Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

I needed a security camera inside my house, one that would send motion notifications to my smartphone and would allow me to livestream remotely. However, I could not find one that I could trust due to privacy concerns. Many of them upload the plaintext of videos to their servers and none is fully open-source as far as I know. Therefore, I decided to use my spare time to build one from scratch. Called Privastead (as in Private Homestead), it uses OpenMLS for end-to-end encryption (between the camera local hub and the smartphone) and is mostly implemented in Rust (except for part of the Android app that is implemented in Kotlin). The system is functional now and I've been using it in my own house for the past couple of weeks.

Based on some of the discussions I've seen online, it seems like there are other users who are also concerned with the privacy implications of home security cameras. Therefore, I decided to open source my solution for everyone to use. If you need a privacy-preserving home security camera, please give it a try and provide feedback. Note that trying out the system requires you to have a supported IP camera, a local machine connected to the IP camera, a server, and an Android smartphone. I have put together detailed instructions on setting up the system, which I hope makes it easier for others to get the system up and running.

In addition, consider contributing to the project. The prototype currently has a lot of limitations: mainly that it has only been tested with one IP camera, only allows the use of one camera, and only supports Android. I'll continue to improve the prototype as time permits, but progress will be much faster if there are other contributors as well.

Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)
github.com

Did you look into Scrypted? It is OSS. With HomeKit (which is how I use it) it is also E2EE. I’m not sure if their app is E2EE though, I only use HomeKit.

It’s pretty good and has an extensive ecosystem. The dev can be a bit… feisty though.

It’s very performant and easy to setup. I don’t use the NVR features as I already have an NVR, I essentially just use it for HomeKit integration of my cameras + doorbell.

https://github.com/koush/scrypted

I'm deeply interested in this and it just so happens I only need one hardened IP camera for my home.

Can you point out how your project provides a better security layout than say, Home Assistant? It does appear that there is little concern for encryption between cameras and local networking hubs, but the assumption seems to be that if the device is over a wire it's isolated to the local network, and if it's Wi-Fi it's subject to WPA. So there isn't much desire for additional encryption in that context.

Otherwise, Home Assistant's server/portal is more than capable of encryption beyond the camera's network interface.

You are a champion, thank you for this. Will have a look at it when time permits. I've had an irrational and random dislike for anything Rust for some reason... probably because big business seems to like it, but will have to choke on that for this project :)

Does the hub possess ability to delete recording from the server? I understand that hub being compromised is not a part of your threat model but I'm curious if you can preserve the recordings in case it was taken over.