Wildland documentation (legacy)

⚠️ Warning: This documentation refers to the proof-of-concept implementation of Wildland client (opens new window) which is no longer maintained. We are currently working on a new Wildland client written in Rust. To learn more about Wildland and the current status of its development, please visit the Wildland.io webpage (opens new window).

# Group Users

Every Wildland user may contain multiple references to other users and therefore become a group user. These group users are especially useful when wanting to share content with a group of users and/or wanting to allow other users to sign manifests (e.g. containers) in the group user's name.

Let's assume we have two users, Yatima and Inoshiro.

yatima@wildland-client:~$ wl user create yatima
Generated key: 0x78d9dc1cee7220437e7b17184eda06258d8b6de740a505dfddc47ff8d7b981fa
No path specified, using: /users/yatima
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/yatima.user.yaml
Using 0x78d9dc1cee7220437e7b17184eda06258d8b6de740a505dfddc47ff8d7b981fa as @default
Using 0x78d9dc1cee7220437e7b17184eda06258d8b6de740a505dfddc47ff8d7b981fa as @default-owner
Adding 0x78d9dc1cee7220437e7b17184eda06258d8b6de740a505dfddc47ff8d7b981fa to local owners

inoshiro@wildland-client:~$ wl user create inoshiro
Generated key: 0x6f6310b6850cf2136c845ec7a87735bc3dda07112145b47d11f3031be2359fd7
No path specified, using: /users/inoshiro
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/inoshiro.user.yaml
Using 0x6f6310b6850cf2136c845ec7a87735bc3dda07112145b47d11f3031be2359fd7 as @default
Using 0x6f6310b6850cf2136c845ec7a87735bc3dda07112145b47d11f3031be2359fd7 as @default-owner
Adding 0x6f6310b6850cf2136c845ec7a87735bc3dda07112145b47d11f3031be2359fd7 to local owners

Additionally, we create a group user called Office:

office@wildland-client:~$ wl user create office
Generated key: 0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2
No path specified, using: /users/office
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/office.user.yaml
Using 0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2 as @default
Using 0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2 as @default-owner
Adding 0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2 to local owners

office@wildland-client:~$ wl user import ~/downloads/yatima.user.yaml
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/yatima.user.yaml
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/bridges/yatima.bridge.yaml

office@wildland-client:~$ wl user import ~/downloads/inoshiro.user.yaml
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/inoshiro.user.yaml
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/bridges/inoshiro.bridge.yaml

Add Yatima and Inoshiro to Office:

office@wildland-client:~$ wl user modify --add-pubkey-user yatima --add-pubkey-user inoshiro office
Pubkeys found in [yatima]:
  RWTE+IfGvuDCmSpSAFs8volo5W+IWKaJA4l7gOS+aohnWUNZ2zCfo1RJ57dqwwpNzsp5RAj7EaaVf7B59IyyNpIg
Pubkeys found in [inoshiro]:
  RWQXf5ileNA3CNps++nyaQ7+XjMxoSDET5cbTHiAvZcGhLVy2AwTNvoI7Hcj+IAhzHpH7vHE5JH7d3PMRSiGcCN1
Saved: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/office.user.yaml

The Office user now contains three public keys:

office@wildland-client:~$ wl user dump office
object: user
owner: '0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2'
paths:
- /users/office
manifests-catalog: []
pubkeys:
- RWRnr+NkBoQit+kn7l/1RHDjWO4IKfPyxhaROpPW4F7m1UoLSn7Z1q1x7TbK0R3Dc/buKMs/MUAqPbMNXk0T7lEn
- RWTE+IfGvuDCmSpSAFs8volo5W+IWKaJA4l7gOS+aohnWUNZ2zCfo1RJ57dqwwpNzsp5RAj7EaaVf7B59IyyNpIg
- RWQXf5ileNA3CNps++nyaQ7+XjMxoSDET5cbTHiAvZcGhLVy2AwTNvoI7Hcj+IAhzHpH7vHE5JH7d3PMRSiGcCN1
version: '1'

Note that the Office user now contains three pubkeys with the first one being the Office user's pubkey, while the remaining ones are Yatima's and Inoshiro's respectively.

Now each resource where access is set to Office will be encrypted using all three pubkeys, allowing for Yatima and Inoshiro to read manifest contents encrypted with the Office user.

office@wildland-client:~$ wl c create --access office access-test
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/containers/access-test.container.yaml

office@wildland-client:~$ cat ~/.config/wildland/containers/access-test.container.yaml
signature: |
0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2:KgeMIh5KsynCCldzjVKudGGufZylwIdjYD4RP8CZKRR2O9jC01fCGjQ1x5guVXRaToXlCucxo/jqKNsIClE5AA==
---
encrypted:
  encrypted-data: vkYcpRmMd4y0JYslKs0iH6JAWfo9khYsD17TSmiKV24IB28QIgF4FvW2BJBOP+w8FiQ7KbuTyucbCttahqv15C7eOCKS4VQacsecykyyCjP9jKlqTS3j2Mr1McqSPs7HJFl9FeXSD//9Hg6mTOT3Ytg7P4ombmnQSzA3OTXMKs3D1mwEgOr9vo3saE7ikLTuZAbNQm4gU+3JzUfzZ9kxOOTV1JmbV05Of8HTwNBS5kvl5MjBR9MDB/zmSku7r9ajWz45kaotJehlGGQrS+N5jcR3gOZWPhRSGw65a2HgRIPHuGcKqW3U5rA04gr6GA3tTwPbTQ3kLXRuvi4Iziv0EMtB3GHolODbWLYXA7eiejXVFMAfFbB94Wjf7dFsmhFxjnksjHDDqg3vj2bJjNyVkwxrXAaIlMdgaydekVOr8B/0DCLebWT29k4qfo1qcfxA
  encrypted-keys:
  - GLivFv/5cDIvsdDiybIWPjJOzwv/9a44cJkSEOXU9DuHLRUWZU29EnqT80q7pwsggS7L5N20Q+En+ACmYwV892sJLdDSXWhF8iQvr+dR+XA=
  - XBjNHqgZvhVal/GzRs16XV1DnSSCXAzLsS9Ds40v/z8Xj+azrU1LotTRbVgwtfSAt+3tb4T+4NreaDGI6sS8fVc4Zn/qY/NAhSyPskuz5B8=
  - zvpd1mtxLzJUQ+ZVlKO5Ap51+6papAe6NS4tjrvGaR16Wv9pBd4stXLmwdH+8zu6+2IJAxpVZWMtzjrgCPIMTXBVkh/BME+ao3ugD96J4PU=

Yatima's machine:

yatima@wildland-client:~$ wl user import ~/downloads/office.user.yaml
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/users/office.user.yaml
Created: /home/user/.config/wildland/bridges/office.bridge.yaml

yatima@wildland-client:~$ wl dump ~/downloads/access-test.container.yaml
object: container
owner: '0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2'
paths:
- /.uuid/8020e58c-c926-422d-bd0c-05b541c54f1d
backends:
  storage: []
title: null
categories: []
version: '1'
access:
- user: '0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2'

As you can see, Yatima was able to read the encrypted container created with the --access office parameter. Note that both the container's owner and the container's access is set to 0x10f613dfd929a86e86ffe8cbbbd6bd4f3751ddc411d36408d7d23eac36b28ff2 which is Office's signature.

What's more, Yatima will now be able to re-sign (or edit) the container, even though she is not directly an owner of that container, but a part of the group user that owns the container.

yatima@wildland-client:~$ wl sign -i ~/downloads/access-test.container.yaml
Saving: /home/user/downloads/access-test.container.yaml

yatima@wildland-client:~$ cat ~/downloads/access-test.container.yaml
signature: |
0x78d9dc1cee7220437e7b17184eda06258d8b6de740a505dfddc47ff8d7b981fa:TdH7t245wIEGWgxuQvGlHa4Q1RfosBh5FDcuRvB62rArm+D6vx9ar3W8AGUWO1bNhKr3AhhdjcxIZKtzs38iAg==
---
encrypted:
  encrypted-data: N0FiwldIkiBFFXVkwvDnzNl7npcR5LvfNp1Knz3x7XYNFtjZwnLVKZAYEActcOJ1EFTdYIfF80vNy5z8N0YJ+FpIV2mFG0ko2g0F4rWqtLQFXq2ytfU/w7skggwlZ4s6xB23zUzpCMGSZ9HYM6ZNGIfgUkEyUwWdoWNhO2I8A17N5+APP1G/E7X6JrRWs0ipvg9gjvciIEmt8CxBk2h7JLYWUvd4z90vvXhWaRlh56LNz3sYyLgQDus79RNtfxzgWL2WEMjAXlI1WFI6JqQFIKOg7KVEtxylDM/1U3/9GAUrN8kozkdNKJAoyoRwpK/Tg8wgROT/yWhH7VdhcLj2ZkQEUSBmSi8ipD57V645qhXdkVVlVjEBBKkDVDgsXV0yWnMOJIdLKX3lDSTplllPGexMWzR7XrSnQFb8UQ5AwUj5OY5UjA02t3vXBs/ASgo6
  encrypted-keys:
  - LwfzhAxJeevwaeyPsxLNz0kCntSgeCNthwSI9/SNOi0XzOWrnbbUDe9bSyRjZ6vV7rWRlx6MnZEtPEbjcovShBdgj7traJtfa2bYvh81cLk=
  - vEteiokS9LEh6WM4gVJu3LeLQy28OY5iRs8fPWO+jg3XhO6bCTlgk40a1Btc7u8059kF5dJFqvnBuiJHrI50f2umPaaMJH0kesRMi6wMAL0=
  - CpZU0WUsfVTc/2TCZFJfVYLRNeiYghptwvYzlzIWTDUMhvR6LPVw3QkhEmatFhF6tD5VPCZcfo08poxz7wO7Vvr0lw/lcgXJTQ+cFyopbss=

# Encrypting, signing and ownership in a group user

To digitally sign a manifest as a specific user, you need that user's private key. If so, how was Yatima able to sign a manifest owned by Office? It was possible because in fact Yatima didn't sign the manifest as Office but as Yatima.

Note that after Yatima re-signed the container, the signature shows 0x78... which is Yatima's signature (even though the container's owner is still Office). That is because Yatima cannot sign a manifest as if she were Office - that would allow any group user to impersonate the group user itself, something that could be easily abused. The container is therefore signed by Yatima but other users (here only Inoshiro), will consider this manifest as valid because Yatima's pubkey is part of the Office user, who owns the container.

If a user is a group user (i.e. has more than 1 pubkey in it's pubkeys), Wildland will recognize any manifest owned by the group user, but signed by any of the group user's members, as a valid manifest.

Encrypting a manifest, based on the access field, uses a non-deterministic and asymmetric encryption algorithm which is not part of the manifest validation and/or ownership. It merely tells Wildland which public keys should be used to encrypt the contents. For that very reason, when a group user is specified in the access field, Wildland will use all pubkeys of that user to encrypt the manifest contents.

← Encryption Backend →