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authorRasmus Dahlberg <rasmus.dahlberg@kau.se>2021-03-17 13:09:40 +0100
committerRasmus Dahlberg <rasmus.dahlberg@kau.se>2021-03-17 13:09:40 +0100
commit1aeea6e06024951e3140fd48e4ae9aa50b321fef (patch)
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parent2e40357be25fa347337a227c97eb988aabb32d6e (diff)
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-# System Transparency Logging
-TODO: fixme.
+# System Transparency Front-End (STFE)
+STFE is a Trillian personality that allows you to transparency log signed
+artifact checksums. A client consuming artifacts may enforce that such logging
+takes place by mandating that there is a public trace of each artifact before
+even considering to trust it. We refer to such a trace as a signed checksum
+entry: it is composed of
+ an arbitrary identifier like `stfe_client v0.0.1`,
+ an artifact checksum,
+ a signature, and
+ a namespace that is derived from the public verification key.
+Tracking checksums as opposed to full-on artifacts makes it less costly to
+operate, monitor, and audit the log. Because these checksum entries are signed
+we can:
+1. **Facilitate detection of compromised signing keys**, e.g., a software
+publisher can inspect the log to see if there are any unexpected artifact
+checksums in their namespace.
+2. **Ensure that everyone observes the same artifacts**, e.g., there should
+never be two signed checksum entries with identical identifiers and namespaces
+but different checksums.
+
+The scope of STFE should not be confused with properties such as _prevention_ or
+even _recovery_ after detection. We are in the business of making things
+transparent and _that is it_.
+
+## What does it take to make an artifact public?
+We glanced over the term _public trace_ a bit to quickly before. Simply adding
+something into a transparency log serves a limited purpose unless (i) clients
+_fail-close_ if an artifact does not appear in a log, and (ii) everyone observes
+the same consistent transparency logs; meaning append-only, and that you and I
+both get the same entries and cryptographic proofs when consuming the logs. The
+first criteria requires several independent logs, such that the log ecosystem is
+reliable enough. The second criteria is often overlooked and requires a
+gossip-audit model. Therefore, we decided to build witness cosigning directly
+into STFE.
+
+The idea is that many independent witnesses _cosign_ the log's signed tree head
+(STH) if and only if they see a consistent append-only log. If enough reputable
+parties signed-off the log's cryptographic state, you can be pretty sure that
+you see the same log (and thus the same artifacts) as everyone else. Moreover,
+if you already rely on witness cosigning for security, all you need from your
+software publisher is an artifact, a public verification key, a cosigned
+STH, and an inclusion proof that is based on it. Let me clarify why that is
+excellent: client-side verification becomes completely non-interactive!
+
+## What has been done?
+STFE is in a proof-of-concept stage. We have a
+[sketch](https://github.com/system-transparency/stfe/blob/main/doc/sketch.md) of
+the log's API, which basically defines data structures, data formats, and
+HTTP(S) endpoints. Be warned that it is a living design document that may be
+incomplete and subject to major revisions. For example, we are currently
+thinking about data formats and which parsers are reasonable to (not) force onto
+the client-side tooling.
+
+In the near future we will setup a public STFE prototype with zero promises of
+uptime, stability, etc. In the meantime you may get your hands dirty by running
+things locally. Rough documentation is available
+[here](https://github.com/system-transparency/stfe/blob/main/server/README.md).
+
+There is a basic client (warning: _basic_) that can be used to interact with the
+log, e.g., to add-entries and verify inclusion proofs against an STH. We have
+yet to add client-side support for STFE's witness cosigning APIs.