From a9d5a40d04fc084c108a07e0d27e557f462c9ea0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Erick Tryzelaar Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2019 16:23:06 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] Clarify how delegated roles are downloaded Section 5.4.5 is a little vague how on delegated targets are fetched and validated. This updates that section to use the same logic and verification process as downloading the top-level targets role to be explicit. One thing to point out though is that the old section 4.5 suggests that we don't report verification errors to the user. I've preserved this in my explicit version. I imagine users would still be notified if their delegated roles may be undergoing an attack. Is this intentional, or should I switch to the "abort the update cycle, and report the potential rollback attack"-style phrasing used elsewhere in the spec? --- tuf-spec.md | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/tuf-spec.md b/tuf-spec.md index df80b82..e0aa737 100644 --- a/tuf-spec.md +++ b/tuf-spec.md @@ -1235,9 +1235,8 @@ non-volatile storage as FILENAME.EXT. and report the potential freeze attack. * **4.5**. **Perform a preorder depth-first search for metadata about the - desired target, beginning with the top-level targets role.** Note: If - any metadata requested in steps 4.5.1 - 4.5.2.3 cannot be downloaded nor - validated, end the search and report that the target cannot be found. + desired target.** Let TARGETS be the current metadata, beginning with the + top-level targets metadata role. * **4.5.1**. If this role has been visited before, then skip this role (so that cycles in the delegation graph are avoided). Otherwise, if an @@ -1249,17 +1248,54 @@ non-volatile storage as FILENAME.EXT. * **4.5.2**. Otherwise, recursively search the list of delegations in order of appearance. - * **4.5.2.1**. If the current delegation is a multi-role delegation, + * **4.5.2.1**. Let DELEGATE denote the current target role TARGETS is + delegating to. + + * **4.5.2.2**. **Download the DELEGATE tarets metadata file**, up to either + the number of bytes specified in the snapshot metadata file, or some Z + number of bytes. The value for Z is set by the authors of the application + using TUF. For example, Z may be tens of kilobytes. IF DELEGATE cannot be + found, end the search and report the target cannot be found. If + consistent snapshots are not used (see Section 7), then the filename used + to download the targets metadata file is of the fixed form FILENAME.EXT + (e.g., delegated_rol.json). Otherwise, the filename is of the form + VERSION_NUMBER.FILENAME.EXT (e.g., 42.delegated_role.json), where + VERSION_NUMBER is the version number of the DELEGATE metadata file listed + in the snapshot metadata file. In either case, the client MUST write the + file to non-volatile storage as FILENAME.EXT. + + * **4.5.2.3**. **Check against snapshot metadata.** The hashes (if any), and + version number of the new DELEGATE metadata file MUST match the trusted + snapshot metadata. This is done, in part, to prevent a mix-and-match + attack by man-in-the-middle attackers. If the new DELEGATE metadata file + does not match, discard it, end the search, and report the target cannot + be found. + + * **4.5.2.4**. **Check for an arbitrary software attack.** The new DELEGATE + metadata file MUST have been signed by a threshold of keys specified in the + TARGETS metadata file. If the new DELEGATE metadata file is not signed + as required, discard it, end the search, and report the target cannot be + found. + + * **4.5.2.5**. **Check for a rollback attack.** The version number of the + trusted DELEGATE metadata file, if any, MUST be less than or equal to the + version number of the new DELEGATE metadata file. If the new DELEGATE + `metadata file is older than the trusted DELEGATE metadata file, discard + it, end the search, and report the target cannot be found. + + * **4.5.2.6**. If the current delegation is a multi-role delegation, recursively visit each role, and check that each has signed exactly the same non-custom metadata (i.e., length and hashes) about the target (or - the lack of any such metadata). + the lack of any such metadata). Otherwise, discard it, end the search, + and report the target cannot be found. - * **4.5.2.2**. If the current delegation is a terminating delegation, + * **4.5.2.7**. If the current delegation is a terminating delegation, then jump to step 5. - * **4.5.2.3**. Otherwise, if the current delegation is a non-terminating - delegation, continue processing the next delegation, if any. Stop the - search, and jump to step 5 as soon as a delegation returns a result. + * **4.5.2.8**. Otherwise, if the current delegation is a non-terminating + delegation, continue processing the next delegation, if any, by repeating + step 4.5 with DELEGATE as the current TARGET role. Stop the search, and + jump to step 5 as soon as a delegation returns a result. **5**. **Verify the desired target against its targets metadata**.