ervis - Evidence Record Visualization

A Python/Lua library for creating, managing and visualizing Evidence Records based on RFC 4998 (Evidence Record Syntax). This implementation serves as an educational example to understand the concepts of Evidence Records and their visualization.

Overview

The ervis project consists of three main components, each for your preferred interpreter (Python or Lua):

For Python 3.12.+:

1. evidence_record.py: Core library for Evidence Record operations
2. evidence_record_print.py: Visualization utilities for Evidence Records
3. ervis.py: Example implementation demonstrating the library's usage

For Lua 5.4:

1. evidence_record.lua: Core library for Evidence Record operations
2. evidence_record_print.lua: Visualization utilities for Evidence Records
3. ervis.lua: Example implementation demonstrating the library's usage

Features

• Creation, renewal of Evidence Records
• Hash tree (Merkle tree) construction and reduction
• Timestamp sequence management
• Hash algorithm renewal support
• ASCII visualization of hash trees and Evidence Records

Core library

Evidence Record creation (evidence_record.py)

The main library providing Evidence Record related functionality:

from evidence_record import EvidenceRecord

# Create an Evidence Record instance
er = EvidenceRecord()

# Create a hash tree from multiple hash values
tree = er.create_hashtree(["h1", "h2", "h3"])

# Reduce tree for a specific hash
reduced_tree = EvidenceRecord().reduce_tree(tree, hash_value)

# Create an Evidence Record with the reduced tree for a specific hash
record = er.create_evidence_record(tree, reduced_tree, "SHA256")

Evidence Record hash algorithm renewal

The library supports Evidence Record hash algorithm renewal:

# Simulate to update existing Evidence Records with new hashes with a new algorithm
records_and_hashes = [
    (records1, "H1"),
    (records2, "H2"),
    (records3, "H3")
]

# Renew hash algorithms
new_records, new_tree = er.renew_hashtree(records_and_hashes, "SHA512")

Evidence Record visualization utilities

Evidence Record visualization (evidence_record_print.py)

Visualization utilities (ASCII-based) for Evidence Records and hash trees:

from evidence_record_print import PrintEr

# Visualize a hash tree
tree_visualization = PrintEr().visualize_tree(tree['root'])
for line in tree_visualization:
    print(line)

from evidence_record_print import PrintEr

# Display a complete Evidence Record
PrintEr().display_evidence_record(record)

Hash Tree Visualization Example

The library can create ASCII visualizations of hash trees like this:

        +-------+
        | h1+h2 |
        +-------+
           /\
          /  \
    +----+    +----+
    | h1 |    | h2 |
    +----+    +----+

or with Renewal:

Full hash tree:
      +----------+
      | h1+h2+h3 |
      +----------+
        /        \
   +-------+      +----+
   | h1+h2 |      | h3 |
   +-------+      +----+
    /      \         |
+----+    +----+    +----+
| h1 |    | h2 |    | h3 |
+----+    +----+    +----+

Full hash tree:
      +-------------------------------------------------------+
      | (H1) + (h1+h2+h3)+(H2) + (h1+h2+h3)+(H3) + (h1+h2+h3) |
      +-------------------------------------------------------+
                       /                              \
   +-------------------------------------+      +-------------------+
   | (H1) + (h1+h2+h3)+(H2) + (h1+h2+h3) |      | (H3) + (h1+h2+h3) |
   +-------------------------------------+      +-------------------+
        /                       \                        |
+-------------------+    +-------------------+    +-------------------+
| (H1) + (h1+h2+h3) |    | (H2) + (h1+h2+h3) |    | (H3) + (h1+h2+h3) |
+-------------------+    +-------------------+    +-------------------+

or an EvidenceRecord with reduced Trees:

+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Evidence Record v1 - SHA512                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

Archive Time Stamp Sequence:
------------------------------
Chain 1:

  +------------------------------------------------+
  | Timestamp: 2024-11-05 14:34:37 [SHA256]        |
  +------------------------------------------------+
       +----------+
       | h1+h2+h3 |
       +----------+
          /       \
     +-------+    +----+
     | h1+h2 |    | h3 |
     +-------+    +----+
     /       \
  +----+    +----+
  | h1 |    | h2 |
  +----+    +----+

------------------------------
Chain 2:

  +------------------------------------------------+
  | Timestamp: 2024-11-05 14:34:37 [SHA512]        |
  +------------------------------------------------+
       +-------------------------------------------------------+
       | (H1) + (h1+h2+h3)+(H2) + (h1+h2+h3)+(H3) + (h1+h2+h3) |
       +-------------------------------------------------------+
                        /                              \
     +-------------------------------------+    +-------------------+
     | (H1) + (h1+h2+h3)+(H2) + (h1+h2+h3) |    | (H3) + (h1+h2+h3) |
     +-------------------------------------+    +-------------------+
          /                      \
  +-------------------+    +-------------------+
  | (H1) + (h1+h2+h3) |    | (H2) + (h1+h2+h3) |
  +-------------------+    +-------------------+

Evidence Record Structure

For details please refer to RFC4998

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ervis.git

cd ervis

python ervis.py

or

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ervis.git

cd ervis

lua ervis.lua

No additional dependencies required - the library uses only Python/Lua standard library components.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Florian Fischer (c) 2024

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Note

This is an educational implementation to demonstrate Evidence Record concepts. For production use, please implement proper cryptographic functions and timestamp authorities.