Sealing and Decrypting

When an application reads encrypted data from a Fhenix smart contract, that data must first be converted from its encrypted on-chain form to an encrypted form that the application can read and the user can decrypt.

There are two ways to return encrypted data to the user:

1. Sealed Box Encryption

   The data is returned to the user using sealed box encryption from NaCL. The gist of it is that the user provides a public key to the contract during a view function call, which the contract then uses to encrypt the data in such a way that only the owner of the private key associated with the provided public key can decrypt and read the data.

   From a contract perspective, this is done by using the FHE.sealoutput (or .seal) function, which takes the data to be sealed and the public key of the user, and returns an encrypted blob.

   The encrypted data is then stored in a JSON structure, which is described in a later section.

   This data can then be decrypted using fhenix.js, manually by using the caller's private key or using Metamask or compatible APIs.

2. Standard Decryption

   Alternatively, Fhenix supports standard decryption as well. If some data needs to be decrypted for public access, that can be done as well and a plaintext value is returned to the caller. This can be done using the FHE.decrypt function.

Sealed Data Format

note

If using fhenixjs, parsing the raw sealed data that is returned from sealoutput or seal is unnecessary.

The following JSON structure shows the components of the encrypted data returned by the seal function:

{
  "version": "x25519-xsalsa20-poly1305",
  "nonce": "<base64 bytes of a nonce used for encrypted>",
  "ephemPublicKey": "<base64 bytes of the target public key>",
  "ciphertext": "<base64 string of a big-endian number>"
}

Metamask Compatability

The encryption schema and structure matches the one used by Metamask's eth_decrypt function. This means that we can consume sealed data directly from Metamask, which provides a more engaging experience for a dApp user.

Fetch an address's public key using the eth_getEncryptionPublicKey method, seal the data for that specific public key (either as a permit or by using the public key directly), and then use Metamask's eth_decrypt call to provide a guided decryption experience.

Warning

Metamask's eth_getEncryptionPublicKey and eth_decrypt methods are deprecated. We provide these examples to demonstrate compatibility with native wallet encryption/decryption procedures. We aim to maintain compatibility as new standards emerge for encryption on Ethereum.

Examples

Sealed Box Encryption

import {FHE} from "@fhenixprotocol/contracts";

function sealoutputExample(bytes32 pubkey) public pure returns (bytes memory reencrypted) {
    euint8 memory foo = asEuint8(100);
    return foo.seal(pubkey);
}

Decryption

import {FHE} from "@fhenixprotocol/contracts";

function sealoutputExample() public pure returns (uint8 decrypted) {
    euint8 memory foo = asEuint8(100);
    return FHE.decrypt(foo);
}

Metamask Unsealing

async getPub() {
    const provider = new BrowserProvider(window.ethereum);
    const client = new FhenixClient({provider});
    const accounts = await window.ethereum.request({ method: 'eth_requestAccounts' });
    const keyResult = await provider.send('eth_getEncryptionPublicKey',[accounts[0]]);
    const pk = `0x${this.base64ToHex(keyResult)}`;
    this.showNotification(pk);
}
async unseal() {
    const provider = new BrowserProvider(window.ethereum);
    const client = new FhenixClient({provider});
    const accounts = await window.ethereum.request({ method: 'eth_requestAccounts' });
    const result = await provider.send('eth_decrypt', [this.sealedInput, accounts[0]]);
    const plaintext = this.toString(result);
    this.showNotification(`Unsealed result: ${plaintext}`);
}

Taken from the encryption & unsealing tool