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New Debian packages for GDP

Added by Eric Allman over 3 years ago

There are four new packages in the "Files" section of this site:

  • gdp-client_2.2.0-1_amd64.deb — libraries and basic clients for the GDP, required by all the other packages. You MUST install this package.
  • gdp-dev-c_2.2.0-1_amd64.deb — include files and other support for development in the C language. Install this if you are developing your own code in C.
  • gdp-python_2.2.0_all.deb — support for development in the Python language. Install this if you are developing your own code in Python.
  • gdp-server_2.2.0-1_amd64.deb — the GDP DataCapsule server (gdplogd). Only install this if you want to run your own server.

These are intended for use on Ubuntu 16.04.

If you have problems, please report them by creating a new Issue on this Redmine site.

GDP 2.1.19: changed default for HONGD availability

Added by Eric Allman almost 4 years ago

Version 2.1.19 of the GDP changes the default for the Human-Oriented Name to GDPname Directory to "required"; previously it had been optional. This means that applications will (by default) fail if they cannot access the Directory Service. This is part of our transition to more cryptographically secure naming of all objects in the GDP including logs, servers, and services. Previously HONGD was optional — if it was not configured or the service could not be contacted the code fell back to taking the SHA-256 hash of a Human-Oriented Name and using that as the GDPname. Note that this is still the default if no entry can be found in HONGD.

The swarm.gdp.hongd.optional administrative parameter can be set to true to get the old behavior. Note that an application that does not use HONGD can pass the GDP_INIT_NO_HONGD flag to gdp_init2 to prevent all attempt to access HONGD, or (new behavior) can set GDP_INIT_OPT_HONGD to get the optional behavior. This second flag is expected to disappear when we have completed the transition.

GDP 2.1.17 available

Added by Eric Allman about 4 years ago

GDP version 2.1.17 is available in the source code repo.

Problems Addressed:

  • The gdp-bin-setup.sh script did not work.
  • gdp_event_next sometimes froze when a gin was specified as a parameter.
  • Under some circumstances gdp_gin_open would crash if no open_info was specified.
  • If a router connection was lost and reestablished, sometimes advertisements would be generated without an appropriate delay.

New Features and Enhancements:

  • Python binding installation now takes make command line parameter DEST= to indicate where the local packages are installed.
  • New test case t_pcari_1 added to test subscriptions across threads.

The corresponding version of gdp_router_click2 also fixes some problems that can cause delayed packet delivery.

GDP v2.1.14 pushed to repo

Added by Eric Allman about 4 years ago

I've pushed version 2.1.14 to the central repo. Primary changes include:

  • Better delivery of some error messages (e.g., 409 CONFLICT).

  • Addition of a -d flag to gdp-name-add to delete an entry in the Human-Oriented Name to GDPname Directory (HONGD). This requires a separate SQL account (hongd_admin) that has DELETE permission.

  • Updates to HONGD initialization to support the new hongd_admin account. This also adds three SQL "roles" to the gdp_hongd database: hongd_reader (SELECT permission), hongd_update (APPEND permission), and hongd_admin (ALL permission). New accounts can be added and assigned these roles to get the necessary permissions without giving out the passwords to the system accounts.

  • A new convenience view human_to_printable has been added to show the internal name in BASE64 format. Note that this is subtly different than what the GDP users; instead of - and _ to encode values 62 and 63, are used the values are printed as + and /. GDPnames use the different encoding so they can be embedded into URIs without further encoding.

  • Several other minor bug fixes and debugging enhancements.

Preview of GDP version 2.1

Added by Eric Allman over 4 years ago

Following is a brief summary of significant user-visible features and changes expected to be in version 2.1 of the Global Data Plane. Note: version 2.1 has not yet been released, and not all of the described features have been pushed to the repository.

This summary is still a rough draft. Everything herein is subject to change.

Overview

Log Naming

One of the major intended properties of the GDP is that readers can verify the provenance of the data that they read. This is predicated on the reader having the correct internal name of the log, which is a SHA-256 of the log metadata. The metadata includes the public key matching the secret key needed to sign data written to the log. Thus, given the internal name of the log, one can guarantee that the metadata matches the desired log, and the data signatures match the key in the metadata.

However, humans don't work well with long binary strings, so there has to be some way of mapping a human-oriented name to the GDP name. Before 2.1, GDP names were computed as the SHA-256 of the human-readable name and these security properties did not apply. The new technique is to use a Human-Oriented Name to GDPname Directory, as described in the next section.

The change in the algorithm used to create the 256-bit GDPname of a log means that in general, the old human-oriented names will no longer work to access logs that were created using a different algorithm. See the What This Means section for a deeper discussion of this issue.

Human-Oriented Name to GDPname Directory (HONGDS)

Since there is no longer an algorithmic way to derive an internal GDPname from a human-oriented name, this now has to be done using a directory service. This service maintains a database mapping the human-oriented name to the internal GDPname.

The current implementation is a stub that directly accesses a MySQL database from applications. This has several implications:

  • The implementation is easily spoofable; in particular, there is no way for a client to confirm the authenticity of a name mapping.
  • The implementation doesn't scale well, since the database is not distributed or replicated.
  • The implementation isn't durable.

When new logs are created the human-oriented name is inserted into the log metadata, so given just the logs themselves it is theoretically possible to rebuild this database, but this is also not scalable. For now, this service should be considered to be a work in progress.

Docker Packaging

  • Easier installation.
  • Multiple versions can easily run in parallel.

Miscellaneous Smaller Changes

There is a new system environment variable GDP_NAME_ROOT that you can use to simulate namespaces. For example, if GDP_NAME_ROOT=edu.berkeley.edu.eecs.eric then specifying a name such as test on the command line will actually search for edu.berkeley.edu.eecs.eric.test. Input names that already have dots will be tried as originally specified before prefixing the qualification.

Logs now have two keypairs: owner and writer. Previously they only had a writer keypair. If no writer keypair exists, the owner keypair will be replicated into the writer keypair. This should be largely transparent.

Results read using asynchronous reads of large data sets will be returned more reliably in version 2.1. Previously, if the network layer reordered results (e.g., due to packet loss) some data might not be delivered to the application.

What This Means For You

Naming Changes

Old logs will not be accessible using the names you are familiar with unless you use compatibility workarounds (see below).

Since existing logs were created using a different algorithm for computing the name, the primary security property (verifying that the name matches the metadata) will fail. Old logs must be accessed without checking this condition. See the Back Compatibility section for more information.

Installation and Configuration

  • Use docker packages.
  • Install MySQL for Human-Oriented Name to GDPname Directory Service (HONGDS). [There should be a script to do this.]
  • Initialize HONGDS database.
  • Create pointer to HONGDS using administrative parameters. See the Details section for more information.

Log Creation

There is a new programmatic API for log creation. In particular, gdp_gin_create has changed substantially. Programs that wish to create logs directly will need to be updated.

Scripts that use gdp-create to create logs will probably not be affected.

The existing Log Creation Service will need to be updated to update HONGDS in addition to its other functions.

Back Compatibility

To ease the transition between the old method of naming logs (using the SHA-256 of the human-oriented name) to the new method (using the SHA-256 of the log metadata), the administrative parameter swarm.gdp.compat.lognames can be set to true.
* Manually add entries to HONGDS database to render existing names usable.

Details

Log Creation

New and Changed APIs

  • gdp_create_info_new — added.
  • gdp_create_info_free — added.
  • gdp_create_info_add_metadata — added.
  • gdp_create_info_new_owner_key — added.
  • gdp_create_info_new_writer_key — added.
  • gdp_create_info_save_keys — added.
  • gdp_create_info_set_creator — added.
  • gdp_create_info_set_expiration — added. This API will probably change in the future.
  • gdp_create_info_set_owner_key — added.
  • gdp_create_info_set_writer_key — added.
  • gdp_gin_create — new parameters.
  • gdp_name_parse — was gdp_parse_name; new parameters. The old API still exists but is deprecated. Works with the Human to GDP Name Directory.
  • gdp_name_root_set — added.
  • gdp_name_root_get — added.

Changed Applications

There are several updates to the gdp-create command:

  • -K sets owner key location. As before, if it points to a file it should be an existing, previously created secret key; otherwise it should be a directory, into which the secret key will be saved. The default is to look for a subdirectory named KEYS, and if not found use the current directory.
  • The new flag -W is equivalent to -K, but for the writer key.
  • A new flag -w specifies that separate owner and writer keys should be created; by default the owner key is used as the writer key. If -W is specified and points to a file, -w is implied.

Human-Oriented Name to GDPname Directory

Configuration

There are several runtime configuration parameters controlling access to the Human-Oriented Name to GDPName Directory. Only the first of these is likely to be needed in most cases.

  • swarm.gdp.namedb.host — the IP name of the MySQL server host; generally the only parameter that must be set assuming the local server was set up using the standard defaults.
  • swarm.gdp.namedb.user
  • swarm.gdp.namedb.passwd
  • swarm.gdp.namedb.database
  • swarm.gdp.namedb.table

New APIs

  • gdp_name_resolve — accesses the Human to GDP Name Directory (added). Most applications should call gdp_name_parse.
  • gdp_name_update — added.

New Applications

  • gdp-name-add

Security

New and Changed APIs

  • gdp_datum_vrfy — added.
  • gdp_open_info_set_vrfy — new API to turn on read-side proof (signature) validation.
  • Searches for secret keys slightly expanded: swarm.gdp.crypto.key.dir is now a search path.

Changed Applications

  • gdp-reader-V flag to verify read results.

Miscellaneous

New and Changed APIs

  • ep_dbg_backtrace — takes a file pointer parameter (used to default to the debug file).
  • ep_file_search — resolve a fliesystem search path (added).
  • ep_funclist_push — changed paramters for called function.
  • ep_time_diff_usec — added.
  • ep_time_from_nsec — new parameter.
  • ep_time_from_sec — added.
  • ep_time_from_usec — added.
  • ep_time_zero — added.

Changed Applications

  • gdp-reader-o flag to set data output location.
  • log-view — for the moment, no longer supported.

Changed Semantics

  • Environment can override administrative parameters (on a compile flag; may not survive the cut due to security issues).
  • Asynchronous results handled better (requires new generation of router). Previously large asynchronous data reads might terminate early in the presense of network glitches.
  • Some parameter renaming for consistency:
    • swarm.gdp.crypto.md.algswarm.gdp.crypto.digest.alg

Updated Version of GDP Coming

Added by Eric Allman almost 5 years ago

We will soon roll out an updated version of the Global Data Plane (GDP) with new functionality and better suited for continuing our research agenda. However, it will not be 100% compatible with the previous version. We'll continue to run the old system in parallel with the new system for a short time, but at some point you will need to do an upgrade if you need continuing service.

If you are using the legacy GDP, please let us know as soon as possible exactly what you are using, notably:

  • The C API library.
  • The Python API.
  • Java and/or Javascript API.
  • Command line clients (gdp-reader, gdp-writer, etc.)
  • The RESTful interface.
  • The Websockets interface.
  • The visualization interface at http://swarmnuc1022.eecs.berkeley.edu/static/.

This information will help us prioritize where we put our effort. Please send feedback to gdp-sysad@lists.eecs.berkeley.edu.

If you are interested in the new version, please subscribe to the news feed at https://gdp.cs.berkeley.edu/redmine/projects/gdp/news to get an announcement when it becomes available.

[To subscribe you will need to be a registered user and then click the "Watch" button on the news page. If you're not already registered, click the "Register" button at the top left of the screen. See the home page (https://gdp.cs.berkeley.edu/) for the registration policy.]

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