specs/Xserver/secint.xml

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<book id="secint">

<bookinfo>
   <title>Security Extension Server Design Draft</title>
   <subtitle>X Consortium Standard</subtitle>
   <authorgroup>
      <author>
         <firstname>David</firstname><othername>P.</othername><surname>Wiggins</surname>
         <affiliation><orgname>X Consortium</orgname></affiliation>
      </author>
   </authorgroup>
   <releaseinfo>X Version 11, Release &fullrelvers;</releaseinfo>
   <releaseinfo>Version 3.0</releaseinfo>
   <copyright><year>1996</year><holder>X Consortium</holder></copyright>

<legalnotice>
<para>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
</para>
<para>
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
</para>
<para>
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED &ldquo;AS IS&rdquo;, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE X CONSORTIUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
</para>
<para>
Except as contained in this notice, the name of the X Consortium shall
not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or
other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization
from the X Consortium.
</para>
<para>X Window System is a trademark of The Open Group.</para>
</legalnotice>
<pubdate>June 27, 2010</pubdate>

<abstract>
<para>This paper describes the implementation strategy used to implement
     various pieces of the SECURITY Extension.
</para>
</abstract>

</bookinfo>


<chapter id='Generate_Authorization_Request'>
<title>Generate Authorization Request</title>

<para>
The major steps taken to execute this request are as follows.
</para>

<para>
Sanity check arguments. The interesting one is the group, which must be
checked by some other module(s), initially just the embedding extension.
Use a new callback for this. The callback functions will be passed a small
structure containing the group ID and a Boolean value which is initially
false. If any of the callbacks recognize the ID, they should set the boolean
to true. If after the callbacks have been called the boolean is false, return
an error, since nobody recognized it.
</para>

<para>
Use the existing Xkey library function XkeyGenerateAuthorization to generate
the new authorization.
</para>

<para>
Use the existing os layer function AddAuthorization to add the new
authorization to the server's internal database.
</para>

<para>
Use the existing os layer function AuthorizationToID to retrieve
the authorization ID that the os layer assigned to the new authorization.
</para>

<para>Change the os layer to use authorization IDs allocated from the
server's ID range via FakeClientID(0) instead of using a simple incrementing
integer. This lets us use the resource database to attach additional
information to an authorization without needing any changes to os
data structures.
</para>

<para>
Add the authorization ID as a server resource. The structure for an
authorization resource will contain the timeout, trust-level, and group
sent in the request, a reference count of how many clients are connected
with this authorization, a timer pointer, and time-remaining counter.
</para>

<para>
Return the authorization ID and generated auth data to the client.
</para>

</chapter>
<chapter id='Client_Connection'>
<title>Client Connection</title>

<para>
The Security extension needs to be aware of new client connections
primarily so that it copy the trust-level of the authorization that was
used to the client structure.  The trust-level is needed in the client
structure because it will be accessed frequently to make access control
decisions for the client. We will use the existing ClientStateCallback
to catch new client connections.
</para>

<para>
We also need to copy the authorization ID into the client structure. The
authorization ID is already stored in an os private hung from the client,
and we will add a new os function AuthorizationIDOfClient to retrieve it.
However, when a client disconnects, this os private is already gone before
ClientStateCallbacks are called. We need the authorization ID at client
disconnect time for reasons described below.
</para>

<para>
Now that we know what needs to be done and why, let's walk through the
sequence of events.
</para>

<para>
When a new client connects, get the authorization ID with
AuthorizationIDOfClient, store it in the client, then pass that ID to
LookupIDByType to find the authorization. If we get a non-NULL pointer
back, this is a generated authorization, not one of the predefined ones in
the server's authority file. In this case, increment the authorization's
reference count. If the reference count is now 1, cancel the timer
for this authorization using the trivial new os layer function TimerCancel.
Lastly, copy the trust-level of this authorization into the client structure
so that it can be reached quickly for future access control decisions.
</para>

<para>
The embedding extension can determine the group to use for a new client in
the same way that we determined the trust level: get the authorization ID,
look it up, and if that succeeds, pluck the group out of the returned
authorization structure.
</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id='Client_disconnection'>
<title>Client disconnection</title>

<para>
Use the existing ClientStateCallback to catch client disconnections. If the
client was using a generated authorization, decrement its reference count.
If the reference count is now zero, use the existing os layer function
TimerSet to start a timer to count down the timeout period for this
authorization. Record the timer ID for this authorization. When the timer
fires, the authorization should be freed, removing all
traces of it from the server.
</para>

<para>
There is a slight complication regarding the timeout because the timer
interface in the server allows for 32 bits worth of milliseconds, while
the timeout specified in GenerateAuthorization has 32 bits worth of seconds.
To handle this, if the specified time is more than the timer interface can
handle, the maximum possible timeout will be set, and time-remaining counter
for this authorization will be used to track the leftover part. When the
timer fires, it should first check to see if there is any leftover
time to wait. If there is, it should set another timer to the minimum of (the
maximum possible timeout) and the time remaining, and not do the revocation
yet.
</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id='Resource_ID_Security'>
<title>Resource ID Security</title>

<para>
To implement the restriction that untrusted clients cannot access resources
of trusted clients, we add two new functions to dix: SecurityLookupIDByType
and SecurityLookupIDByClass. Hereafter we will use SecurityLookupID to refer
to both functions. In addition to the parameters of the existing LookupID
functions, these functions also take a pointer to the client doing the lookup,
and an access mode that conveys a high-level idea of what the client intends
to do with the resource (currently just read, write, destroy, and unknown).
Passing NullClient for the client turns off access checks. SecurityLookupID can
return NULL for two reasons: the resource doesn't exist, or it does but the
client isn't allowed to access it. The caller cannot tell the difference. Most
places in dix call these new lookup functions instead of the old LookupID,
which continue to do no access checking. Extension "Proc" functions should
probably use SecurityLookupID, not LookupID. Ddxen can continue to use
LookupID.
</para>

<para>
Inside SecurityLookupID, the function client -&gt; CheckAccess is called
passing the client, resource id, resource type/class, resource value, and
access mode. CheckAccess returns the resource value if access is allowed,
else it returns NULL. The entire resource ID security policy of the Security
extension can be replaced by plugging in your own access decision function
here. This in combination with the access mode parameter should be enough to
implement a more traditional DAC (discretionary access control) policy.
</para>

<para>
Since we need client and access mode information to do access controlled
resource lookups, we add (and use) several other macros and functions that
parallel existing ones with the addition of the missing information. The list
includes SECURITY_VERIFY_GC, SECURITY_VERIFY_DRAWABLE,
SECURITY_VERIFY_GEOMETRABLE, SecurityLookupWindow,
SecurityLookupDrawable, and dixChangeGC. The dixChangeGC interface is
worth mentioning because in addition to a client parameter, we introduce a
pointer-to-union parameter that should let us eliminate the warnings that some
compilers give when you assign small integers to pointers, as the DoChangeGC
interface required. For more details, see the comment preceding dixChangeGC in
;&lt;dix/gc.c;&gt;.
</para>

<para>
If XCSECURITY is not defined (the Security extension is not being built),
the server uses essentially the same code as before for resource lookups.
</para>

</chapter>
<chapter id='Extension_Security'>
<title>Extension Security</title>

<para>
A new field in the ExtensionEntry structure, Bool secure, tells whether the
extension is considered secure. It is initialized to FALSE by AddExtension.
The following new dix function can be used to set the secure field:
</para>

<funcsynopsis id='DeclareExtensionSecurity'>
<funcprototype>
  <funcdef>void <function>DeclareExtensionSecurity</function></funcdef>
    <paramdef>char <parameter> *extname</parameter></paramdef>
    <paramdef>Bool <parameter>secure</parameter></paramdef>
</funcprototype>
</funcsynopsis>

<para>
The name of the extension and the desired value of the secure field are
passed. If an extension is secure, a call to this function with
secure = TRUE will typically appear right after the call to
<function>AddExtension</function>.
<xref linkend='DeclareExtensionSecurity' xrefstyle='select: title'/>
should be called during server reset. It should not
be called after the first client has connected. Passing the name of an
extension that has not been initialized has no effect (the secure value will
not be remembered in case the extension is later initialized).
</para>

<para>
For untrusted clients, <function>ProcListExtensions</function> omits
extensions that have secure = FALSE, and
<function>ProcQueryExtension</function> reports that such
extensions don't exist.
</para>

<para>
To prevent untrusted clients from using extensions by guessing their major
opcode, one of two new Proc vectors are used by untrusted clients,
<function>UntrusedProcVector</function> and
<function>SwappedUntrustedProcVector</function>. These have the same contents
as <function>ProcVector</function> and
<function>SwappedProcVector</function> respectively for the first 128
entries. Entries 128 through 255 are initialized to ProcBadRequest. If
<xref linkend='DeclareExtensionSecurity' xrefstyle='select: title'/> is called with secure =
TRUE, that extension's dispatch function is plugged into the appropriate entry
so that the extension can be used. If
<xref linkend='DeclareExtensionSecurity' xrefstyle='select: title'/> is called with secure =
FALSE, the appropriate entry is reset to ProcBadRequest.
</para>

<para>
Now we can explain why <xref linkend='DeclareExtensionSecurity' xrefstyle='select: title'/>
should not be called after the first client connects. In some cases,
the Record extension gives clients a private copy of the proc vector,
which it then changes to intercept certain requests. Changing entries in
<function>UntrusedProcVector</function> and
<function>SwappedUntrustedProcVector</function> will have no effect on these
copied proc vectors. If we get to the point of needing an extension request
to control which extensions are secure, we'll need to invent a way to
get those copied proc vectors changed.
</para>
</chapter>
</book>