Am I (permanently) going to have issues receiving DMs from others after I factory reset my node?

[SudoRand]

TLDR: I did a factory reset on my node, and suspect that may mean others will permanently have difficulty DMing me.

I got two nodes recently and was initially just experimenting between the two of them. Before I began interacting "for real" with the local Meshtastic community I made the (possibly fateful?) decision to do a factory reset and start fresh, which generated a new key pair.

There is a large public mesh in my area (I can see 100+ nodes). If I understand correctly, many of those nodes have written down my NodeId alongside my original public key in their NodeDB, and nodes that encountered me more recently have written down my NodeID alongside my new public key. Further, I believe DMs will simply fail to arrive if the sender has my incorrect public key in their NodeDB.

Is there means for reconciling this on the scale of a large public mesh, or will there always be nodes that can't DM me because they are using the wrong key? It doesn't seem feasible to expect everyone in my region to reset their NodeDB, and my understanding is that the NodeID is typically unchanging for the lifetime of the device (so I can't just start totally fresh in that regard).

[SudoRand]

Following up to see if anyone has any thoughts on ways to resolve this?

I think this situation is actually pretty easy to trigger, especially for a newbie. It can happen via factory resets, but also via the Regenerate Private Key button. Any of these may happen when someone is first experimenting with a Meshtastic node and they may not be aware of the permanent consequences.

It also has implications for buying and selling used hardware. If you buy hardware from someone, it's hard to know if they ever reset their keys, which could permanently stunt the hardware. Furthermore, to avoid this issue you have to keep using the same keys that the previous owner used, meaning they could (in theory) eavesdrop on your encrypted DMs and send messages as if they were you.

The one fix I can think of is allowing a way to generate a new NodeID. That would allow the hardware to be treated as a brand new node with new keys and be used normally going forward. I recognize that the NodeID is currently based on the hardware MAC address so changing it doesn't make sense, but there have been previous suggestions of dynamically generating it, which could work here. I recognize there would be some tradeoffs to that decision.

[rKsanu2MMYvypWePtQWM]

I do agree that the current way everything is done, there will be problems. However the node trying to DM you should have an error next to your node about the mismatched keys. However if you want to initiate the conversation, they won't get your message.

[jedahan]

Is there a way to reset to a new nodeid in the case there is no out of band way to signal “hey I reset my keys please delete mine from your nodedb”

[kevontheweb]

I would also like to know this. I had to factory reset my device an now cannot comm with any of the nodes in my area that I previously was able to.

[overkillthemighty]

My strategy is to choose a slightly different name with new keys and start over. I usually name my nodes with a prefix unique to me, an identifier, and a couple random numbers at the end. If there is an issue with keys, I dust off and nuke from orbit. Almost never happens anymore, but when I was starting I messed stuff up a lot.

[SudoRand]

My strategy is to choose a slightly different name with new keys and start over.

Can you confirm that changing the Long Name or Short Name is enough to fix this problem? If so that'll be perfectly satisfactory here.

I was under the impression that the other nodes associate keys with the Node ID (the node's numerical or hexadecimal identifier), which is based on the hardware's built-in MAC address and generally cannot be changed.

[SudoRand]

Update: I graduated this to issue report #8211