Sascha,
That's all fine; my only reasoning on step 4 was simply that we could provide a
more detailed, controlled error message by checking for the key ourselves. I
actually don't feel strongly on that point.
- Gabriel
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sascha Peilicke [mailto:sasc...@suse.de]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 9:05 AM
> To: Gabriel Hurley; openstack@lists.launchpad.net
> Cc: Paul McMillan
> Subject: Re: [Openstack] [Blueprint automatic-secure-key-generation]
> Automatic SECURE_KEY generation
>
> Hi guys,
>
> according from your answers, I believe we're still trying to tackle slightly
> different issues, so I'd like step back a bit and try to sum up our
> discussion.
> Please correct me where I am wrong.
>
> I think we all agree that the SECRET_KEY should be protected as much as
> possible, via sensible file permissions, restricted access to the dashboard
> machine(s)/VM(s), HTTPS and all that jazz. One should also set
> SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE, SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY and
> CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE appropriately. We also agree that a key has to be
> generated somehow and no default key should be provided (given the ability
> to abuse it easily). So the only remaining question is about _when_ to
> actually set the key.
>
> You both seem to want a key generated automatically for development
> environments (and thus, for run_tests.sh), possible by also asking the user if
> he wants that or not. That's a worthy thing to do and I'll try to address
> this in
> the way Gabriel proposed (see below). So only "production" deployments
> are left. There, I see (roughly) two scenarios that may occur in practice:
>
> - One dashboard instance on one machine/VM served by one or multiple
> python interpreters (through Apache+mod_wsgi or whatever)
>
> - Multiple dashboard instances, split over multiple machines, where each
> may use one or more interpreters
>
> In both cases, we would have to make sure that all dashboard instances have
> the _same_ SECRET_KEY available before starting up (to the latest at the
> time they read their settings.py). Besides letting this be done by the admin
> manually, there's the option to automate this. Obviously, this may be
> different depending on how dashboard(s) are deployed:
>
> 1. Centralized tools like crowbar/chef/puppet There you can set/generate
> the key on the central controller / admin node and push to all "dashboard"
> nodes and be done (simplified, I know).
>
> 2. Packages
> Generally, you can generate a key upon installation, which would be unique
> for one machine. Won't work for multiple-machine deployments.
>
> 3. Appliance images
> Similarly, you can generate the key while booting up. You can't use the
> packaging approach as there is no package installation phase. Again, won't
> work in the multiple-machine scenario.
>
> 4. Deploy from tarballs / git / ...
> Not a real option, IMHO.
>
> So, multiple-machine deployments will only work via centralized mechanisms
> (this seems to match current practice) whereas single-machine deployments
> do have some room for further automation.
>
> My original idea was to provide an option to simplify 2. and 3. and pretend
> that the admin does the right thing in case 1. and hopefully 4.
> (like it is done currently for all cases). BTW, it should also work in case
> 1. if the
> PATH in "get_from_file(PATH)" points to an NFS export, but that's another
> story ;-)
>
> So how about this: Only provide extra convenience / security for the
> developer (but ask him) and set nothing by default in production, but only
> document how one could do it in local_settings.py.example.
>
>
> Either way, sorry for the lengthy mail :-)
>
>
> On 06/19/2012 09:45 PM, Gabriel Hurley wrote:
> > That's looking pretty good, Sascha. May I suggest:
> >
> > 1. Instead of using the temporary lockfile, let's actually move slightly
> > back
> towards your original approach and check for the existence of a known
> secret key file (added to .gitignore of course) which the get_secret_key
> function can check for.
> This is actually how get_secret_key() stil works, the only difference to what
> you have in mind is that it also generates the key-file if it doesn't exist.
> The
> lockfile is used in order to avoid a potential race of multiple Python
> processes
> each trying to create the secret key file if it doesn't exist. If the key is
> already
> available, this whole thing would not be needed, true.
>
> The only thing that is missing are more secure file permissions for the
> key-file
> (I would address that).
>
>
> > 2. Split the code that generates the secret key into a separate function
> generate_secret_key which can be used at will.
> >
> > 2. In the run_tests.sh script (meant for developers, really not used in
> production deployments), have it check for a valid secret key in either the
> settings file itself or the known secret key file as part of the sanity check
> for
> the environment. If a valid secret key is not available, have it ask the user
> if
> they'd like to automatically generate a secret key (using
> generate_secret_key). Make sure this also respects the -q/--quiet flag for
> non-interactive runs like Jenkins.
> >
> > 3. Drop lines 25-29 in the local_settings.py.example in your branch, and
> uncomment line 31. I liked removing the example SECRET_KEY that exists in
> the example settings file like in your first patch. Even leaving it in as a
> comment encourages people to simply uncomment it and use the recycled
> insecure key. Let's take that back out and just keep your explanatory text,
> which is spot-on.
> Those points are all sound and I'll do as you propose.
>
> > 4. Modify the get_secret_key function so that if a valid key is not
> > available
> (e.g. this is production and we didn't use run_tests.sh to install the
> environment) it dies with a very explanatory error message indicating that a
> secret key must be set.
> I think this would not be any different than _not_ setting a SECRET_KEY at
> all,
> except that the key would be stored in another file. So this implies Paul's
> solution to not set anything by default (in production).
>
> > I know that's a lot to take in, but I think it walks the cleanest line
> > between
> making it super-easy for developers while making sure everyone is aware of
> what's going on.
> >
> > If you'll do that and push the review to Gerrit I'll be totally in support
> > of it.
> Hehe, I'll push something tomorrow and will pester you both again.
> --
> With kind regards,
> Sascha Peilicke
> SUSE Linux GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, D-90409 Nuernberg, Germany
> GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendörffer HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg)
>
>
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