Merge "Check for RSA key existence before accepting uploading data."

specs/proposed/rsa-key-existence-check.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+==============================================
+RSA Key Existence Check for Signed Data Upload
+==============================================
+
+Launchpad blueprint:
+
+
+RefStack recently added features to enable the uploading of data with key.
+Currently, RefStack accepts the uploaded data regardless of whether
+the public keys exist in RefStack or not. This document describes the
+validation process update needed to ensure that RefStack only accepts
+data with those keys that are previously imported into RefStack.
+
+
+Problem description
+===================
+
+Currently, the RefStack API server would accept the uploaded data regardless
+of whether the keys exist in RefStack or not. More importantly, those keys are
+used to associated the test data to the users. And, there is no enforcement
+that the keys used for data uploading must exist in RefStack. In addition,
+for security reasons, keys are expected to be updated from time to time.
+As a consequence of the non-existing or updated keys, some data will be
+inaccessible.
+
+
+Proposed change
+===============
+
+* RefStack API servers will check whether the key used to upload data exists in
+  the 'pubkeys' table and reject the data if it does not. Note that this method
+  of checking is possible because RefStack currently enforces a policy such
+  that there are no duplicate public keys in the database.  This implies that
+  no two users can have the same public key uploaded, key-pairs can not be
+  shared, and if a user creates a new openstackid account, he/she would have to
+  use a different key or delete the public key from his/her old account.
+
+* RefStack then associate the data to the user ID of the key owner by adding,
+  in the "meta" table, a "meta_key" named "user" with value being the "openid"
+  from the "user" table.
+
+
+Alternatives
+------------
+
+Alternatively, if RefStack wants to allow for key sharing among users in the
+future, an additional user identifier parameter such as user email is needed,
+besides the key, for data uploading.  In this case, RefStack will check for
+for the existence of the key in the user's profile.
+
+As for orphan data management, RefStack may want to implement a limited life
+time policy for data without owner associated to them.
+
+Open to other suggestions.
+
+
+Data model impact
+-----------------
+
+None.
+
+There is no data modal change needed.
+
+
+REST API impact
+---------------
+
+None
+
+
+Security impact
+---------------
+
+None
+
+Notifications impact
+--------------------
+
+None
+
+Other end user impact
+---------------------
+
+None
+
+Performance Impact
+------------------
+
+None
+
+Other deployer impact
+---------------------
+
+None
+
+
+Developer impact
+----------------
+
+None
+
+
+Implementation
+==============
+
+Assignee(s)
+-----------
+
+Primary assignee:
+  TBD
+
+Other contributors:
+  TBD
+
+Work Items
+----------
+
+* RefStack API server will need to validate the existing of the key in RefStack
+
+
+Dependencies
+============
+
+None
+
+
+Testing
+=======
+
+None
+
+
+Documentation Impact
+====================
+
+None
+
+
+References
+==========
+
+None