en/glep/glep-0014.html

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<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/" title="Gentoo Linux Home Page">
<img src="http://www.gentoo.org/images/gentoo-new.gif" alt="[Gentoo]"
 border="0" width="150" height="35" /></a></td>
<td class="textlinks" align="left">
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux Home</a></b>]
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/peps">GLEP Index</a></b>]
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0014.txt">GLEP Source</a></b>]
</td></tr></table>
<table class="rfc2822 docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="field-name" />
<col class="field-body" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">14</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">security updates based on GLSA</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.5</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0014.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/10/26 00:21:28</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Marius Mauch &lt;genone&#32;&#97;t&#32;genone.de&gt;,</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Accepted</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0002.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">18 Aug 2003</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-History:</th><td class="field-body">22-Aug-2003, 24-Aug-2003, 10-Nov-2003, 25-Oct-2004</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<div class="contents topic">
<p class="topic-title first"><a id="contents" name="contents">Contents</a></p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id2" name="id2">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#status-update" id="id3" name="id3">Status Update</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#proposed-change" id="id5" name="id5">Proposed change</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference" href="#update-tool" id="id6" name="id6">Update tool</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#glsa-format" id="id7" name="id7">GLSA format</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#glsa-release-process" id="id8" name="id8">GLSA release process</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#portage-changes" id="id9" name="id9">Portage changes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id10" name="id10">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation" id="id11" name="id11">Implementation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id12" name="id12">Backwards compatibility</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id13" name="id13">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2" id="abstract" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
<p>There is currently no automatic way to check a Gentoo system for identified
security holes or auto-apply security fixes. This GLEP proposes a way to deal
with this issue</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" id="status-update" name="status-update">Status Update</a></h1>
<p>Beta implementation in gentoolkit.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" id="motivation" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
<p>Automatic checking for security updates is a often requested feature for Gentoo.
Implementing it will enable users to fix security holes without reading every
security announcement. It's also a feature that is often required in enterprise
environments.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" id="proposed-change" name="proposed-change">Proposed change</a></h1>
<div class="section">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" id="update-tool" name="update-tool">Update tool</a></h2>
<p>The coding part of this GLEP is a update tool that reads a GLSA, verifies its
GPG signature, checks if the system is affected by it and executes one of the
following actions, depending on user preferences:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>run all steps necessary to fix the security hole, including package updates and
daemon restarts.</li>
<li>instruct the user how to fix the security hole.</li>
<li>print the GLSA so the user can get more information if desired.</li>
</ul>
<p>Once this tool is implemented and well tested it can be integrated into portage.
A prototype <a class="reference" href="#implementation">implementation</a> for this tool exists.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" id="glsa-format" name="glsa-format">GLSA format</a></h2>
<p>The GLSA format needs to be specified, I suggest using XML for that to simplify
parsing and later extensions. See <a class="reference" href="#implementation">implementation</a> for a sample DTD. The format
has to be compatible with the update tool of course. If necessary a converter
tool or an editor could be written for people not comfortable with XML (update:
a QT based editor for the GLSA format written by plasmaroo exists in the
gentoo-projects repository). Every GLSA has to be GPG signed by the responsible
developer, who has to be a member of the security herd.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" id="glsa-release-process" name="glsa-release-process">GLSA release process</a></h2>
<p>Additional to sending the GLSA to the gentoo-announce mailing list it has to be
stored on a HTTP/FTP server and in the portage tree. I'd suggest a script should
be used to release a GLSA that will:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>check the GLSA for correctness</li>
<li>sign the GLSA with the developers GPG key</li>
<li>send a mail to gentoo-announce with the XML GLSA and a plaintext version attached</li>
<li>upload it to www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa (via cvs commit)</li>
<li>put it on the rsync server (via cvs commit)</li>
<li>notify the moderators on the forums to make an announcement</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" id="portage-changes" name="portage-changes">Portage changes</a></h2>
<p>Until the <a class="reference" href="#update-tool">update tool</a> is integrated into portage there will be no code changes
to portage. The update tool might require a few new configuration options, these
could be placed in make.conf or another config file in /etc/portage.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" id="rationale" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
<p>The lack of automated security updates for Gentoo is one of the most often requested
features for portage as it is one of the standard features of other distributions.
As Gentoo already provides GLSAs for important security bugs it is only natural
to use these to implement this feature.</p>
<p>To parse a GLSA in a program the format needs to be specified and a parser has
to be written. I suggest the use of XML for future GLSAs for the following reasons:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>can be parsed and validated with existing libraries</li>
<li>easy to extend while maintaining backwards compatibility</li>
<li>tools can convert XML GLSAs in other formats, the other direction would be harder</li>
<li>websites can use XSLT to markup GLSAs</li>
</ul>
<p>Putting the GLSAs in the portage tree allows all users to check their systems
for security updates without taking more actions and simplifies later integration
of the update tool into portage. For security minded persons the GLSAs are
available on a HTTP server to ease the load of the rsync servers.</p>
<p>To verify the signatures of the GLSAs the public keys of the developers should be
available in the portage tree and on the HTTP server. The verification is necessary
to prevent exploits by fake GLSAs.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" id="implementation" name="implementation">Implementation</a></h1>
<p>A prototype implementation (including the update tool, a DTD and a sample
XMLified GLSA) exists at <a class="reference" href="http://gentoo.devel-net.org/glsa/">http://gentoo.devel-net.org/glsa/</a> and in the
gentoo-projects/gentoo-security/GLSA repository. This GLEP is based
on that implementation, though it can be changed or rewritten if necessary.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" id="backwards-compatibility" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards compatibility</a></h1>
<p>The current <a class="reference" href="#glsa-release-process">GLSA release process</a> needs to be replaced with this proposal. It
would be nice if old GLSAs would be transformed into XML as well, but that is
not a requirement for this GLEP.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" id="copyright" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
</div>

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263			<img src="http://www.gentoo.org/images/gentoo-new.gif" alt="[Gentoo]"
264			border="0" width="150" height="35" /></a></td>
265			<td class="textlinks" align="left">
266			[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux Home</a></b>]
267	g2boojum	1.5	[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/peps">GLEP Index</a></b>]
268			[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0014.txt">GLEP Source</a></b>]
269	g2boojum	1.1	</td></tr></table>
270	g2boojum	1.5	<table class="rfc2822 docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
271	g2boojum	1.1	<col class="field-name" />
272			<col class="field-body" />
273			<tbody valign="top">
274			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">14</td>
275			</tr>
276			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">security updates based on GLSA</td>
277			</tr>
278	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.5</td>
279	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
280	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0014.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/10/26 00:21:28</a></td>
281	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
282			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Marius Mauch <genone at genone.de>,</td>
283			</tr>
284	g2boojum	1.3	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Accepted</td>
285	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
286			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
287			</tr>
288	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0002.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
289	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
290			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">18 Aug 2003</td>
291			</tr>
292	g2boojum	1.4	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-History:</th><td class="field-body">22-Aug-2003, 24-Aug-2003, 10-Nov-2003, 25-Oct-2004</td>
293	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
294			</tbody>
295			</table>
296			<hr />
297	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="contents topic">
298			<p class="topic-title first"><a id="contents" name="contents">Contents</a></p>
299	g2boojum	1.1	<ul class="simple">
300			<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id2" name="id2">Abstract</a></li>
301	g2boojum	1.4	<li><a class="reference" href="#status-update" id="id3" name="id3">Status Update</a></li>
302			<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
303			<li><a class="reference" href="#proposed-change" id="id5" name="id5">Proposed change</a><ul>
304			<li><a class="reference" href="#update-tool" id="id6" name="id6">Update tool</a></li>
305			<li><a class="reference" href="#glsa-format" id="id7" name="id7">GLSA format</a></li>
306			<li><a class="reference" href="#glsa-release-process" id="id8" name="id8">GLSA release process</a></li>
307			<li><a class="reference" href="#portage-changes" id="id9" name="id9">Portage changes</a></li>
308	g2boojum	1.1	</ul>
309			</li>
310	g2boojum	1.4	<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id10" name="id10">Rationale</a></li>
311			<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation" id="id11" name="id11">Implementation</a></li>
312			<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id12" name="id12">Backwards compatibility</a></li>
313			<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id13" name="id13">Copyright</a></li>
314	g2boojum	1.1	</ul>
315			</div>
316	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
317			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2" id="abstract" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
318	g2boojum	1.1	<p>There is currently no automatic way to check a Gentoo system for identified
319			security holes or auto-apply security fixes. This GLEP proposes a way to deal
320			with this issue</p>
321			</div>
322	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
323			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" id="status-update" name="status-update">Status Update</a></h1>
324	g2boojum	1.4	<p>Beta implementation in gentoolkit.</p>
325			</div>
326	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
327			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" id="motivation" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
328	g2boojum	1.1	<p>Automatic checking for security updates is a often requested feature for Gentoo.
329			Implementing it will enable users to fix security holes without reading every
330			security announcement. It's also a feature that is often required in enterprise
331			environments.</p>
332			</div>
333	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
334			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" id="proposed-change" name="proposed-change">Proposed change</a></h1>
335			<div class="section">
336			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" id="update-tool" name="update-tool">Update tool</a></h2>
337	g2boojum	1.2	<p>The coding part of this GLEP is a update tool that reads a GLSA, verifies its
338	g2boojum	1.5	GPG signature, checks if the system is affected by it and executes one of the
339	g2boojum	1.2	following actions, depending on user preferences:</p>
340	g2boojum	1.1	<ul class="simple">
341			<li>run all steps necessary to fix the security hole, including package updates and
342			daemon restarts.</li>
343			<li>instruct the user how to fix the security hole.</li>
344			<li>print the GLSA so the user can get more information if desired.</li>
345			</ul>
346			<p>Once this tool is implemented and well tested it can be integrated into portage.
347			A prototype <a class="reference" href="#implementation">implementation</a> for this tool exists.</p>
348			</div>
349	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
350			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" id="glsa-format" name="glsa-format">GLSA format</a></h2>
351	g2boojum	1.1	<p>The GLSA format needs to be specified, I suggest using XML for that to simplify
352			parsing and later extensions. See <a class="reference" href="#implementation">implementation</a> for a sample DTD. The format
353			has to be compatible with the update tool of course. If necessary a converter
354	g2boojum	1.3	tool or an editor could be written for people not comfortable with XML (update:
355	g2boojum	1.5	a QT based editor for the GLSA format written by plasmaroo exists in the
356			gentoo-projects repository). Every GLSA has to be GPG signed by the responsible
357	g2boojum	1.3	developer, who has to be a member of the security herd.</p>
358	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
359	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
360			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" id="glsa-release-process" name="glsa-release-process">GLSA release process</a></h2>
361	g2boojum	1.1	<p>Additional to sending the GLSA to the gentoo-announce mailing list it has to be
362	g2boojum	1.5	stored on a HTTP/FTP server and in the portage tree. I'd suggest a script should
363	g2boojum	1.1	be used to release a GLSA that will:</p>
364			<ul class="simple">
365			<li>check the GLSA for correctness</li>
366	g2boojum	1.2	<li>sign the GLSA with the developers GPG key</li>
367	g2boojum	1.1	<li>send a mail to gentoo-announce with the XML GLSA and a plaintext version attached</li>
368	g2boojum	1.3	<li>upload it to www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa (via cvs commit)</li>
369			<li>put it on the rsync server (via cvs commit)</li>
370	g2boojum	1.1	<li>notify the moderators on the forums to make an announcement</li>
371			</ul>
372			</div>
373	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
374			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" id="portage-changes" name="portage-changes">Portage changes</a></h2>
375	g2boojum	1.1	<p>Until the <a class="reference" href="#update-tool">update tool</a> is integrated into portage there will be no code changes
376			to portage. The update tool might require a few new configuration options, these
377			could be placed in make.conf or another config file in /etc/portage.</p>
378			</div>
379			</div>
380	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
381			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" id="rationale" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
382	g2boojum	1.1	<p>The lack of automated security updates for Gentoo is one of the most often requested
383			features for portage as it is one of the standard features of other distributions.
384			As Gentoo already provides GLSAs for important security bugs it is only natural
385			to use these to implement this feature.</p>
386			<p>To parse a GLSA in a program the format needs to be specified and a parser has
387			to be written. I suggest the use of XML for future GLSAs for the following reasons:</p>
388			<ul class="simple">
389			<li>can be parsed and validated with existing libraries</li>
390			<li>easy to extend while maintaining backwards compatibility</li>
391			<li>tools can convert XML GLSAs in other formats, the other direction would be harder</li>
392			<li>websites can use XSLT to markup GLSAs</li>
393			</ul>
394			<p>Putting the GLSAs in the portage tree allows all users to check their systems
395			for security updates without taking more actions and simplifies later integration
396	g2boojum	1.5	of the update tool into portage. For security minded persons the GLSAs are
397	g2boojum	1.1	available on a HTTP server to ease the load of the rsync servers.</p>
398	g2boojum	1.2	<p>To verify the signatures of the GLSAs the public keys of the developers should be
399			available in the portage tree and on the HTTP server. The verification is necessary
400			to prevent exploits by fake GLSAs.</p>
401	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
402	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
403			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" id="implementation" name="implementation">Implementation</a></h1>
404	g2boojum	1.1	<p>A prototype implementation (including the update tool, a DTD and a sample
405	g2boojum	1.5	XMLified GLSA) exists at <a class="reference" href="http://gentoo.devel-net.org/glsa/">http://gentoo.devel-net.org/glsa/</a> and in the
406			gentoo-projects/gentoo-security/GLSA repository. This GLEP is based
407	g2boojum	1.3	on that implementation, though it can be changed or rewritten if necessary.</p>
408	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
409	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
410			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" id="backwards-compatibility" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards compatibility</a></h1>
411			<p>The current <a class="reference" href="#glsa-release-process">GLSA release process</a> needs to be replaced with this proposal. It
412	g2boojum	1.1	would be nice if old GLSAs would be transformed into XML as well, but that is
413			not a requirement for this GLEP.</p>
414			</div>
415	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
416			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" id="copyright" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
417	g2boojum	1.1	<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
418			</div>
419	g2boojum	1.5
420	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
421	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="footer">
422	g2boojum	1.4	<hr class="footer" />
423	g2boojum	1.1	<a class="reference" href="glep-0014.txt">View document source</a>.
424	g2boojum	1.5	Generated on: 2006-10-10 20:23 UTC.
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426	g2boojum	1.5
427	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
428			</body>
429			</html>