Install on IIS as a web app

By default the application runs on Kestrel, the web server that comes with .NET. On a Windows server you can put Internet Information Services (IIS) in front of it, so that people open their wallets from other computers.

Wallets are not created through the web site

For security, the public address of the site only opens wallets that already exist. A wallet (vault) is created on the server itself, or copied from another installation: see Creating wallets.

What you need

• A Windows server with IIS.
• The zip file of the application, not the installer: the installer is made for one person on their own computer. See Install on Windows, without the installer for the download and how to check it.
• The ASP.NET Core Runtime 10 Hosting Bundle.

Steps

1. Install the ASP.NET Core Runtime 10 Hosting Bundle from the .NET 10 download page. IIS must be restarted afterwards.

2. Unzip the zip file of the application. IIS needs permission to read the files; the simplest way is to unzip it inside C:\inetpub, for example to C:\inetpub\DistributedCryptography.

3. If they do not exist, create these folders inside the application folder and give IIS_IUSRS full access to them:

   • PrivateTempStorage
   • PublicTempStorage

4. In IIS Manager, create a new web site that points to the application folder, and give it two bindings:

   • The public one, with the host name of your site (for example wallet.example.com). Do not leave the host name empty.
   • The local one: host name localhost, port 5000. It is the address used on the server itself to create wallets. Do not open port 5000 in the firewall: it must not be reachable from other computers.

5. Give the wallet a place for its data. In IIS Manager open Application Pools, select the pool of the site, choose Advanced Settings and set Load User Profile to True.

   The wallets are then kept in C:\Users\<name of the application pool>\DistributedCryptography\Wallets. Only that application pool and the administrators of the server can read the folder. Include it in your backups.

   Without this setting the wallet has nowhere to keep its data, and the wallets page answers with error 500.

6. Install a certificate on the public binding, so that all the traffic is encrypted (HTTPS).

7. On the server, open http://localhost:5000/wallet.wallets in the browser. You see the buttons to create and restore wallets, and the folder where the wallets are kept.

Creating wallets

Through the public address the page shows the list of wallets and nothing else. The buttons Create a new Wallet, Restore Wallet, Create/Restore Advance Brain Wallet and Configuration appear only when the page is opened on the server itself, at http://localhost:5000/wallet.wallets.

There are two ways to put a wallet on the server:

• Create or restore it on the server, with a browser on the server, as the second video below shows.
• Copy it from another installation. On the computer that has the wallet, the wallets page shows the folder where the wallets are kept: each wallet is a folder with its name. Copy that folder into the Wallets folder of the server (step 5). The wallet appears in the list the next time the page is opened.

The first online login must be done on the server itself

For security, the first time a wallet uses the online features you have to log in to our servers from a browser on the server, at http://localhost:5000, not through the public web site.

Keeping the wallets in another folder

To choose the folder yourself, for example on another disk, create it outside the application folder and tell the application pool where it is. In a command prompt opened as administrator (replace the name of the pool and the folder):

icacls D:\WalletData /grant "IIS APPPOOL\<name of the application pool>:(OI)(CI)M"

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config -section:system.applicationHost/applicationPools /+"[name='<name of the application pool>'].environmentVariables.[name='DISTCRYPT_DATA_DIR',value='D:\WalletData']" /commit:apphost

Then recycle the application pool. With this setting Load User Profile is not needed.

Updating

Stop the web site in IIS Manager, unzip the new version over the application folder, replacing the files, and start the site again. The wallets are not in that folder, so they are not touched.

Videos

The videos were recorded with an earlier version, which kept the wallets in a Wallets folder inside the application. The rest is the same.

Think before exposing a wallet to the internet

Anyone who can open the site can see the list of wallets and try passwords. Use HTTPS, restrict who can reach the site, and remember that the HSM REST service has no authentication.