oracle / oracle/ktls-utils

Server-side keyring certificates: kernel never populates ta_my_cert / ta_my_privkey

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#152 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement
Dominant language
C
Stars
50
Forks
36
Avg merge
3d 22h
Merged PRs (30d)
2

Description

tlshd links the .nfsd keyring into its session keyring at startup, and the handshake upcall protocol defines attributes for passing a certificate and private key serial number to the server-side handshake. However, the kernel's svc_tcp_handshake() never populates ta_my_cert and ta_my_privkey, so an NFS server has no path to present a certificate stored in the .nfsd keyring; tlshd always falls back to the certificate configured in /etc/tlshd.conf.

Making this work requires kernel changes (an administrative interface for nfsd to select keyring-resident authentication material, and svc_tcp_handshake() filling in the handshake args) in addition to whatever tlshd-side handling is missing. Once it does work, server-side keyring certificates have the same dual/PQ certificate gap tracked in #151.

Observed by Scott Mayhew while triaging the client-side keyring regression:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/afUKzeUYPhb97DX4@aion/

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Research direction

Start with the kernel's svc_tcp_handshake() and the handshake upcall attributes ta_my_cert and ta_my_privkey, then trace how tlshd links the .nfsd keyring and reads /etc/tlshd.conf. The work is complete when an NFS server can select keyring-resident certificate material and pass its serial numbers through the handshake instead of always using the configured certificate.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, linux
Domain
networking, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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