Re: QAPI schema for desired state of LUKS keyslots

[Markus Armbruster]

Kevin Wolf <address@hidden> writes:

> Am 15.02.2020 um 15:51 hat Markus Armbruster geschrieben:
>> Review of this patch led to a lengthy QAPI schema design discussion.
>> Let me try to condense it into a concrete proposal.
>> 
>> This is about the QAPI schema, and therefore about QMP.  The
>> human-friendly interface is out of scope.  Not because it's not
>> important (it clearly is!), only because we need to *focus* to have a
>> chance at success.
>> 
>> I'm going to include a few design options.  I'll mark them "Option:".
>> 
>> The proposed "amend" interface takes a specification of desired state,
>> and figures out how to get from here to there by itself.  LUKS keyslots
>> are one part of desired state.
>> 
>> We commonly have eight LUKS keyslots.  Each keyslot is either active or
>> inactive.  An active keyslot holds a secret.
>> 
>> Goal: a QAPI type for specifying desired state of LUKS keyslots.
>> 
>> Proposal:
>> 
>>     { 'enum': 'LUKSKeyslotState',
>>       'data': [ 'active', 'inactive' ] }
>> 
>>     { 'struct': 'LUKSKeyslotActive',
>>       'data': { 'secret': 'str',
>>                 '*iter-time': 'int } }
>> 
>>     { 'struct': 'LUKSKeyslotInactive',
>>       'data': { '*old-secret': 'str' } }
>> 
>>     { 'union': 'LUKSKeyslotAmend',
>>       'base': { '*keyslot': 'int',
>>                 'state': 'LUKSKeyslotState' }
>>       'discriminator': 'state',
>>       'data': { 'active': 'LUKSKeyslotActive',
>>                 'inactive': 'LUKSKeyslotInactive' } }
>> 
>> LUKSKeyslotAmend specifies desired state for a set of keyslots.
>
> Though not arbitrary sets of keyslots, it's only a single keyslot or
> multiple keyslots containing the same secret. Might be good enough in
> practice, though it means that you may have to issue multiple amend
> commands to get to the final state that you really want (even if doing
> everything at once would be safe).

True.  I traded expressiveness for simplicity.

Here's the only practical case I can think of where the lack of
expressiveness may hurt: replace secrets.

With this interface, you need two operations: activate a free slot with
the new secret, deactivate the slot(s) with the old secret.  There is an
intermediate state with both secrets active.

A more expressive interface could let you do both in one step.  Relevant
only if the implementation actually provides atomicity.  Can it?

>> Four cases:
>> 
>> * @state is "active"
>> 
>>   Desired state is active holding the secret given by @secret.  Optional
>>   @iter-time tweaks key stretching.
>> 
>>   The keyslot is chosen either by the user or by the system, as follows:
>> 
>>   - @keyslot absent
>> 
>>     One inactive keyslot chosen by the system.  If none exists, error.
>> 
>>   - @keyslot present
>> 
>>     The keyslot given by @keyslot.
>> 
>>     If it's already active holding @secret, no-op.  Rationale: the
>>     current state is the desired state.
>> 
>>     If it's already active holding another secret, error.  Rationale:
>>     update in place is unsafe.
>> 
>>     Option: delete the "already active holding @secret" case.  Feels
>>     inelegant to me.  Okay if it makes things substantially simpler.
>> 
>> * @state is "inactive"
>> 
>>   Desired state is inactive.
>> 
>>   Error if the current state has active keyslots, but the desired state
>>   has none.
>> 
>>   The user choses the keyslot by number and/or by the secret it holds,
>>   as follows:
>> 
>>   - @keyslot absent, @old-secret present
>> 
>>     All active keyslots holding @old-secret.  If none exists, error.
>> 
>>   - @keyslot present, @old-secret absent
>> 
>>     The keyslot given by @keyslot.
>> 
>>     If it's already inactive, no-op.  Rationale: the current state is
>>     the desired state.
>> 
>>   - both @keyslot and @old-secret present
>> 
>>     The keyslot given by keyslot.
>> 
>>     If it's inactive or holds a secret other than @old-secret, error.
>> 
>>     Option: error regardless of @old-secret, if that makes things
>>     simpler.
>> 
>>   - neither @keyslot not @old-secret present
>> 
>>     All keyslots.  Note that this will error out due to "desired state
>>     has no active keyslots" unless the current state has none, either.
>> 
>>     Option: error out unconditionally.
>> 
>> Note that LUKSKeyslotAmend can specify only one desired state for
>> commonly just one keyslot.  Rationale: this satisfies practical needs.
>> An array of LUKSKeyslotAmend could specify desired state for all
>> keyslots.  However, multiple array elements could then apply to the same
>> slot.  We'd have to specify how to resolve such conflicts, and we'd have
>> to code up conflict detection.  Not worth it.
>> 
>> Examples:
>> 
>> * Add a secret to some free keyslot:
>> 
>>   { "state": "active", "secret": "CIA/GRU/MI6" }
>> 
>> * Deactivate all keyslots holding a secret:
>> 
>>   { "state": "inactive", "old-secret": "CIA/GRU/MI6" }
>> 
>> * Add a secret to a specific keyslot:
>> 
>>   { "state": "active", "secret": "CIA/GRU/MI6", "keyslot": 0 }
>> 
>> * Deactivate a specific keyslot:
>> 
>>   { "state": "inactive", "keyslot": 0 }
>> 
>>   Possibly less dangerous:
>> 
>>   { "state": "inactive", "keyslot": 0, "old-secret": "CIA/GRU/MI6" }
>> 
>> Option: Make use of Max's patches to support optional union tag with
>> default value to let us default @state to "active".  I doubt this makes
>> much of a difference in QMP.  A human-friendly interface should probably
>> be higher level anyway (Daniel pointed to cryptsetup).
>> 
>> Option: LUKSKeyslotInactive member @old-secret could also be named
>> @secret.  I don't care.
>> 
>> Option: delete @keyslot.  It provides low-level slot access.
>> Complicates the interface.  Fine if we need lov-level slot access.  Do
>> we?
>> 
>> I apologize for the time it has taken me to write this.
>> 
>> Comments?
>
> Works for me (without taking any of the options).
>
> The unclear part is what the human-friendly interface should look like
> and where it should live. I'm afraid doing only the QMP part and calling
> the feature completed like we do so often won't work in this case.

No argument.  Perhaps Daniel can help with designing a human-friendly
high-level interface.