-Monkeysphere README
-===================
+Monkeysphere User README
+========================
-user usage
-----------
-For a user to update their known_hosts file:
+You don't have to be an OpenSSH or OpenPGP expert to use the
+Monkeysphere. However, you should be comfortable using secure shell and
+you should already have GnuPG installed and an OpenPGP key pair before
+you begin.
+
+As a regular user on a system where the monkeysphere package is
+installed, you probably want to do a few things:
+
+Keeping your keyring up-to-date
+-------------------------------
+
+Regularly refresh your GnuPG keyring from the keyservers. This can be
+done with a simple cronjob. An example of crontab line to do this is:
+
+0 12 * * * /usr/bin/gpg --refresh-keys > /dev/null 2>&1
+
+This would refresh your keychain every day at noon.
+
+
+Keeping your known_hosts file in sync with your keyring
+-------------------------------------------------------
+
+With your keyring updated, you want to make sure that OpenSSH can
+still see the most recent trusted information about who the various
+hosts are. This can be done with the monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand
+(see next section) or with the update-known_hosts command:
$ monkeysphere update-known_hosts
-For a user to update their monkeysphere authorized_keys file:
+This command will check to see if there is an OpenPGP key for
+each (non-hashed) host listed in the known_hosts file, and then add
+the key for that host to the known_hosts file if one is found. This
+command could be added to a crontab as well, if desired.
-$ monkeysphere update-authorized_keys
-server service publication
---------------------------
-To publish a server host key:
+Using monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand(1)
+--------------------------------------
+
+The best way to handle host keys is to use the monkeysphere ssh proxy
+command. This command will make sure the known_hosts file is
+up-to-date for the host you are connecting to with ssh. The best way
+to integrate this is to add the following line to the "Host *" section
+of your ~/.ssh/config file:
+
+ProxyCommand monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand %h %p
+
+The "Host *" section specifies what ssh options to use for all
+connections. If you don't already have a "Host *" line, you can add it
+by entering:
+
+Host *
+
+On a line by itself. Add the ProxyCommand line just below it.
-# monkeysphere-server gen-key
-# monkeysphere-server publish-key
+Once you've completed this step - you are half-way there. You will now
+be able to verify servers participating in the monkeysphere provided
+their keys have been signed by someone that you trust.
-This will generate the key for server with the service URI
-(ssh://server.hostname). The server admin should now sign the server
-key so that people in the admin's web of trust can authenticate the
-server without manual host key checking:
+FIXME: We should setup a way for someone to download a test gpg key and
+then connect to a test server that is signed by this gpg key so users
+can establish that they are setup correctly.
-$ gpg --search ='ssh://server.hostname'
-$ gpg --sign-key 'ssh://server.hostname'
+The remaining steps will complete the second half: allow servers to
+verify you based on your OpenPGP key.
-server authorized_keys maintenance
-----------------------------------
-A system can maintain monkeysphere authorized_keys files for it's
-users.
+Setting up an OpenPGP authentication key
+----------------------------------------
-For each user account on the server, the userids of people authorized
-to log into that account would be placed in:
+First things first: you'll need to create a new subkey for your
+current key, if you don't already have one. If your OpenPGP key is
+keyid $GPGID, you can set up such a subkey relatively easily with:
-/etc/monkeysphere/authorized_user_ids/USER
+$ monkeysphere gen-subkey $GPGID
-However, in order for users to become authenticated, the server must
-determine that the user keys have "full" validity. This means that
-the server must fully trust at least one person whose signature on the
-connecting users key would validate the user. This would generally be
-the server admin. If the server admin's keyid is XXXXXXXX, then on
-the server run:
+Typically, you can find out what your keyid is by running:
-# monkeysphere-server trust-keys XXXXXXXX
+gpg --list-secret-keys
-To update the monkeysphere authorized_keys file for user "bob", the
-system would then run the following:
+The first line (starting with sec) will include your key length followed
+by the type of key (e.g. 1024D) followed by a slash and then your keyid.
+
+Using your OpenPGP authentication key for SSH
+---------------------------------------------
+
+Once you have created an OpenPGP authentication key, you will need to
+feed it to your ssh agent.
+
+Currently (2008-08-23), gnutls does not support this operation. In order
+to take this step, you will need to upgrade to a patched version of
+gnutls. You can easily upgrade a Debian system by adding the following
+to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/monkeysphere.list:
+
+ deb http://monkeysphere.info/debian experimental gnutls
+ deb-src http://monkeysphere.info/debian experimental gnutls
+
+Next, run `aptitude update; aptitude install libgnuttls26`.
+
+With the patched gnutls installed, you can feed your authentication sub
+key to your ssh agent by running:
+
+ monkeysphere subkey-to-ssh-agent
+
+FIXME: using the key with a single session?
+
+Miscellaneous
+-------------
+
+Users can also maintain their own authorized_keys files, for users
+that would be logging into their accounts. This is primarily useful
+for accounts on hosts that are not already systematically using the
+monkeysphere for user authentication. If you're not sure whether this
+is the case for your host, ask your system administrator.
+
+If you want to do this as a regular user, use the
+update-authorized_keys command:
+
+$ monkeysphere update-authorized_keys
-# monkeysphere-server update-users bob
+This command will take all the user IDs listed in the
+~/.config/monkeysphere/authorized_user_ids file and check to see if
+there are acceptable keys for those user IDs available. If so, they
+will be added to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
-To update the monkeysphere authorized_keys file for all users on the
-the system, run the same command with no arguments:
+You must have indicated reasonable ownertrust in some key for this
+account, or no keys will be found with trusted certification paths.
-# monkeysphere-server update-users
+If you find this useful, you might want to place a job like this in
+your crontab so that revocations and rekeyings can take place
+automatically.
projects / monkeysphere.git / blobdiff