I would like to propose adding experimental support for including a
PGP signature in R source packages. This would make it possible to
verify the identity of the package author and integrity of the package
sources.
There are two ways to implement this. Assuming GnuPG is on the PATH,
the CMD build script could call:
gpg --clearsign MD5 -o MD5.gpg
Alternatively the 'gpg' R package provides a more portable method via
the gpgme C library. This method works on Windows / macOS as well.
writeLines(gpg::gpg_sign("MD5"), "MD5.gpg")
Attached is an example implementation of the latter (also available at
https://git.io/vPb9G) which has been tested with several versions of
GnuPG. It exposes an optional flag for CMD build, i.e:
R CMD build somepkg --sign
R CMD build somepkg --sign=jeroen.o...@stat.ucla.edu
The --sign flag creates a signature for the MD5 file [1] in the source
package and saves it as MD5.gpg (similar to a Debian 'Release.gpg'
file [2]). Obviously the package author or build server needs to have
a suitable private key in the local keyring.
## Signature verification
Once R supports signed packages, we can develop a system to take
advantage of such signatures. The verification itself can easily be
implemented via 'gpg --verify' or via gpg::gpg_verify() and could be
performed without changes in R itself. The difficult part in GPG comes
from defining which peers should be trusted.
But even without a 'web of trust' there are several ways one can
immediately take advantage of signatures. For example, when a
installing a package update or dev-version of a package, we can verify
that the signature of the update matches that of the currently
installed package. This would prevent the type of attacks where an
intermediate party pushes a fake malicious update for a popular R
package via e.g. a hacked CRAN mirror.
Eventually, CRAN could consider allowing signatures as a secure
alternative to confirmation emails, and signing packages on the build
servers with a CRAN GPG key, similar to Debian repositories. For now,
at least establishing a format for (optionally) signing packages would
be a great first step.
[1] Eventually we should add SHA256 and SHA256.sig in addition to MD5
[2]
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/gpg/vignettes/intro.html#debian_example
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