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ZTM (Zero Trust Mesh)

ZTM is an open source network infrastructure software for running a decentralized network. It is built upon HTTP/2 tunnels and can run on any sort of IP networks such as LANs, containerized networks and the Internet, etc.

Why ZTM?

ZTM lays the foundation for building decentralized applications by providing a set of core capabilities including:

  • Network connectivity across Internet gateways and firewalls
  • TLS-encrypted communication channels
  • Certificate-based authentication and access control
  • Service discovery and load balancing

ZTM can be used in various settings ranging from a 2-node personal network connecting one's home and workplace to a 10,000-node enterprise network connecting offices and branches across the globe. Examples of applications that can leverage ZTM are:

  • Remote access your home computer from anywhere in the world
  • Share documents, pictures and videos within a group of people without the need of a big-tech social networking platform
  • Private and secure P2P chat or voice/video conferencing without the fear of eavesdropping

Features

ZTM is written in PipyJS, a JavaScript dialect designed for Pipy (https://github.com/flomesh-io/pipy). Pipy is an open source programmable proxy software. Thanks to Pipy, ZTM has many unique features on top of the capabilities it offers:

  • Fast. HTTP/2 multiplexing is fast. And Pipy is fast. Like, C++ fast.

  • Secure. All traffic is encrypted by TLS and has identities via certificates. By using PipyJS, security policy can be easily customized to meet the requirements in your organization.

  • Highly customizable and programmable, since Pipy in itself is a general-purpose networking scripting engine.

  • Portable. Choose your CPU architecture: x86, ARM, MIPS, RISC-V, LoongArch... Choose your operating system: Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, Android... ZTM runs anywhere.

Quick Start

Download

The easiest way to get started is download the latest binary release of ZTM from our release page. If you prefer to have your own build from the source, you can follow the instructions in Build.

The official build releases of ZTM come in two forms of packaging: the CLI tool as a SEA (Single Executable Application), and the desktop application that wraps up the CLI tool and provides a GUI for desktop environments.

In this guide, we'll be only utilizing the CLI for setting up a simple mesh. For more guides, including the usage of the desktop app, please check out our Wiki.

Setup

A common setup consists of 3 nodes: 1 node running the CA and a hub, the other 2 nodes running two agents who wish to communicate with each other.

                      Data Center
        +------------------------------------+
        |                 CA                 |
        |         (state in ~/ztm-ca.db)     |
        +------------------------------------+
                      HTTP | Port 9999
                           |
        +------------------------------------+
        |                 Hub                |
        |             (stateless)            |
        +------------------------------------+
      HTTPS | Port 8888            HTTPS | Port 8888
            |                            |
  ----------|----------------------------|-----------
            |           Firewall         |
  ----------|----------------------------|-----------
            |                            |
            |           Internet         |
            |                            |
  -----------------------  |  -----------------------
        Firewall           |          Firewall
  -----------------------  |  -----------------------
            |              |             |
            |              |             |
  +---------------------+  |  +---------------------+
  |    Agent @ Home     |  |  |  Agent @ Workplace  |
  | (state in ~/ztm.db) |  |  | (state in ~/ztm.db) |
  +---------------------+  |  +---------------------+
                           |

We'll only cover the setup of CA and hubs on Linux, since that's where they are usually run - a cloud-hosted Linux virtual machine.

Setup CA (Certificate Authority)

Start the CA service:

ztm start ca

The default listening port is 127.0.0.1:9999. The default location of database is ~/ztm-ca.db. These settings can be changed by command-line options:

ztm start ca --listen 127.0.0.1:1234 --database ~/my-data.db

Setup Hubs

After the CA service is up and running, start a hub service by typing:

ztm start hub

Like the CA service, you can use --listen option for a custom listening port other than the default 0.0.0.0:8888:

ztm start hub --listen 0.0.0.0:1234

Create Users

We need at least one user in order to allow any endpoints onboard our mesh. Let's create a root user, who is defined by name as the administrator to our mesh:

ztm invite root --bootstrap x.x.x.x:8888 > permit.json # Where x.x.x.x is the public IP address of your hub

The generated permit.json includes the private key for the user. The private key is NOT stored by ZTM for security concerns. It is your responsibility to keep it safe. If you lose the key by accident, there's no way to find it back with ZTM. You'll have to delete that user and create it again.

To delete the user root, you can do:

ztm evict root

Setup Endpoints

Now that we've set up all the foundation (most likely in the cloud), we can go on and add as many endpoints as we like to the mesh by using the generated file permit.json.

First, start an agent on an endpoint computer that is going to join our mesh:

ztm start agent

On Windows, starting as a system service isn't supported yet. You'll have to do ztm run agent instead.

The default listening port is 127.0.0.1:7777. The default location of database is ~/ztm.db. These settings can be changed by command-line options:

ztm start agent --listen 127.0.0.1:1234 --database ~/my-data.db

Once the agent is up and running, open your browser and point it to http://localhost:7777.

The first thing we do with the web interface is joining the mesh. As long as you have the generated permit.json file in hand, it's pretty straightfoward to do that just by following the instructions on screen. The main information you provide while joining a mesh is a mesh name of your choice and an endpoint name that would be seen by other endpoints in the same mesh, along with the file permit.json.

Repeat the above procedure for every endpoint in your mesh. Then, you will be able to manage your mesh via browser from any of the endpoints. Some day-to-day things include:

  • List endpoints and services in the mesh
  • Create services on any endpoint
  • Map ports on any endpoint to services on other endpoints

You can also join a mesh on any endpoint running the ZTM agent by using the CLI tool:

ztm join my-awesome-mesh --as my-awesome-endpoint --permit permit.json

CLI Commands Summary

Here's a recap of what CLI commands you need to do on each computer node.

                       Cloud-hosted VM
  +---------------------------------------------------------+
  | ztm start ca                                            |
  | ztm start hub                                           | ---+
  | ztm invite root --bootstrap x.x.x.x:8888 > permit.json  |    |
  +---------------------------------------------------------+    |
              |          x.x.x.x:8888          |                 |
  ------------|--------------------------------|-------------    |
              |            Firewall            |                 |
  ------------|--------------------------------|-------------    |
              |                                |                 |
              |            Internet            |                 | permit.json
              |                                |                 |
  --------------------------   |   --------------------------    |
           Firewall            |            Firewall             |
  --------------------------   |   --------------------------    |
              |                |               |                 |
              |                |               |                 |
  +------------------------+   |   +------------------------+    |
  | ztm start agent        |   |   | ztm start agent        |    |
  | ztm join my-mesh \     |   |   | ztm join my-mesh \     | <--+
  |   --as home \          |   |   |   --as workplace \     |
  |   --permit permit.json |   |   |   --permit permit.json |
  +------------------------+   |   +------------------------+
           PC @ Home           |         PC @ Workplace

For more information on the CLI, please refer to:

ztm help