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-rw-r--r--Documentation/keys.txt93
1 files changed, 79 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/keys.txt b/Documentation/keys.txt
index 947d57d53453..51652d39e61c 100644
--- a/Documentation/keys.txt
+++ b/Documentation/keys.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
This service allows cryptographic keys, authentication tokens, cross-domain
user mappings, and similar to be cached in the kernel for the use of
-filesystems other kernel services.
+filesystems and other kernel services.
Keyrings are permitted; these are a special type of key that can hold links to
other keys. Processes each have three standard keyring subscriptions that a
@@ -726,6 +726,15 @@ call, and the key released upon close. How to deal with conflicting keys due to
two different users opening the same file is left to the filesystem author to
solve.
+To access the key manager, the following header must be #included:
+
+ <linux/key.h>
+
+Specific key types should have a header file under include/keys/ that should be
+used to access that type. For keys of type "user", for example, that would be:
+
+ <keys/user-type.h>
+
Note that there are two different types of pointers to keys that may be
encountered:
@@ -791,6 +800,36 @@ payload contents" for more information.
passed to the key_type->request_key() op if it exists.
+(*) A key can be requested asynchronously by calling one of:
+
+ struct key *request_key_async(const struct key_type *type,
+ const char *description,
+ const char *callout_string);
+
+ or:
+
+ struct key *request_key_async_with_auxdata(const struct key_type *type,
+ const char *description,
+ const char *callout_string,
+ void *aux);
+
+ which are asynchronous equivalents of request_key() and
+ request_key_with_auxdata() respectively.
+
+ These two functions return with the key potentially still under
+ construction. To wait for contruction completion, the following should be
+ called:
+
+ int wait_for_key_construction(struct key *key, bool intr);
+
+ The function will wait for the key to finish being constructed and then
+ invokes key_validate() to return an appropriate value to indicate the state
+ of the key (0 indicates the key is usable).
+
+ If intr is true, then the wait can be interrupted by a signal, in which
+ case error ERESTARTSYS will be returned.
+
+
(*) When it is no longer required, the key should be released using:
void key_put(struct key *key);
@@ -924,7 +963,11 @@ DEFINING A KEY TYPE
A kernel service may want to define its own key type. For instance, an AFS
filesystem might want to define a Kerberos 5 ticket key type. To do this, it
-author fills in a struct key_type and registers it with the system.
+author fills in a key_type struct and registers it with the system.
+
+Source files that implement key types should include the following header file:
+
+ <linux/key-type.h>
The structure has a number of fields, some of which are mandatory:
@@ -1053,22 +1096,44 @@ The structure has a number of fields, some of which are mandatory:
as might happen when the userspace buffer is accessed.
- (*) int (*request_key)(struct key *key, struct key *authkey, const char *op,
+ (*) int (*request_key)(struct key_construction *cons, const char *op,
void *aux);
- This method is optional. If provided, request_key() and
- request_key_with_auxdata() will invoke this function rather than
- upcalling to /sbin/request-key to operate upon a key of this type.
+ This method is optional. If provided, request_key() and friends will
+ invoke this function rather than upcalling to /sbin/request-key to operate
+ upon a key of this type.
+
+ The aux parameter is as passed to request_key_async_with_auxdata() and
+ similar or is NULL otherwise. Also passed are the construction record for
+ the key to be operated upon and the operation type (currently only
+ "create").
+
+ This method is permitted to return before the upcall is complete, but the
+ following function must be called under all circumstances to complete the
+ instantiation process, whether or not it succeeds, whether or not there's
+ an error:
+
+ void complete_request_key(struct key_construction *cons, int error);
+
+ The error parameter should be 0 on success, -ve on error. The
+ construction record is destroyed by this action and the authorisation key
+ will be revoked. If an error is indicated, the key under construction
+ will be negatively instantiated if it wasn't already instantiated.
+
+ If this method returns an error, that error will be returned to the
+ caller of request_key*(). complete_request_key() must be called prior to
+ returning.
+
+ The key under construction and the authorisation key can be found in the
+ key_construction struct pointed to by cons:
+
+ (*) struct key *key;
+
+ The key under construction.
- The aux parameter is as passed to request_key_with_auxdata() or is NULL
- otherwise. Also passed are the key to be operated upon, the
- authorisation key for this operation and the operation type (currently
- only "create").
+ (*) struct key *authkey;
- This function should return only when the upcall is complete. Upon return
- the authorisation key will be revoked, and the target key will be
- negatively instantiated if it is still uninstantiated. The error will be
- returned to the caller of request_key*().
+ The authorisation key.
============================