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authorNick Mathewson <nickm@torproject.org>2008-09-11 19:58:23 +0000
committerNick Mathewson <nickm@torproject.org>2008-09-11 19:58:23 +0000
commitf3791c6bf17e5ff628001cd10990534d82ebcea7 (patch)
treeb8d55aecc3e6ed2765181e746e3ac16af1f7083d /specs/U2-formats.txt
parent3b22d6a1fb41ede3b9f5afb84ecd78208fca8559 (diff)
Rename spec to be useful ; remove redundant copy of matt's spec draft.
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-
-0. Preliminaries
-
-0.0. Scope
-
- This document describes a system for distributing Tor bundle updates.
-
-0.1. Proposed code name
-
- Since "auto-update" is so generic, I've been thinking about going with
- "glider", based on the sugar glider you get when you search for "handy
- pocket creature". I haven't yet done a search to find out whether
- somebody else is using the name, so we shouldn't get too attached to it
- before we see if it's taken.
-
-0.2. Goals
-
- Once Tor was a single executable that you could just run. Then it
- required Privoxy. Now, thanks to the Tor Browser Bundle and related
- projects, a full installation can contain Tor, Privoxy, Torbutton,
- Firefox, and more.
-
- We need to keep this software updated. When we make security fixes,
- quick uptake helps narrow the window in which attackers can exploit
- them.
-
- We need updates to be easy. Each additional step a user must take to
- get updated means that more users will stay with older insecure
- versions.
-
- We need updates to be secure. We're supposed to be good at crypto;
- let's act like it. There is no good reason in this day and age to
- subject users to rollback attacks or unsigned packages or whatever.
-
- We need administration to be simple. Tor doesn't have a release
- engineering team, so we can't add too many hard steps to putting out
- a new release.
-
- The system should be easy to implement; we may need to do multiple
- implementations on the client side at least.
-
-0.2.1. Goals for package formats and PKIs
-
- It should be possible to mirror a repository using only rsync and
- cron.
-
- Separate keys should be used for different people and different
- roles.
-
- Only a minimal set of keys should have to be kept online to keep
- the system running.
-
- The system should handle any single computer or system or person
- being unavailable.
-
- The formats and protocols should be pretty future-proof.
-
-0.3. Non-goals
-
- This is not a general-purpose package manager like yum or apt: it
- assumes that users will want to have one or more of a set of
- "bundles", not an arbitrary selection of packages dependant on one
- another. (Rationale: these systems do what they do pretty well.)
-
- This is also not a general-purpose package format. It assumes the
- existence of an external package format that can handle install,
- update, remove, and version query. (Rationale:
-
-1. System overview
-
- The basic unit of updatability is a "bundle". A bundle is a set of
- software components, or "packages", plus some rules about installing
- them. Example bundles could be "Tor Browser, stable series" or
- "Basic Tor, development series".
-
- When Glider has responsibility for keeping a bundle up to date, we
- say that a user has "subscribed" to that bundle.
-
- Conceptually, there are four parts to keeping a bundle up to date:
-
- Polling:
- - Periodically, Glider asks a mirror whether there is a newer
- version of some bundle that a user has subscribed to. If so,
- Glider determines what's in the bundle.
-
- Fetching:
- - If the bundle contains packages that Glider hasn't installed
- or hasn't cached, it needs to download them from a mirror.
- This can happen over any protocol; v1 should support at least
- http and https-over-Tor. V1 should also support resuming
- partial downloads, since many users have unreliable
- connections.
-
- Later versions could support Bittorrent, or whatever.
-
- Validation:
- - Throughout the process, Glider must ensure that all the
- bundles are signed correctly, all the packages are signed
- correctly, and everything is up-to-date.
-
- We want to specify this so that users can't be tricked about
- the contents of a bundle, can't install a malicious package,
- and can't be fooled into believing that an old bundle is
- actually the latest.
-
- Installation:
- - Now Glider has a set of packages to install. The format of
- these packages will be platform-dependent: they could be pkg
- files on OSX, MSI files on Win32, RPMs or DEBs on Linux, and
- so on. Glider should query the user for permission to start,
- then install the packages.
-
-1.1. The repository
-
- Each Glider instance knows about one or more "repositories". A
- repository is a filesystem somewhere that contains the packages in a
- set of bundles, and some associated metadata. A repository must
- exist at one or more canonical hosts, and may have a number of full
- or partial mirrors.
-
- In v1, each Glider instance will know about only one repository.
-
-1.2. The PKI
-
- The trust root for the whole system is, necessarily, whatever users
- download when they first download a copy of Glider. We need to make
- sure that the first download happens from a site we trust, using
- HTTPS.
-
- Glider ships with root keys, which in turn are used to verify the
- keys for all the other roles. There are a few root keys, operated by
- trusted admins for the system. If root keys ever need to be changed,
- we can just ship an update of Glider: it's supposed to be
- self-updating anyway.
-
- The root keys are only used to sign a 'key list' of all the other
- keys and their roles. A key list is valid if it has been signed by a
- threshold of root keys.
-
- Each package is signed with the key of its authorized builder. For
- example, one volunteer may be authorized to build the mac versions of
- several packages, and another may be authorized to build the windows
- version of just one.
-
- Each bundle is signed with the key of its maintainer. It's assumed
- that the bundle maintainer might be the package maintainer for some
- but not all of the packages.
-
- The list of mirrors is also signed. If the mirror list is
- automatically updated, this key must be kept online; otherwise, it
- can be offline.
-
- To prevent an adversary from replaying an out-of-date signed
- document, an automated process periodically signs a timestamped
- statement containing the hashes of the mirror list, the latest
- bundles, and the key list, using yet another special-purpose key.
- This key must be kept online.
-
-1.3. Threat Model And Analysis
-
- We assume an adversary who can operate compromised mirrors, and who
- can possibly compromise the main repository. At worst, such an
- adversary can DOS users in a way that they can detect.
-
- We're assuming for the moment an OSX/Win32-like execution model,
- where all packages will run equal privilege, but occasionally
- installation will require higher privilege. This means that once a
- hostile package is installed, it can basically do whatever it
- wants. As rootkit writers demonstrate, compromise is really
- tenuous: any attacker who can induce a user to install a hostile
- piece of code has, in effect, permanently compromised that user
- until they reinstall.
-
- Thus, if an adversary compromises enough keys to sign a compromised
- package, or tricks a packager into signing a compromised package,
- and manages to get that package into a signed bundle, the best we
- can do is to limit the number of users who are affected. We do
- this by compartmentalizing signing keys so that only the package
- and bundle in question are at risk.
-
- (If we had replicated build processes and a bit-by-bit reliable
- build process, we could have multiple packagers test that a binary
- was built properly, and multiply sign it. This would be effective
- against an adversary compromising a single packaging key, but not
- against one compromising a source repository.)
-
-2. The repository layout
-
- The filesystem layout in the repository is used for two purposes:
- - To give mirrors an easy way to mirror only some of the repository.
- - To specify which parts of the repository a given key has the
- authority to sign.
-
- The following files exist in all repositories and mirrors:
-
- /meta/keys.txt
-
- Signed by the root keys; indicates keys and roles.
- [???? I'm using the txt extension here. Is that smart?]
-
- /meta/mirrors.txt
-
- Signed by the mirror key; indicates which parts of the
- repository are mirrored at what mirrors.
-
- /meta/timestamp.txt
-
- Signed by the timestamp key; indicates hashes and timestamps
- for the latest versions of keys.txt and mirrors.txt. Also
- indicates the latest version of each bundle for each os/arch.
-
- This is the only file that needs to be downloaded for polling.
-
- /bundleinfo/bundlename/os-arch/bundlename-os-arch-bundleversion.txt
-
- Signed by the appropriate bundle key. Describes what
- packages make up a bundle, and what order to install,
- uninstall, and upgrade them in.
-
- /pkginfo/packagename/os-arch/version/packagename-os-arch-packageversion.txt
-
- Signed by the appropriate package key. Tells the name of the
- file that makes up a package, its hash, and what procedure
- is used to install it.
-
- /packages/packagename/os-arch/version/(some filename)
-
- The actual package file. Its naming convention will depend
- on the underlying packaging system.
-
-3. Document formats
-
-3.1. Metaformat
-
- All documents use Rivest's SEXP meta-format as documented at
- http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/sexp.html
- with the restriction that no "display hint" fields are to be used,
- and the base64 transit encoding isn't used either.
-
- (We use SEXP because it's really easy to parse, really portable,
- and unlike most other tagged data formats, has a
- trivially-specified canonical format suitable for hashing.)
-
- In descriptions of syntax below, we use regex-style qualifiers, so
- that in
- (sofa slipcover? occupant* leg+)
- the sofa will have an optional slipcover, zero or more occupants,
- and one or more legs. This pattern matches (sofa leg) and (sofa
- slipcover occupant occupant leg leg leg leg) but not (sofa leg
- slipcover).
-
- We also use a braces notation to indicate elements that can occur
- in any order. For example,
- (bread {flour+ eggs? yeast})
- matches a list starting with "bread", and then containing one or
- more of flours, zero or one occurrences of eggs, and one
- occurrence of yeast, in any order. This pattern matches (bread eggs
- yeast flour) but not (bread yeast) or (bread flour eggs yeast
- macadamias).
-
-3.2. File formats: general principles
-
- We use tagged lists (lists whose first element is a string) to
- indicate typed objects. Tags are generally lower-case, with
- hyphens used for separation. Think Lispy.
-
- We use attrlists [lists of (key value) lists] to indicate a
- multimap from keys to values. Clients MUST accept unrecognized
- keys in these attrlists. The syntax for an attrlist with two
- recognized and required keys is typically given as ({(key1 val1)
- (key2 val2) (ATTR VAL)*}), indicating that the keys can occur in
- any order, intermixed with other attributes.
-
- Timestamp files will be downloaded very frequently; all other files
- will be much smaller in size than package files. Thus,
- size-optimization for timestamp files makes sense and most other
- other space optimizations don't.
-
- Versions are represented as lists of the form (v I1 I2 I3 I4 ...)
- where each item is a number or alphanumeric version component. For
- example, the version "0.2.1.5-alpha" is represented as (v 0 2 1 5
- alpha).
-
- All signed files are of the format:
-
- (signed
- X
- (signature ({(keyid K) (method M) (ATTR VAL)*}) SIG)+
- )
-
- where: X is a list whose first element describes the signed object.
- K is the identifier of a key signing the document
- M is the method to be used to make the signature
- (ATTR VAL) is an arbitrary list whose first element is a
- string.
- SIG is a signature of the canonical encoding of X using the
- identified key.
-
- We define two signing methods at present:
- sha256-oaep : A signature of the SHA256 hash of the canonical
- encoding of X, using OAEP+ padding. [XXXX say more about mgf]
-
- All times are given as strings of the format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS",
- in UTC.
-
- All keys are of the format:
- (pubkey ({(type TYPE) (ATTR VAL)*}) KEYVAL)
- where TYPE is a string describing the type of the key and how it's
- used to sign documents. The type determines the interpretation of
- KEYVAL.
-
- The ID of a key is the type field concatenated with the SHA-256
- hash of the canonical encoding of the KEYVAL field.
-
- We define one keytype at present: 'rsa'. The KEYVAL in this case
- is a 2-element list of (e n), with both values given in big-endian
- binary format. [This makes keys 45-60% more compact than using
- decimal integers.]
-
- All RSA keys must be at least 2048 bits long.
-
-
- Every role in the system is associated with a key. Replacing
- anything but a root key is supposed to be relatively easy.
-
- Root-keys sign other keys, and certify them as belonging to roles.
- Clients are configured to know the root keys.
-
- Bundle keys certify the contents of a bundle.
-
- Package keys certify packages for a given program or set of
- programs.
-
- Mirror keys certify a list of mirrors. We expect this to be an
- automated process.
-
- Timestamp keys certify that given versions of other metadata
- documents are up-to-date. They are the only keys that absolutely
- need to be kept online. (If they are not, timestamps won't be
- generated.)
-
-3.3. File formats: key list
-
- The key list file is signed by multiple root keys. It indicates
- which keys are authorized to sign which parts of the repository.
-
- (keylist
- (ts TIME)
- (keys
- ((key ({(roles (ROLE PATH)+) (ATTR VAL)*}) KEY)*)
- ...
- )
-
- The "ts" line describes when the keys file was updated. Clients
- MUST NOT replace a file with an older one, and SHOULD NOT accept a
- file too far in the future.
-
- A ROLE is one of "timestamp" "mirrors" "bundle" or "package".
-
- PATH is a path relative to the top of the directory hierarchy. It
- may contain "*" elements to indicate "any file", and may end with a
- "/**" element to indicate all files under a given point.
-
-3.4. File formats: mirror list
-
- The mirror list is signed by a mirror key. It indicates which
- mirrors are active and believed to be mirroring which parts of the
- repository.
-
- (mirrorlist
- (ts TIME)
- (mirrors
- ( (mirror ({(name N) (urlbase U) (contents PATH+) (weight W)
- (official)? (ATTR VAL)})) * )
- ...
- )
-
- Every mirror is a copy of some or all of the directory hierarchy
- containing at least the /meta, /bundles/, and /pkginfo directories.
-
- N is a descriptive name for the mirror; U is the URL of the mirror's
- base (i.e., the parent of the "meta" directory); and the PATH
- elements are the components describing how much of the packages
- directory is mirrored. Their format is as in the keylist file.
-
- W is an integer used to weight mirrors when picking at random;
- mirrors with more bandwidth should have higher weigths. The
- "official" element should only be present if the mirror is (one of
- the) official repositories operated by the Tor Project.
-
-3.5. File formats: timestamp files
-
- The timestamp file is signed by a timestamp key. It indicates the
- latest versions of other files, and contains a regularly updated
- timestamp to prevent rollback attacks.
-
- (ts
- ({(at TIME)
- (m TIME MIRRORLISTHASH)
- (k TIME KEYLISTHASH)
- (b NAME VERSION TIME PATH HASH)*})
- )
-
- TIME is when the timestamp was signed. MIRRORLISTHASH is the digest
- of the mirror-list file; KEYLISTHASH is the digest of the key list
- file; and the 'b' entries are a list of the latest version of each
- bundles and their locations and hashes.
-
-3.6. File formats: bundle files
-
- (bundle
- (at TIME)
- (os OS)
- [(arch ARCH)]
- (version V)
- (packages
- (NAME VERSION PATH HASH ({(order INST UPDATE REMOVE)
- (optional)?
- (gloss LANG TEXT)*
- (longloss LANG TEXT)*
- (ATTR VAL)*})? )* )
- )
-
- Most elements are self-explanatory; the INST, UPDATE, and REMOVE
- elements of the order element are numbers defining the order in
- which the packages are installed, updated, and removed respectively.
- The "optional" element is present if the package is optional.
- "Gloss" is a short utf-8 human-readable string explaining what the
- package provides for the bundle; "longloss" is a longer such
- utf-8 string.
-
- (Note that the gloss strings are meant, not to describe the package,
- but to describe what the package provides for the bundle. For
- example, "The Anonymous Email Bundle needs the Python Runtime to run
- Mixminion.")
-
- Multiple gloss strings are allowed; each should have a different
- language. The UI should display the must appropriate language to the
- user.
-
-3.7. File formats: package files
-
- (package
- ({(name NAME)
- (version VERSION)
- (format FMT ((ATTR VAL)*)? )
- (path PATH)
- (ts TIME)
- (digest HASH)
- (shortdesc LANG TEXT)*
- (longdesc LANG TEXT)*
- (ATTR VAL)* })
- )
-
- Most elements are self-explanatory. The "FMT" element describes the
- file format of the package, which should give enough information
- about how to install it.
-
- No two package files in the same repository should have the same
- name and version. If a package needs to be changed, the version
- MUST be incremented.
-
- Descriptions are tagged with languages in the same way as glosses.
-
-4. Detailed Workflows
-
-4.1. The client application
-
- Periodically, the client updater fetches a timestamp file from a
- mirror. If the timestamp in the file is up-to-date, the client
- first checks to see whether the keys file listed is one that the
- client has. If not, the client fetches it, makes sure the hash of
- the keys file matches the hash in the timestamp file, makes sure its
- date is more recent than any keys file they have but not too far in
- the future, and that it is signed by enough root keys that the
- client recognizes.
-
- [If the timestamp file is not up-to-date, the client tries a
- few mirrors until it finds one with a good timestamp.]
-
- [If the keys file from a mirror does not match the timestamp
- file, the client tries a new mirror for both.]
-
- [If the keys file is not signed by enough root keys, the client
- warns the user and tries another mirror for both the timestamp
- file and the keys file.]
-
- Once the client has an up-to-date keys file, the client checks the
- signature on the timestamp file. Assuming it checks out, the client
- refreshes the mirror list as needed, and refreshes any bundle files
- to which the user is subscribed if the client does not have
- the latest version of those files. The client checks signatures on
- these files, and fetches package metadata for any packages listed in
- the bundle file that the client does not have, checks signatures on
- these, and fetches binaries for packages that might need to be
- installed or updated. As the packages arrive, clients check their
- hashes.
-
- Once the client has gotten enough packages, it informs the user that
- new packages have arrived, and asks them if they want to update.
-
- Clients SHOULD cache at least the latest versions they have received
- of all files.
-
-4.1.1. Download preferences
-
- Users should be able to specify that packages must be only
- downloaded over Tor, or must only be downloaded over encrypted
- protocols, or both. Users should also be able to force
-
-4.2. Mirrors
-
- Periodically, mirrors do an rsync or equivalent to fetch the latest
- version of whatever parts of the repository have changed since the
- version they currently hold. Mirrors SHOULD replace older versions
- of the repository idempotently, so that clients are less likely to
- see inconsistent state. Mirrors SHOULD validate the information
- they receive, and not serve partial or inconsistent files.
-
-4.3. Workflow: Packagers
-
- When a new binary package is done, the person making the package
- runs a tool to generate and sign a package file, and sends both the
- package and the package file to a repository admin. Typically, the
- base package file will be generated by inserting a version into a
- template.
-
- Packages MAY have as part of their build process a script to
- generate the appropriately versioned package file. This script
- should at a minimum demand a build version, or use a timestamp in
- place of a build version, to prevent two packages with the same
- version from being created.
-
-4.4. Workflow: bundlers
-
- When the packages in a bundle are done, the bundler runs a tool on
- the package files to generate and sign a bundle file. Typically,
- this tool uses a template bundle file.
-
-4.5. Workflow: repository administrators
-
- Repository administrators use a tool to validate signed files into the
- repository. The repository should not be altered manually.
-
- This tool acts as follows:
- - Package files may be added, but never replaced.
- - Bundle files may be added, but never replaced.
- - No file may be added unless it is syntactically valid and
- signed by a key in the keys file authorized to sign files of
- this type in this file's location location.
-
- - A package file may not be added unless all of its binary
- packages match their hashes.
-
- - A bundle file may not be added unless all of its package files
- are present and match their hashes.
-
- - When adding a new keylist, bundle, or mirrors list, the
- timestamp file must be regenerated immediately.
-
-5. Parameter setting and corner cases.
-
-5.1. Timing:
-
- The timestamp file SHOULD be regenerated every 15 minutes. Mirrors
- SHOULD attempt to update every hour. Clients SHOULD accept a
- timestamp file up to 6 hours old.
-
-5.2. Format versioning and forward-compatibility:
-
- All of the above formats include the ability to add more
- attribute-value fields for backwards-compatible format changes. If
- we need to make a backwards incompatible format change, we create a
- new filename for the new format.
-
-5.3. Key management and migration:
-
- Root keys should be kept offline. All keys except timestamp and
- mirror keys should be stored encrypted.
-
- All the formats above allow for multiple keys to sign a single
- document. To replace a compromised root key, it suffices to sign
- keylist documents with both the compromised key and its replacement
- until all clients have updated to a new version of the autoupdater.
-
- To replace another key, it suffices to authorize the new key in the
- keylist. Note that a new package or bundle key must re-sign and
- issue new versions of all packages or bundles it has generated.
-
-
-
-F. Future directions and open questions
-
-F.1. Package decomposition
-
- It would be neat to decouple existing packages. Right now, we'd
- never want a windows user to have to fetch an openssl dll and Tor
- separately. But if they're using an auto-update tool, it'd be
- pretty keen to have them not need to fetch a new openssl every time
- Tor has a bugfix.
-
-F.2. Caching at Tor servers.
-
- See Tor Proposal number 127.
-
-F.3. Support for more download methods
-
- Ozymandns, chunked downloads, and bittorrent would all be neat
- ideas.
-
-
-R. Ideas I'm rejecting for the moment
-
-R.1. Considering recommended versions from Tor consensus directory documents
-
- This requires a working Tor to update Tor; that's not necessarily a
- great idea.
-
-R.2. Integration with existing GPG signatures
-
- The OpenPGP signature and key format is so complicated that you'd
- have to be mad to touch it.
-
-
-
-
-