Selene: Tor-based p2p chat with RSA-8192 + AES-256 (not a browser)
Hello tor-dev,I'm the developer of Selene — a Tor-based peer-to-peer chat and file sharing application.What Selene is:- A chat app where each instance generates its own onion address- Peers share addresses with each other directly (no public discovery)- Files are shared as HTTP servers between confirmed contacts only- Built-in OBFS4 and WebTunnel bridge supportWhat Selene is NOT:- A Tor browser. You cannot browse .onion sites.- A gateway to the darknet. There is no public discovery of anything.- A general-purpose anonymity tool. It's just for private chat between people who already know each other.Encryption — and this matters:On top of Tor's end-to-end anonymity (everything stays inside the Tor network, never leaving it), Selene adds its own application-layer encryption:- Messages: RSA encryption (user-configurable up to 8192 bits)- Files: AES-256 encryptionSo even if someone were to compromise the Tor hidden service connection, the data itself remains encrypted with Selene's own keys. Defense in depth.Why I built it:I needed a p2p chat app that doesn't require opening ports on routers or corporate firewalls. Privacy and encryption came after solving that core need.Current availability:- Flathub: https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.alamahant.Selene- Arch Linux AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/selene-p2p- Gentoo overlay: https://github.com/alamahant/alamahant-overlay/tree/master/net-p2p/selene- GitHub: https://github.com/alamahant/SeleneWhat I'm asking:I'm not requesting formal endorsement. I would simply appreciate it if someone on the team could take a look. If you find it useful, consideration for inclusion in the Tor Browser User Manual or community resources would mean a lot.I'm posting here at Gus's suggestion after reaching out to frontdesk.Thank you for Tor — I couldn't have built this without it.With respect,Alamahant
If I judged this project based on the style of this e-mail and README (like I did initially), I would have thought this was some standard run-of-the-mill AI slop project and brushed this aside. But, the code and commit history does seem like it's human-written so I'm gonna say nice job on writing this yourself! One question about your design though: why are you using RSA for the key exchange algorithm? Everyone has been moving beyond RSA in favor of modern elliptic-curve algorithms like Curve25519 (and more recently, PQ-hybrid algorithms that wrap around Curve25519) Other than that, this project seems like it has some potential. Great work! Regards, techmetx11 On 6/16/26 6:44 PM, Dharma Mati via tor-dev wrote:
Hello tor-dev,
I'm the developer of Selene — a Tor-based peer-to-peer chat and file sharing application.
What Selene is: - A chat app where each instance generates its own onion address - Peers share addresses with each other directly (no public discovery) - Files are shared as HTTP servers between confirmed contacts only - Built-in OBFS4 and WebTunnel bridge support
What Selene is NOT: - A Tor browser. You cannot browse .onion sites. - A gateway to the darknet. There is no public discovery of anything. - A general-purpose anonymity tool. It's just for private chat between people who already know each other.
Encryption — and this matters: On top of Tor's end-to-end anonymity (everything stays inside the Tor network, never leaving it), Selene adds its own application-layer encryption: - Messages: RSA encryption (user-configurable up to 8192 bits) - Files: AES-256 encryption
So even if someone were to compromise the Tor hidden service connection, the data itself remains encrypted with Selene's own keys. Defense in depth.
Why I built it: I needed a p2p chat app that doesn't require opening ports on routers or corporate firewalls. Privacy and encryption came after solving that core need.
Current availability: - Flathub: https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.alamahant.Selene - Arch Linux AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/selene-p2p - Gentoo overlay: https://github.com/alamahant/alamahant-overlay/tree/master/net-p2p/selene - GitHub: https://github.com/alamahant/Selene
What I'm asking: I'm not requesting formal endorsement. I would simply appreciate it if someone on the team could take a look. If you find it useful, consideration for inclusion in the Tor Browser User Manual or community resources would mean a lot.
I'm posting here at Gus's suggestion after reaching out to frontdesk.
Thank you for Tor — I couldn't have built this without it.
With respect, Alamahant
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Given the various other messaging tools out there that share your basic design (e.g. everybody uses their own onion address, cf. https://onionservices.torproject.org/apps/messaging/ ), could you say if there is anything in particular you are trying to accomplish with Selene different from those, other than to do it "because it is there"? Si sanus es, sanus sum, Paul On Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 08:44:12PM +0300, Dharma Mati via tor-dev wrote:
Hello tor-dev,I'm the developer of Selene - a Tor-based peer-to-peer chat and file sharing application.What Selene is:- A chat app where each instance generates its own onion address- Peers share addresses with each other directly (no public discovery)- Files are shared as HTTP servers between confirmed contacts only- Built-in OBFS4 and WebTunnel bridge supportWhat Selene is NOT:- A Tor browser. You cannot browse .onion sites.- A gateway to the darknet. There is no public discovery of anything.- A general-purpose anonymity tool. It's just for private chat between people who already know each other.Encryption - and this matters:On top of Tor's end-to-end anonymity (everything stays inside the Tor network, never leaving it), Selene adds its own application-layer encryption:- Messages: RSA encryption (user-configurable up to 8192 bits)- Files: AES-256 encryptionSo even if someone were to compromise the Tor hidden service connection, the data itself remains encrypted with Selene's own keys. Defense in depth.Why I built it:I needed a p2p chat app that doesn't require opening ports on routers or corporate firewalls. Privacy and encryption came after solving that core need.Current availability:- Flathub: https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.alamahant.Selene- Arch Linux AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/selene-p2p- Gentoo overlay: https://github.com/alamahant/alamahant-overlay/tree/master/net-p2p/selene- GitHub: https://github.com/alamahant/SeleneWhat I'm asking:I'm not requesting formal endorsement. I would simply appreciate it if someone on the team could take a look. If you find it useful, consideration for inclusion in the Tor Browser User Manual or community resources would mean a lot.I'm posting here at Gus's suggestion after reaching out to frontdesk.Thank you for Tor - I couldn't have built this without it.With respect,Alamahant
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participants (3)
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Dharma Mati -
Paul Syverson -
techmetx11