of config. New config is accepted only if sequence number is higher.
    "sequence": 1,
    "actions": [
        {
            /*
            - User's stack has to match one of the condition objects to show this message.
            - The bitwise operation is OR.
            */
            "conditions": [
                /*
                - All keys are optional (duration, os, environment, browser, settings, transport,
                  devices, architecture (To be implemented))
                - If a value is specified then all its subkeys have to be specified
                - The bitwise operation is AND.
                */
                {
                    /*
                    - Datetime in ISO8601 from / to which date this message is valid.
                    - If duration category is used, then both times have to be set.
                    */
                    "duration": {
                        "from": "2021-03-01T12:10:00.000Z",
                        "to": "2022-01-31T12:10:00.000Z"
                    },
                    /*
                    For os, environment, browser and transport.
                    - All values (except for revision in environment) are version definitions
                    - Semver npm library is used for working with versions https://www.npmjs.com/package/semver.
                    - "*" = all versions; "!" = not for this type of browser/os/...
                    - Options: gte, lt, ranges, tildes, carets,... are supported, see semver lib for more info.
                    */
                    "os": {
                        "macos": [
                            "10.14",
                            "10.18",
                            "11"
                        ],
                        "linux": "*",
                        "windows": "!",
                        "android": "*",
                        "ios": "13",
                        "chromeos": "*"
                    },
                    // revision is optional
                    "environment": {
                        "desktop": "<21.5",
                        "mobile": "!",
                        "web": "<22",
                        "revision": "7281ac61483e38d974625c2505bfe5efd519aacb"
                    },
                    "browser": {
                        "firefox": [
                            "82",
                            "83"
                        ],
                        "chrome": "*",
                        "chromium": "!"
                    },
                    "transport": {
                        "bridge": [
                            "2.0.30",
                            "2.0.27"
                        ],
                        "webusbplugin": "*"
                    },
                    /*
                    - If key is not available (undefined), then it can be whatever.
                    - Currently supported keys are "tor" and coin symbols from "enabledNetworks".
                    - The bitwise operation is OR.
                    */
                    "settings": [
                        {
                            "tor": true,
                            "btc": true
                        },
                        {
                            "tor": false,
                            "ltc": true
                        }
                    ],
                    // Empty device array is targeting users without a connected device.
                    "devices": [
                        {
                            // Possible values: "1" +  "T1B1", "T" + "T2T1", "T2B1", "T3B1", "T3T1"
                            // in case of targeting "T1B1" or "T2T1", for backwards compatibility use old (1, T) and new naming (T1B1, T2T1 together in a new object
                            // in case of targeting "T2B1" in Suites before device release, please use all three "T2B1", "Safe 3" and empty string ""
                            "model": "T1B1",
                            /*
                            Beware
                            - firmware version in bootloader mode is unavailable on T1B1
                            - bootloader version is available only in bootloader mode
                            */
                            "firmware": "2.4.1",
                            "bootloader": "2.0.4",
                            // Possible values: "*", "bitcoin-only", and "regular"
                            "variant": "bitcoin-only",
                            "firmwareRevision": "*",
                            "vendor": "trezor.io"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "message": {
                // Used for remembering dismissed messages.
                "id": "0f3ec64d-c3e4-4787-8106-162f3ac14c34",
                /*
                - Existing banners have defined priorities.
                - The range is 0 to 100.
                */
                "priority": 100,
                // When a user closes the message, it will never show again until the user clear app storage.
                "dismissible": true,
                /*
                Variants:
                - info (blue)
                - warning (orange)
                - critical (red)
                */
                "variant": "warning",
                // Options: banner, modal, context, feature
                "category": "banner",
                /*
                - Message in language of Suite app is shown to a user.
                - Currently 'en', 'es', 'cs', 'ru', 'ja' are supported.
                - 'en-GB' is used for backward compatibility and should match value of 'en'.
                */
                "content": {
                    "en-GB": "New Trezor firmware is available!",
                    "en": "New Trezor firmware is available!",
                    "de": "Neue Trezor Firmware ist verfügbar!"
                },
                // optional headline following the language structure of content
                "headline": {
                    "en-GB": "Update your Trezor",
                    "en": "Update your Trezor",
                    "de": "Neue"
                },
                // Call to action. Used only for banner and context.
                "cta": {
                    /*
                    Options: "internal-link" or "external-link"
                    - internal-link is route name, see routes.ts file
                        - anchor property can be used, see anchors.ts file
                    - external-link is url address
                    */
                    "action": "internal-link",
                    // Route name or url address according to action.
                    "link": "settings-device",
                    "anchor": "@device-settings/firmware-version",
                    /*
                    - Label of call to action button shown to a user.
                    */
                    "label": {
                        "en-GB": "Update now",
                        "en": "Update now",
                        "de": "Jetzt aktualisieren"
                    }
                },
                // Used only for modals. (To be implemented)
                "modal": {
                    "title": {
                        "en-GB": "Update now",
                        "en": "Update now",
                        "de": "Jetzt aktualisieren"
                    },
                    "image": "https://example.com/example.png"
                },
                // Used only for context.
                "context": {
                    "domain": [
                        "coins.receive",
                        "coins.btc"
                  ]
                }
                 // Used only for feature
                "feature": [
                    {
                        "domain": "coinjoin",
                        "flag": false
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

How to update

When updating message system config, sequence number must always be higher than the previous one. Once released config cannot be rolled back to the previous one with lower sequence number. A new one with higher sequence number has to be created.

Updated config is automatically uploaded by CI job to the corresponding S3 bucket based on the current branch.

Priorities of messages

Based on the priority of the message, the message is displayed to the user. 0 is the lowest priority, 100 is the highest priority. Current priorities of existing banners can be found here.

Targeting Linux version

Unfortunately, it is not possible to target specific distributions and versions of Linux. It is possible to only target all Linux users using * or exclude all Linux users using !.

Application steps

  1. Config is fetched on load of application and is stored in Redux state. To be persisted between sessions, is is mirrored into IndexDB.
  2. Conditions of config are evaluated on specific Redux actions. See messageSystemMiddleware.ts file.
  3. If conditions of a message satisfy the user's stack, the message is accordingly propagated. If it is dismissible, its ID is saved to Redux state (IndexDB) on close, to avoid displaying it next time.

Followup

Ideas and non-critical bugs can be added to the followup issue.