Dual certificate support does not cover keyring-provided client certificates
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- C
- Stars
- 50
- Forks
- 36
- Avg merge
- 3d 22h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 2
Description
ktls-utils 1.3.0 added client-side dual certificate support (commit facd084e43fc) so that a client can present a post-quantum certificate alongside a traditional RSA certificate. That work covers only certificates loaded from /etc/tlshd.conf. When an NFS client specifies alternate certificates at mount time (-o xprtsec=mtls,cert_serial=...,privkey_serial=...), the certificate and private key arrive via the .nfs keyring, and there is currently no way to provide or select a PQ certificate for the handshake.
Design questions raised in the linux-nfs / kernel-tls-handshake discussion of this gap:
- Add separate PQ certificate and PQ private key parameters to the handshake upcall, or
- Store lists of both PQ and RSA certificates and private keys under the existing keys and teach tlshd to parse both out of them (feasibility unverified).
The keyring-based mount UI itself is being reworked; whatever replaces it needs to carry PQ authentication material as well.
Reported by Sagi Grimberg and triaged by Scott Mayhew:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/fd4aaf4e-b1b7-4ca2-bc93-955c31fab317@grimberg.me/
https://lore.kernel.org/all/afUKzeUYPhb97DX4@aion/
Related: #113 (original PQC support, closed).
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reading commit facd084e43fc and the linked linux-nfs/kernel-tls-handshake discussions, then trace how tlshd receives certificates from the .nfs keyring for mount-time xprtsec=mtls. The design must be settled before implementation: support selecting PQ and RSA certificate material for the handshake and ensure the replacement keyring-based mount UI carries it.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c, linux
- Domain
- operating-systems, security
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100