[or-cvs] r14615: Actually add proposal 136: authority identity key migration (tor/trunk/doc/spec/proposals)

[nickm at seul.org]

Author: nickm
Date: 2008-05-14 14:53:02 -0400 (Wed, 14 May 2008)
New Revision: 14615

Added:
   tor/trunk/doc/spec/proposals/136-legacy-keys.txt
Log:
Actually add proposal 136: authority identity key migration mechanisms

Added: tor/trunk/doc/spec/proposals/136-legacy-keys.txt
===================================================================
--- tor/trunk/doc/spec/proposals/136-legacy-keys.txt	                        (rev 0)
+++ tor/trunk/doc/spec/proposals/136-legacy-keys.txt	2008-05-14 18:53:02 UTC (rev 14615)
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+Filename: 136-legacy-keys.txt
+Title: Mass authority migration with legacy keys
+Author: Nick Mathewson
+Created: 13-May-2008
+Status: Open
+
+Overview:
+
+  This document describes a mechanism to change the keys of more than
+  half of the directory servers at once without breaking old clients
+  and caches immediately.
+
+Motivation:
+
+  If a single authority's identity key is believed to be compromised,
+  the solution is obvious: remove that authority from the list,
+  generate a new certificate, and treat the new cert as belonging to a
+  new authority.  This approach works fine so long as less than 1/2 of
+  the authority identity keys are bad.
+
+  Unfortunately, the mass-compromise case is possible if there is a
+  sufficiently bad bug in Tor or in any OS used by a majority of v3
+  authorities.  Let's be prepared for it!
+
+  We could simply stop using the old keys and start using new ones,
+  and tell all clients running insecure versions to upgrade.
+  Unfortunately, this breaks our cacheing system pretty badly, since
+  caches won't cache a consensus that they don't believe in.  It would
+  be nice to have everybody become secure the moment they upgrade to a
+  version listing the new authority keys, _without_ breaking upgraded
+  clients until the caches upgrade.
+
+  So, let's come up with a way to provide a time window where the
+  consensuses are signed with the new keys and with the old.
+
+Design:
+
+  We allow directory authorities to list a single "legacy key"
+  fingerprint in their votes.  Each authority may add a single legacy
+  key.  The format for this line is:
+
+     legacy-dir-key FINGERPRINT
+
+  We describe a new consensus method for generating directory
+  consensuses.  This method is consensus method "3".
+
+  When the authorities decide to use method "3" (as described in 3.4.1
+  of dir-spec.txt), for every included vote with a legacy-dir-key line,
+  the consensus includes an extra dir-source line.  The fingerprint in
+  this extra line is as in the legacy-dir-key line.  The ports and
+  addresses are in the dir-source line.  The nickname is as in the
+  dir-source line, with the string "-legacy" appended.
+
+      [We need to include this new dir-source line because the code
+      won't accept or preserve signatures from authorities not listed
+      as contributing to the consensus.]
+
+  Authorities using legacy dir keys include two signatures on their
+  consensuses: one generated with a signing key signed with their real
+  signing key, and another generated with a signing key signed with
+  another signing key attested to by their identity key.  These
+  signing keys MUST be different.  Authorities MUST serve both
+  certificates if asked.
+
+Process:
+
+  In the event of a mass key failure, we'll follow the following
+  (ugly) procedure:
+     - All affected authorities generate new certificates and identity
+       keys, and circulate their new dirserver lines.  They copy their old
+       certificates and old broken keys, but put them in new "legacy
+       key files".
+     - At the earliest time that can be arranged, the authorities
+       replace their signing keys, identity keys, and certificates
+       with the new compromised versions, and update to the new list
+       of dirserer lines.
+     - They add an "V3DirAdvertiseLegacyKey 1" option to their torrc.
+     - Now, new consensuses will be generated using the new keys, but
+       the results will also be signed with the old keys.
+     - Clients and caches are told they need to upgrade, and given a
+       time window to do so.
+     - At the end of the time window, authorities remove the
+       V3DirAdvertiseLegacyKey option.
+
+Notes:
+
+  It might be good to get caches to cache consensuses that they do not
+  believe in.  I'm not sure the best way of how to do this.
+
+  It's a superficially neat idea to have new signing keys and have
+  them signed by the new and by the old authority identity keys.  This
+  breaks some code, though, and doesn't actually gain us anything,
+  since we'd still need to include each signature twice.
+
+  It's also a superficially neat idea, if identity keys and signing
+  keys are compromised, to at least replace all the signing keys.
+  I don't think this achieves us anything either, though.
+
+