8 [x] jrollins will talk and gesture - in progress
13 rhesus, marmoset, howler, langur, tamarin, barbary
18 (names in "" are code names until we think of better ones.)
22 * "rhesus": update known_hosts/authorized_keys files:
23 - be responsible for removing keys from the file as key revocation
25 - be responsible for updating a key in the file where there is a key
27 - must result in a file that is parsable by the existing ssh client
29 - manual management must be allowed without stomping on it
30 - provide a simple, intelligible, clear policy for key acceptance
32 * "langur": policy-editor for viewing/editing policies
34 * gpg2ssh: utility to convert gpg keys to ssh
35 known_hosts/authorized_keys lines
37 * ssh2gpg: create openpgp keypair from ssh keypair
39 server-side components
40 ----------------------
41 * "howler": server gpg maintainer
42 - generate gpg keys for the server
43 - publish server gpg keys
44 - give owner trust to keys for user authentication
46 * "tamarin": concept - how to trigger or schedule rhesus at admin defined
47 points (e.g. via cron or during ssh connections).
49 client-side components
50 ----------------------
51 * "marmoset": concept - how to trigger rhesus during attempt to initiate
53 - runs on connection to a certain host
54 - triggers update to known_hosts file then makes connection
55 - proxy-command | pre-hook script | wrapper script
56 - (ssh_config "LocalCommand" is only run *after* connection)
61 Dramatis Personae: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob
62 Backstory: http://www.conceptlabs.co.uk/alicebob.html
64 Bob wants to sign on to the computer "mangabey.example.org" via
65 monkeysphere framework. He doesn't yet have access to the machine,
66 but he knows Alice, who is the admin of mangabey. Alice and Bob,
67 being the conscientious netizens that they are, have already published
68 their personal gpg keys to the web of trust, and being good friends,
69 have both signed each other's keys and marked each others keys with
72 When Alice set up mangabey initially, she used howler to publish a gpg
73 key for the machine with the special userid of
74 "ssh://mangabey.example.org". She also signed mangabey's gpg key and
75 published this certification to commonly-used keyservers. Alice also
76 configured mangabey to treat her own key with full ownertrust (could
77 this be done as part of the howler invocation?)
79 Now, Alice creates a user account "bob" on mangabey, and puts Bob's
80 userid ("Bob <bob@example.org>") in the authorized_user_ids file for
81 user bob on mangabey. tamarin triggers on mangabey either by a
82 cronjob or an inotify hook, and invokes rhesus for the "bob" account.
83 rhesus automatically takes each userid in bob's authorized_user_ids
84 file, and looks on a keyserver to find all public keys associated with
85 that user ID, with the goal of populating the authorized_keys file for
88 In particular: for each key found, the server evaluates the calculated
89 validity of the specified user ID based on the ownertrust rules it has
90 configured ("trust alice's certifications fully", in this example).
91 For each key for which the user ID in question is fully-valid, it
92 extracts all DSA- or RSA-based primary or secondary keys marked with
93 usage flags for encrypted communications and authentication, and
94 converts these gpg public keys into ssh public keys. Finally, rhesus
95 inserts these calculated public keys into the authorized_keys file for
98 Bob now attempts to connect, by firing up a terminal and invoking:
99 "ssh bob@mangabey.example.org". Bob's monkeysphere-enabled ssh client
100 notices that mangabey.example.org isn't already available in bob's
101 known_hosts file, and triggers rhesus (on Bob's computer) to fetch the
102 key for mangabey, with the goal of populating Bob's local known_hosts
105 In particular: rhesus queries its configured keyservers to find all
106 public keys with User ID ssh://mangabey.example.org. For each public
107 key found, rhesus checks the relevant User ID's validity, converts any
108 "encrypted comms, authentication" gpg public keys into ssh public keys
109 if the User ID validity is acceptable, and finally insert those keys
110 into Bob's known_hosts file.
112 On Bob's side, since mangabey's key had "full" validity (it was signed
113 by Alice whom he fully trusts), Bob's ssh client deems mangabey
114 "known" and no further host key checking is required.
116 On mangabey's side, since Bob's key has "full" validity (it had been
117 signed by Alice, mangabey's trusted administrator), Bob is
118 authenticated and therefore authorized to log into his account.
123 * Daniel and Elliot lie. <check>
124 * We will use a distributed VCS, each developer will create their own
125 git repository and publish it publicly for others to pull from, mail
127 * public project page doesn't perhaps make sense yet
128 * approximate goal - using the web of trust to authenticate ppl for
130 * outline of various components of monkeysphere
131 * M: what does it mean to be in the monkeysphere? not necessarily a
133 * J: interested in seeing project happen, not in actually doing it.
134 anybody can contribute as much as they want.
135 * J: if we put the structure in place to work on monkeysphere then we
136 don't have to do anything
137 * D: we are not creating
138 * understand gpg's keyring better, understanding tools better,
140 * Some debian packages allow automated configuration of config files.
142 * GENERAL GOAL - use openpgp web-of-trust to authenticate ppl for SSH
143 * SPECIFIC GOAL - allow openssh to tie into pgp web-of-trust without
144 modifying either openpgp and openssh
145 * DESIGN GOALS - authentication, use the existing generic OpenSSH
146 client, the admin can make it default, although end-user should be
147 decide to use monkeysphere or not
148 * DESIGN GOAL - use of monkeysphere should not radically change
149 connecting-to-server experience
150 * GOAL - pick a monkey-related name for each component
152 Host identity piece of monkeysphere could be used without buying into
153 the authorization component.
155 Monkeysphere is authentication layer that allows the sysadmin to
156 perform authorization on user identities instead of on keys, it
157 additionally allows the sysadmin also to authenticate the server to
160 see doc/git-init for more detail on how to pull from the distributed