shithub: purgatorio

ref: efd1615c5741a6898853fefc24b1cbcb734e5477
dir: /man/6/keys/

View raw version
.TH KEYS 6
.SH NAME
keys \- secrets shared with signer
.SH DESCRIPTION
The file
.B /keydb/keys
exists only on a host acting as a `signer' (authentication server, Certifying Authority).
It
holds a password entry
for each user registered with an Inferno server.
Each entry contains a user name, a password, the time at which the entry
expires, and the entry's status.
The password is the secret shared between the user
and signer (authentication server),
allowing the signer to sign a certificate to authenticate a
user's public key to others, using the secret to check the user's identity.
The actual secret is not stored, but rather its SHA-1 hash.
.PP
The file is encrypted with a secret provided by the signer's administrator;
normally that secret is entered once when
authentication services are started by
.B svc/auth
on the host acting as signer
(see
.IR svc (8)).
The file should also be readable and writable only by the user identity
that runs the signing service
(ie,
mode
.BR 600 ,
see
.IR chmod (1)).
Entries are usually accessed only through
the name space provided by
.IR keyfs (4),
which decrypts the file into internal data structures given the administrative key,
and makes each entry visible as a separate directory.
Using that name space,
entries are added and updated by an administrator using
.IR changelogin (8),
a user can change a secret using
.IR passwd (1)
via
.IR keysrv (4),
and it is accessed for signing by
.IR logind (8)
to obtain the secret used to verify the identity
of a client requesting a certificate
(typically via
.IR security-login (2)).
.SH FILES
.B /keydb/keys