en/glep/glep-0014.html

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<!--
This HTML is auto-generated.  DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!  If you are writing a new
PEP, see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html for instructions and links
to templates.  DO NOT USE THIS HTML FILE AS YOUR TEMPLATE!
-->
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.4: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/" />
  <title>GLEP 14 -- security updates based on GLSA</title>
  <style type="text/css">

/*
:Author: David Goodger
:Contact: goodger@users.sourceforge.net
:date: $Date: 2003/06/02 17:03:08 $
:version: $Revision: 1.1 $
:copyright: This stylesheet has been placed in the public domain.

Default cascading style sheet for the PEP HTML output of Docutils.
*/

.first {
  margin-top: 0 }

.last {
  margin-bottom: 0 }

.navigation {
  width: 100% ;
  background: #cc99ff ;
  margin-top: 0px ;
  margin-bottom: 0px }

.navigation .navicon {
  width: 150px ;
  height: 35px }

.navigation .textlinks {
  padding-left: 1em ;
  text-align: left }

.navigation td, .navigation th {
  padding-left: 0em ;
  padding-right: 0em ;
  vertical-align: middle }

.rfc2822 {
  margin-top: 0.5em ;
  margin-left: 0.5em ;
  margin-right: 0.5em ;
  margin-bottom: 0em }

.rfc2822 td {
  text-align: left }

.rfc2822 th.field-name {
  text-align: right ;
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  padding-right: 0.5em ;
  font-weight: bold ;
  margin-bottom: 0em }

a.toc-backref {
  text-decoration: none ;
  color: black }

body {
  margin: 0px ;
  margin-bottom: 1em ;
  padding: 0px }

dd {
  margin-bottom: 0.5em }

div.section {
  margin-left: 1em ;
  margin-right: 1em ;
  margin-bottom: 1.5em }

div.section div.section {
  margin-left: 0em ;
  margin-right: 0em ;
  margin-top: 1.5em }

div.abstract {
  margin: 2em 5em }

div.abstract p.topic-title {
  font-weight: bold ;
  text-align: center }

div.attention, div.caution, div.danger, div.error, div.hint,
div.important, div.note, div.tip, div.warning {
  margin: 2em ;
  border: medium outset ;
  padding: 1em }

div.attention p.admonition-title, div.caution p.admonition-title,
div.danger p.admonition-title, div.error p.admonition-title,
div.warning p.admonition-title {
  color: red ;
  font-weight: bold ;
  font-family: sans-serif }

div.hint p.admonition-title, div.important p.admonition-title,
div.note p.admonition-title, div.tip p.admonition-title {
  font-weight: bold ;
  font-family: sans-serif }

div.figure {
  margin-left: 2em }

div.footer, div.header {
  font-size: smaller }

div.footer {
  margin-left: 1em ;
  margin-right: 1em }

div.system-messages {
  margin: 5em }

div.system-messages h1 {
  color: red }

div.system-message {
  border: medium outset ;
  padding: 1em }

div.system-message p.system-message-title {
  color: red ;
  font-weight: bold }

div.topic {
  margin: 2em }

h1 {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-size: large }

h2 {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-size: medium }

h3 {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-size: small }

h4 {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-style: italic ;
  font-size: small }

h5 {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: x-small }

h6 {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-style: italic ;
  font-size: x-small }

.section hr {
  width: 75% }

ol.simple, ul.simple {
  margin-bottom: 1em }

ol.arabic {
  list-style: decimal }

ol.loweralpha {
  list-style: lower-alpha }

ol.upperalpha {
  list-style: upper-alpha }

ol.lowerroman {
  list-style: lower-roman }

ol.upperroman {
  list-style: upper-roman }

p.caption {
  font-style: italic }

p.credits {
  font-style: italic ;
  font-size: smaller }

p.label {
  white-space: nowrap }

p.topic-title {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-weight: bold }

pre.line-block {
  font-family: serif ;
  font-size: 100% }

pre.literal-block, pre.doctest-block {
  margin-left: 2em ;
  margin-right: 2em ;
  background-color: #eeeeee }

span.classifier {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-style: oblique }

span.classifier-delimiter {
  font-family: sans-serif ;
  font-weight: bold }

span.interpreted {
  font-family: sans-serif }

span.option-argument {
  font-style: italic }

span.pre {
  white-space: pre }

span.problematic {
  color: red }

table {
  margin-top: 0.5em ;
  margin-bottom: 0.5em }

td, th {
  padding-left: 0.5em ;
  padding-right: 0.5em ;
  vertical-align: top }

td.num {
  text-align: right }

th.field-name {
  font-weight: bold ;
  text-align: left ;
  white-space: nowrap }

h1 tt, h2 tt, h3 tt, h4 tt, h5 tt, h6 tt {
  font-size: 100% }

tt {
  background-color: #eeeeee }

ul.auto-toc {
  list-style-type: none }

</style>
</head>
<body bgcolor="white">
<table class="navigation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
       width="100%" border="0">
<tr><td class="navicon" width="150" height="35">
<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>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Requires:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glepglep-0021.html">21</a></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>Preliminary implementation <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">glsa-check</span></tt> in gentoolkit, final implementation
pending set support in portage (GLEP 21).</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>

</div>
<div class="footer">
<hr class="footer" />
<a class="reference" href="glep-0014.txt">View document source</a>.
Generated on: 2006-10-14 03:00 UTC.
Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source.

</div>
</body>
</html>

1	g2boojum	1.1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
2			<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
3			<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
4			<!--
5			This HTML is auto-generated. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! If you are writing a new
6			PEP, see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html for instructions and links
7			to templates. DO NOT USE THIS HTML FILE AS YOUR TEMPLATE!
8			-->
9			<head>
10			<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
11	g2boojum	1.5	<meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.4: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/" />
12	g2boojum	1.1	<title>GLEP 14 -- security updates based on GLSA</title>
13	g2boojum	1.5	<style type="text/css">
14
15			/*
16			:Author: David Goodger
17			:Contact: goodger@users.sourceforge.net
18			:date: $Date: 2003/06/02 17:03:08 $
19			:version: $Revision: 1.1 $
20			:copyright: This stylesheet has been placed in the public domain.
21
22			Default cascading style sheet for the PEP HTML output of Docutils.
23			*/
24
25			.first {
26			margin-top: 0 }
27
28			.last {
29			margin-bottom: 0 }
30
31			.navigation {
32			width: 100% ;
33			background: #cc99ff ;
34			margin-top: 0px ;
35			margin-bottom: 0px }
36
37			.navigation .navicon {
38			width: 150px ;
39			height: 35px }
40
41			.navigation .textlinks {
42			padding-left: 1em ;
43			text-align: left }
44
45			.navigation td, .navigation th {
46			padding-left: 0em ;
47			padding-right: 0em ;
48			vertical-align: middle }
49
50			.rfc2822 {
51			margin-top: 0.5em ;
52			margin-left: 0.5em ;
53			margin-right: 0.5em ;
54			margin-bottom: 0em }
55
56			.rfc2822 td {
57			text-align: left }
58
59			.rfc2822 th.field-name {
60			text-align: right ;
61			font-family: sans-serif ;
62			padding-right: 0.5em ;
63			font-weight: bold ;
64			margin-bottom: 0em }
65
66			a.toc-backref {
67			text-decoration: none ;
68			color: black }
69
70			body {
71			margin: 0px ;
72			margin-bottom: 1em ;
73			padding: 0px }
74
75			dd {
76			margin-bottom: 0.5em }
77
78			div.section {
79			margin-left: 1em ;
80			margin-right: 1em ;
81			margin-bottom: 1.5em }
82
83			div.section div.section {
84			margin-left: 0em ;
85			margin-right: 0em ;
86			margin-top: 1.5em }
87
88			div.abstract {
89			margin: 2em 5em }
90
91			div.abstract p.topic-title {
92			font-weight: bold ;
93			text-align: center }
94
95			div.attention, div.caution, div.danger, div.error, div.hint,
96			div.important, div.note, div.tip, div.warning {
97			margin: 2em ;
98			border: medium outset ;
99			padding: 1em }
100
101			div.attention p.admonition-title, div.caution p.admonition-title,
102			div.danger p.admonition-title, div.error p.admonition-title,
103			div.warning p.admonition-title {
104			color: red ;
105			font-weight: bold ;
106			font-family: sans-serif }
107
108			div.hint p.admonition-title, div.important p.admonition-title,
109			div.note p.admonition-title, div.tip p.admonition-title {
110			font-weight: bold ;
111			font-family: sans-serif }
112
113			div.figure {
114			margin-left: 2em }
115
116			div.footer, div.header {
117			font-size: smaller }
118
119			div.footer {
120			margin-left: 1em ;
121			margin-right: 1em }
122
123			div.system-messages {
124			margin: 5em }
125
126			div.system-messages h1 {
127			color: red }
128
129			div.system-message {
130			border: medium outset ;
131			padding: 1em }
132
133			div.system-message p.system-message-title {
134			color: red ;
135			font-weight: bold }
136
137			div.topic {
138			margin: 2em }
139
140			h1 {
141			font-family: sans-serif ;
142			font-size: large }
143
144			h2 {
145			font-family: sans-serif ;
146			font-size: medium }
147
148			h3 {
149			font-family: sans-serif ;
150			font-size: small }
151
152			h4 {
153			font-family: sans-serif ;
154			font-style: italic ;
155			font-size: small }
156
157			h5 {
158			font-family: sans-serif;
159			font-size: x-small }
160
161			h6 {
162			font-family: sans-serif;
163			font-style: italic ;
164			font-size: x-small }
165
166			.section hr {
167			width: 75% }
168
169			ol.simple, ul.simple {
170			margin-bottom: 1em }
171
172			ol.arabic {
173			list-style: decimal }
174
175			ol.loweralpha {
176			list-style: lower-alpha }
177
178			ol.upperalpha {
179			list-style: upper-alpha }
180
181			ol.lowerroman {
182			list-style: lower-roman }
183
184			ol.upperroman {
185			list-style: upper-roman }
186
187			p.caption {
188			font-style: italic }
189
190			p.credits {
191			font-style: italic ;
192			font-size: smaller }
193
194			p.label {
195			white-space: nowrap }
196
197			p.topic-title {
198			font-family: sans-serif ;
199			font-weight: bold }
200
201			pre.line-block {
202			font-family: serif ;
203			font-size: 100% }
204
205			pre.literal-block, pre.doctest-block {
206			margin-left: 2em ;
207			margin-right: 2em ;
208			background-color: #eeeeee }
209
210			span.classifier {
211			font-family: sans-serif ;
212			font-style: oblique }
213
214			span.classifier-delimiter {
215			font-family: sans-serif ;
216			font-weight: bold }
217
218			span.interpreted {
219			font-family: sans-serif }
220
221			span.option-argument {
222			font-style: italic }
223
224			span.pre {
225			white-space: pre }
226
227			span.problematic {
228			color: red }
229
230			table {
231			margin-top: 0.5em ;
232			margin-bottom: 0.5em }
233
234			td, th {
235			padding-left: 0.5em ;
236			padding-right: 0.5em ;
237			vertical-align: top }
238
239			td.num {
240			text-align: right }
241
242			th.field-name {
243			font-weight: bold ;
244			text-align: left ;
245			white-space: nowrap }
246
247			h1 tt, h2 tt, h3 tt, h4 tt, h5 tt, h6 tt {
248			font-size: 100% }
249
250			tt {
251			background-color: #eeeeee }
252
253			ul.auto-toc {
254			list-style-type: none }
255
256			</style>
257	g2boojum	1.1	</head>
258			<body bgcolor="white">
259			<table class="navigation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
260			width="100%" border="0">
261			<tr><td class="navicon" width="150" height="35">
262			<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/" title="Gentoo Linux Home Page">
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	genone	1.6	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Requires:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glepglep-0021.html">21</a></td>
295			</tr>
296	g2boojum	1.1	</tbody>
297			</table>
298			<hr />
299	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="contents topic">
300			<p class="topic-title first"><a id="contents" name="contents">Contents</a></p>
301	g2boojum	1.1	<ul class="simple">
302			<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id2" name="id2">Abstract</a></li>
303	g2boojum	1.4	<li><a class="reference" href="#status-update" id="id3" name="id3">Status Update</a></li>
304			<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
305			<li><a class="reference" href="#proposed-change" id="id5" name="id5">Proposed change</a><ul>
306			<li><a class="reference" href="#update-tool" id="id6" name="id6">Update tool</a></li>
307			<li><a class="reference" href="#glsa-format" id="id7" name="id7">GLSA format</a></li>
308			<li><a class="reference" href="#glsa-release-process" id="id8" name="id8">GLSA release process</a></li>
309			<li><a class="reference" href="#portage-changes" id="id9" name="id9">Portage changes</a></li>
310	g2boojum	1.1	</ul>
311			</li>
312	g2boojum	1.4	<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id10" name="id10">Rationale</a></li>
313			<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation" id="id11" name="id11">Implementation</a></li>
314			<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id12" name="id12">Backwards compatibility</a></li>
315			<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id13" name="id13">Copyright</a></li>
316	g2boojum	1.1	</ul>
317			</div>
318	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
319			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2" id="abstract" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
320	g2boojum	1.1	<p>There is currently no automatic way to check a Gentoo system for identified
321			security holes or auto-apply security fixes. This GLEP proposes a way to deal
322			with this issue</p>
323			</div>
324	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
325			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" id="status-update" name="status-update">Status Update</a></h1>
326	genone	1.6	<p>Preliminary implementation <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">glsa-check</span></tt> in gentoolkit, final implementation
327			pending set support in portage (GLEP 21).</p>
328	g2boojum	1.4	</div>
329	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
330			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" id="motivation" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
331	g2boojum	1.1	<p>Automatic checking for security updates is a often requested feature for Gentoo.
332			Implementing it will enable users to fix security holes without reading every
333			security announcement. It's also a feature that is often required in enterprise
334			environments.</p>
335			</div>
336	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
337			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" id="proposed-change" name="proposed-change">Proposed change</a></h1>
338			<div class="section">
339			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" id="update-tool" name="update-tool">Update tool</a></h2>
340	g2boojum	1.2	<p>The coding part of this GLEP is a update tool that reads a GLSA, verifies its
341	g2boojum	1.5	GPG signature, checks if the system is affected by it and executes one of the
342	g2boojum	1.2	following actions, depending on user preferences:</p>
343	g2boojum	1.1	<ul class="simple">
344			<li>run all steps necessary to fix the security hole, including package updates and
345			daemon restarts.</li>
346			<li>instruct the user how to fix the security hole.</li>
347			<li>print the GLSA so the user can get more information if desired.</li>
348			</ul>
349			<p>Once this tool is implemented and well tested it can be integrated into portage.
350			A prototype <a class="reference" href="#implementation">implementation</a> for this tool exists.</p>
351			</div>
352	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
353			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" id="glsa-format" name="glsa-format">GLSA format</a></h2>
354	g2boojum	1.1	<p>The GLSA format needs to be specified, I suggest using XML for that to simplify
355			parsing and later extensions. See <a class="reference" href="#implementation">implementation</a> for a sample DTD. The format
356			has to be compatible with the update tool of course. If necessary a converter
357	g2boojum	1.3	tool or an editor could be written for people not comfortable with XML (update:
358	g2boojum	1.5	a QT based editor for the GLSA format written by plasmaroo exists in the
359			gentoo-projects repository). Every GLSA has to be GPG signed by the responsible
360	g2boojum	1.3	developer, who has to be a member of the security herd.</p>
361	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
362	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
363			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" id="glsa-release-process" name="glsa-release-process">GLSA release process</a></h2>
364	g2boojum	1.1	<p>Additional to sending the GLSA to the gentoo-announce mailing list it has to be
365	g2boojum	1.5	stored on a HTTP/FTP server and in the portage tree. I'd suggest a script should
366	g2boojum	1.1	be used to release a GLSA that will:</p>
367			<ul class="simple">
368			<li>check the GLSA for correctness</li>
369	g2boojum	1.2	<li>sign the GLSA with the developers GPG key</li>
370	g2boojum	1.1	<li>send a mail to gentoo-announce with the XML GLSA and a plaintext version attached</li>
371	g2boojum	1.3	<li>upload it to www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa (via cvs commit)</li>
372			<li>put it on the rsync server (via cvs commit)</li>
373	g2boojum	1.1	<li>notify the moderators on the forums to make an announcement</li>
374			</ul>
375			</div>
376	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
377			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" id="portage-changes" name="portage-changes">Portage changes</a></h2>
378	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
379			to portage. The update tool might require a few new configuration options, these
380			could be placed in make.conf or another config file in /etc/portage.</p>
381			</div>
382			</div>
383	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
384			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" id="rationale" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
385	g2boojum	1.1	<p>The lack of automated security updates for Gentoo is one of the most often requested
386			features for portage as it is one of the standard features of other distributions.
387			As Gentoo already provides GLSAs for important security bugs it is only natural
388			to use these to implement this feature.</p>
389			<p>To parse a GLSA in a program the format needs to be specified and a parser has
390			to be written. I suggest the use of XML for future GLSAs for the following reasons:</p>
391			<ul class="simple">
392			<li>can be parsed and validated with existing libraries</li>
393			<li>easy to extend while maintaining backwards compatibility</li>
394			<li>tools can convert XML GLSAs in other formats, the other direction would be harder</li>
395			<li>websites can use XSLT to markup GLSAs</li>
396			</ul>
397			<p>Putting the GLSAs in the portage tree allows all users to check their systems
398			for security updates without taking more actions and simplifies later integration
399	g2boojum	1.5	of the update tool into portage. For security minded persons the GLSAs are
400	g2boojum	1.1	available on a HTTP server to ease the load of the rsync servers.</p>
401	g2boojum	1.2	<p>To verify the signatures of the GLSAs the public keys of the developers should be
402			available in the portage tree and on the HTTP server. The verification is necessary
403			to prevent exploits by fake GLSAs.</p>
404	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
405	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
406			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" id="implementation" name="implementation">Implementation</a></h1>
407	g2boojum	1.1	<p>A prototype implementation (including the update tool, a DTD and a sample
408	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
409			gentoo-projects/gentoo-security/GLSA repository. This GLEP is based
410	g2boojum	1.3	on that implementation, though it can be changed or rewritten if necessary.</p>
411	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
412	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
413			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" id="backwards-compatibility" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards compatibility</a></h1>
414			<p>The current <a class="reference" href="#glsa-release-process">GLSA release process</a> needs to be replaced with this proposal. It
415	g2boojum	1.1	would be nice if old GLSAs would be transformed into XML as well, but that is
416			not a requirement for this GLEP.</p>
417			</div>
418	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
419			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" id="copyright" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
420	g2boojum	1.1	<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
421			</div>
422	g2boojum	1.5
423	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
424	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="footer">
425	g2boojum	1.4	<hr class="footer" />
426	g2boojum	1.1	<a class="reference" href="glep-0014.txt">View document source</a>.
427	genone	1.6	Generated on: 2006-10-14 03:00 UTC.
428	g2boojum	1.1	Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source.
429	g2boojum	1.5
430	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
431			</body>
432			</html>
433