opennhp

OpenNHP: Open Source Zero Trust Security Toolkit

OpenNHP is a lightweight, cryptography-powered, open-source toolkit implementing Zero Trust security for infrastructure, applications, and data. It is the reference implementation of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Network-infrastructure Hiding Protocol (NHP) specification, and features two core protocols:

Network-infrastructure Hiding Protocol (NHP): Conceals server ports, IP addresses, and domain names to protect applications and infrastructure from unauthorized access.
Data-content Hiding Protocol (DHP): Ensures data security and privacy via encryption and confidential computing, making data "usable but not visible."

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Why OpenNHP

The modern internet is a dark forest. Attackers — increasingly backed by LLMs that scan, fingerprint, and exploit at machine speed via Autonomous Vulnerability Exploitation — treat every reachable service as a target. Gartner projects AI-driven cyberattacks will rise rapidly. Traditional defenses authenticate users after the network lets them in, leaving exposed ports, IPs, and domains as a permanent attack surface.

In the AI era, VISIBILITY = VULNERABILITY.

OpenNHP inverts that model: invisible until trusted. Every port, IP, and hostname sits behind a default-deny gate. Access is granted only after a cryptographically signed knock is authenticated and authorized out-of-band. Attackers can't exploit what they can't discover.

The third-generation network hiding protocol

NHP is the next step in a line of "hide the service first" designs:

Generation	Protocol	Limitations
1	Port Knocking	Plaintext, replay-prone
2	Single Packet Authorization (SPA)	Shared secrets, one-way, typically hides ports only, typically C/C++
3	NHP	Modern crypto, bi-directional with status, hides domain + IP + ports, stateless and horizontally scalable, memory-safe Go

NHP slots in alongside existing IAM, DNS, FIDO, and Zero Trust policy engines rather than replacing them — it extends your stack instead of forking it.

Architecture

OpenNHP follows a modular design with three core components, inspired by the NIST Zero Trust Architecture:

Core Component	Role
NHP-Agent	Client that sends encrypted knock requests to gain access
NHP-Server	Authenticates and authorizes requests; runs separately and is architecturally decoupled from the protected host
NHP-AC	Access controller that manages firewall rules on the protected server

Addon Component	Role
NHP-Relay	HTTP-to-UDP bridge enabling browser-based agents to send NHP knocks via HTTPS
NHP-KGC	Key Generation Center for Identity-Based Cryptography (IBC)

Protocol flow

Agent sends an encrypted knock (NHP_KNK) to the Server.
Server validates the knock and sends an operation request (NHP_AOP) to the AC.
AC opens the firewall and replies (NHP_ART) to the Server.
Server returns an acknowledgment (NHP_ACK) with access info to the Agent.
Agent reaches the protected resource through the AC.

Cryptography

OpenNHP ships with two interchangeable cipher suites:

CIPHER_SCHEME_CURVE — Curve25519 + AES-256-GCM + BLAKE2s
CIPHER_SCHEME_GMSM — SM2 + SM4-GCM + SM3

Both are driven by the Noise Protocol Framework. An Identity-Based Cryptography (IBC) mode is available via the Key Generation Center (KGC).

For protocol details, deployment models, and cryptographic design, see the documentation.

Repository Structure

opennhp/
├── nhp/              # Core protocol library (Go module)
│   ├── core/         # Packet handling, cryptography, Noise Protocol, device management
│   ├── common/       # Shared types and message definitions
│   ├── utils/        # Utility functions
│   ├── plugins/      # Plugin handler interfaces
│   ├── log/          # Logging infrastructure
│   └── etcd/         # Distributed configuration support
└── endpoints/        # Daemon implementations (Go module, depends on nhp)
    ├── agent/        # NHP-Agent daemon
    ├── server/       # NHP-Server daemon
    ├── ac/           # NHP-AC (access controller) daemon
    ├── db/           # NHP-DB (Data Broker for DHP)
    ├── kgc/          # NHP-KGC (Key Generation Center)
    └── relay/        # NHP-Relay daemon

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Go 1.26+
make
Docker and Docker Compose (for the full-stack demo)

Build

# Build all components
make

# Build individual daemons
make agentd    # NHP-Agent
make serverd   # NHP-Server
make acd       # NHP-AC
make db        # NHP-DB
make relayd    # NHP-Relay
make kgc       # NHP-KGC

Test

cd nhp && go test ./...
cd endpoints && go test ./...

Run with Docker

cd docker && docker-compose up --build

Follow the Quick Start tutorial to simulate the full authentication workflow in a Docker environment.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting pull requests.

Note: All commits must be signed with a verified GPG or SSH key.

git commit -S -m "your message"

Security

Found a vulnerability? Please follow the responsible-disclosure process in SECURITY.md rather than opening a public issue.

License

Released under the Apache 2.0 License.