diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'glep-0012.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | glep-0012.rst | 190 |
1 files changed, 190 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/glep-0012.rst b/glep-0012.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d97e57d --- /dev/null +++ b/glep-0012.rst @@ -0,0 +1,190 @@ +GLEP: 12 +Title: Gentoo.org Finger Daemon +Version: $Revision$ +Last-Modified: $Date$ +Author: Tavis Ormandy <taviso@gentoo.org> +Status: Rejected +Type: Standards Track +Created: 10-Aug-2003 +Post-History: 11-Aug-2003 + +Reason for rejection +==================== + +Information about Gentoo development is already significantly fragmented. +Although this GLEP has its merits, the fact that it is a separate source +of information, rather than simply another conduit to existing sources +of information, poses more problems than it solves. Were this GLEP to +be resubmitted/modified so that finger was nothing more than an interface +into existing sources of information, it would probably be accepted. + + +Abstract +======== + +The finger protocol is documented in rfc742 [1]_ and rfc1196 [2]_, a simple +protocol that returns a human readable report about a particular user +of the system. Typically, the information returned will be details such as +full name, location, etc. These details are entirely optional and are obtained +from the system passwd file, which of course can be edited or removed with the +standard chfn(1) [3]_ command. + +The finger daemon will also return the contents of three files from the users home +directory, should they exist and be readable. + + + * ~/.project - which should contain information about the project currently being worked on. + * ~/.plan - which might contain work being done or a TODO style list. + * ~/.pgpkey - which would contain a PGP/GnuPG [4]_ public key block. + +The finger protocol is mature, secure and widely used in the UNIX community. +There are clients available for all major operating systems, and web-based +clients for those that don't. + +Motivation +========== + +Gentoo developers are already aware of the importance of User Relations [9]_ . + +It is essential to keep the community up to date with current goals, status +updates, and information from the development team. Currently it is suggested +users track mailing lists, monitor the Gentoo Bugzilla, developer IRC +channels and cvs commits. + +While the resources to track developer progress and activity are made +available to users, they are not in a form usable to many people. Keeping +track of development is a tedious challenge, even for developers. For +non-technical users wishing to track the progress of a developer, using +mailing lists and Bugzilla may not be a practical option. + +Developers may also need a way to quickly find out the progress or activity of +other developers, different time zones sometimes makes it difficult for +developers to catch each other on IRC, and making already high-volume mailing +lists even more cluttered with status updates is not desirable. + +A method that would allow individual developers to keep a log of their +activities and plans that were instantly accessible to anyone who was +interested would be desirable, I propose running a finger daemon on +gentoo.org, or dev.gentoo.org and forwarding requests there from gentoo.org. + +Running a developer finger daemon would improve inter developer communication, +user communication and relations, and reduce workload on developers who have to +respond to queries from users on project status updates. + +In the future, it is foreseen that portage will require a cryptographically +secure means of verifying ebuilds acquired from an rsync mirror are identical +to those checked into the portage tree by a developer [10]_ . Making developer keys +available to users for manually checking the integrity of files, or patches +sent to them is important. It has long been known that encouraging the +use of gpg among developers is desirable [5]_ . + +Should a security vulnerability of a serious nature ever be reported, +standard procedure [6]_ is to inform vendors before releasing the information +to full disclosure security discussion lists. Making the relevant maintainer's +key easily obtainable will allow reporters to encrypt their reports. + +Rationale +========= + +Providing a finger daemon will allow users to instantly access information on +developers, and all details of that developers current projects that they decide +to share. + +GPG keys for all developers will be instantly available, and the output of the +finger devname@gentoo.org command can be piped into gpg --import to instantly +add it to the user's keyring. + +The following projects use finger for user-developer communications,:: + + Latest kernel releases, and developer information. + $ finger @kernel.org + + Developers and organisers are encouraged to keep .plans about their + activity. + $ finger nugget@distributed.net + + Latest NASA news, and information from engineers. + $ finger nasanews@space.mit.edu + + Slackware developers. + $ finger volkerdi@slackware.com + + FreeBSD developers. + $ finger nakai@freebsd.org + +Implementation and Security +=========================== + +Some admins are concerned about the security of running a finger daemon on their +machines, the class of security issues involved with the finger protocol are +commonly referred to as "information leaks" [7]_. + +This means an attacker may be able to use a finger daemon to identify valid +accounts on their target, which they would then try to obtain access to. + +This scenario does not apply to this implementation, as the Gentoo developer +names are already well publicised. [8]_ + +No security issues have ever been reported with the fingerd available in Gentoo +Portage. Finger is used worldwide by universities, unix systems, and development +projects. + +Adding dummy users, will be trivial and allow projects such as gentoo-docs, +gentoo-alpha, gentoo-ppc, etc to maintain .plans and .projects. This will allow +the projects to maintain more technical details or status updates not suitable +for their project webpages. + +Adding data to a plan is a lot simpler than updating webpages. + +Example Query +============= + +Should a user want information about the author, this might be the output of +a finger query:: + + $ finger taviso@gentoo.org + Login: taviso Name: Tavis Ormandy + Directory: /home/taviso Shell: /bin/bash + Last login: dd-mmm-yyyy + Mail last read dd-mmm-yyy + Project: + + Currently working on implementing XXX, and porting XXX to XXX. + + Plan: + + dd-mmm-yyyy + + Investigating bug #12345, testing patch provided in #12236 + + Write documentation for new features in XXX. + + dd-mmm-yyyy + + Contact acmesoft regarding license for xxx in portage. + + PGP Key: + + -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- + Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (Linux) + (...) + -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- + +References +========== + +.. [1] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0742.txt +.. [2] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1196.txt +.. [3] http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/pkgs/sys-apps/shadow.xml +.. [4] http://www.gnupg.org +.. [5] <20030629040521.4316b135.seemant@gentoo.org> +.. [6] http://www.oisafety.org/process.html +.. [7] http://search.linuxsecurity.com/cgi-bin/htsearch?words=information%20leak +.. [8] http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/devlist.xml +.. [9] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:ComRel +.. [10] http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030407-newsletter.xml + +Copyright +========= + +This document is released under the Open Publications License. |