appc/spec

spec: For security of authentication, an image needs to sign deprecated parents

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#168 opened on Feb 4, 2015

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Description

Signatures on an image is in itself not enough to verify that an image is proper. Signatures do not defend against downgrade attacks.

However, embedding a "parent pointer", like in a git commit, and then signing the result makes it possible to build a DAG where some images, by being pointed to by other images, are deemed to be obsolete or insecure.

The "parent pointers" that are needed in the manifest to do authentication securely, and not have downgrade attacks, are "deprecates: [list of images]".

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate how image signatures are currently verified and design a new 'deprecates' manifest field to prevent downgrade attacks.
Tech stack
go
Domain
security
Issue type
Security
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Git
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
20