[PATCH] Keys: Make request-key create an authorisation key

The attached patch makes the following changes:

 (1) There's a new special key type called ".request_key_auth".

     This is an authorisation key for when one process requests a key and
     another process is started to construct it. This type of key cannot be
     created by the user; nor can it be requested by kernel services.

     Authorisation keys hold two references:

     (a) Each refers to a key being constructed. When the key being
     	 constructed is instantiated the authorisation key is revoked,
     	 rendering it of no further use.

     (b) The "authorising process". This is either:

     	 (i) the process that called request_key(), or:

     	 (ii) if the process that called request_key() itself had an
     	      authorisation key in its session keyring, then the authorising
     	      process referred to by that authorisation key will also be
     	      referred to by the new authorisation key.

	 This means that the process that initiated a chain of key requests
	 will authorise the lot of them, and will, by default, wind up with
	 the keys obtained from them in its keyrings.

 (2) request_key() creates an authorisation key which is then passed to
     /sbin/request-key in as part of a new session keyring.

 (3) When request_key() is searching for a key to hand back to the caller, if
     it comes across an authorisation key in the session keyring of the
     calling process, it will also search the keyrings of the process
     specified therein and it will use the specified process's credentials
     (fsuid, fsgid, groups) to do that rather than the calling process's
     credentials.

     This allows a process started by /sbin/request-key to find keys belonging
     to the authorising process.

 (4) A key can be read, even if the process executing KEYCTL_READ doesn't have
     direct read or search permission if that key is contained within the
     keyrings of a process specified by an authorisation key found within the
     calling process's session keyring, and is searchable using the
     credentials of the authorising process.

     This allows a process started by /sbin/request-key to read keys belonging
     to the authorising process.

 (5) The magic KEY_SPEC_*_KEYRING key IDs when passed to KEYCTL_INSTANTIATE or
     KEYCTL_NEGATE will specify a keyring of the authorising process, rather
     than the process doing the instantiation.

 (6) One of the process keyrings can be nominated as the default to which
     request_key() should attach new keys if not otherwise specified. This is
     done with KEYCTL_SET_REQKEY_KEYRING and one of the KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_*
     constants. The current setting can also be read using this call.

 (7) request_key() is partially interruptible. If it is waiting for another
     process to finish constructing a key, it can be interrupted. This permits
     a request-key cycle to be broken without recourse to rebooting.

Signed-Off-By: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Signed-Off-By: Benoit Boissinot <benoit.boissinot@ens-lyon.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 34 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/keys.txt b/Documentation/keys.txt
index 3df40c1fe15a..0321ded4b9ae 100644
--- a/Documentation/keys.txt
+++ b/Documentation/keys.txt
@@ -591,6 +591,37 @@ The keyctl syscall functions are:
      this case too.
 
 
+ (*) Set the default request-key destination keyring.
+
+        long keyctl(KEYCTL_SET_REQKEY_KEYRING, int reqkey_defl);
+
+     This sets the default keyring to which implicitly requested keys will be
+     attached for this thread. reqkey_defl should be one of these constants:
+
+        CONSTANT                                VALUE   NEW DEFAULT KEYRING
+        ======================================  ======  =======================
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_NO_CHANGE               -1      No change
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_DEFAULT                 0       Default[1]
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_THREAD_KEYRING          1       Thread keyring
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_PROCESS_KEYRING         2       Process keyring
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_SESSION_KEYRING         3       Session keyring
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_USER_KEYRING            4       User keyring
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_USER_SESSION_KEYRING    5       User session keyring
+        KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_GROUP_KEYRING           6       Group keyring
+
+     The old default will be returned if successful and error EINVAL will be
+     returned if reqkey_defl is not one of the above values.
+
+     The default keyring can be overridden by the keyring indicated to the
+     request_key() system call.
+
+     Note that this setting is inherited across fork/exec.
+
+     [1] The default default is: the thread keyring if there is one, otherwise
+     the process keyring if there is one, otherwise the session keyring if
+     there is one, otherwise the user default session keyring.
+
+
 ===============
 KERNEL SERVICES
 ===============
@@ -626,6 +657,9 @@ payload contents" for more information.
     Should the function fail error ENOKEY, EKEYEXPIRED or EKEYREVOKED will be
     returned.
 
+    If successful, the key will have been attached to the default keyring for
+    implicitly obtained request-key keys, as set by KEYCTL_SET_REQKEY_KEYRING.
+
 
 (*) When it is no longer required, the key should be released using: