Configuring SASL for Epic5

EPIC5 has the sasl_auth and sasl_nistp256 scripts built-in. Mikhail contributed this explanation of how to use it.

For SASL authentication with PLAIN method open your EPIC5 configuration file, ~/.epicrc or ~/.ircrc, in your preferred editor. Add the following lines:

load global
load sasl_auth
sasl_auth *.libera.chat plain username password

Replace username with your primary nick. The password may be replaced with your password or omitted, in which case EPIC5 will prompt for the password when it connects. You may change *.libera.chat to something more specific if desired, but the * means SASL authentication will be attempted for any irc.libera.chat server.

The script supports only plain authentication mechanism, you must use SSL to protect your password.

Preferred method of connecting to Libera.Chat on EPIC5 is configuring your ircII.servers file with proper connection line. This file is located in $IRCLIB directory (you must set this environment variable in your shell configuration file like .bashrc or .zshrc). The format is described in this documentation, as an example you can use following line:

irc.libera.chat:7000:password=MYPASSWORD:nick=MYNICK:type=IRC-SSL

If you prefer more secure NISTP256 authentication (it is mandatory if you want to connect to the network via Tor) place following in your ~/.epicrc or ~/.ircrc files:

load global
load sasl_nistp256
set sasl_nistp256_ecdsatool ~/bin/ecdsatool
sasl_nistp256 *.libera.chat myaccount ~/.epic/libera.pem

sasl_nistp256_ecdsatool setting must point to ecdsatool binary, you must compile your own, source code is available on GitHub.

sasl_nistp256 command has three arguments - server mask where to attempt the authentication, account name and PEM file, generated with ecdsatool. Take serious consideration regarding PEM file - you should place it only on trusted machines and with 0600 permissions, because everyone who can get the file can access your IRC account.

For more details look comments in sasl_auth or sasl_nistp256 scripts.

If everything has been configured correctly, the next time you connect you should see the message: SASL authentication successful