MINT Protocol Messages Encryption

Every node has a unique access key (password) which is set as a string of variable length. This password is used to calculate a special security key. Security key is a MD5 signature calculated over concatenation of initial password with node’s own address (MAC-address). Key length is 16 octets = 128 bit.

All MINT protocol messages are protected with Adler32 checksum and are encrypted (with a checksum) with RC4 (AcrFour) algorithm.

As a source data for random sequence generator a concatenation of a random 64-bit initialization vector and node’s own key is used. Random initialization vector is generated for each packet and is send with the packet.

Actual data exchange (packets sending) is possible only between two adjacent network nodes. Every node encrypts all sent packet with its own key (password). Decryption is carried out with packet sender key. Encryption/decryption is made from node to node.