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NAME
add_key - add a key to the kernel's key management facility
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <keyutils.h>
key_serial_t add_key(const char *type, const char *description,
const void *payload, size_t plen,
key_serial_t keyring);
No glibc wrapper is provided for this system call; see NOTES.
DESCRIPTION
add_key() creates or updates a key of the given type and description, instantiates it with
the payload of length plen, attaches it to the nominated keyring, and returns the key's
serial number.
The key may be rejected if the provided data is in the wrong format or it is invalid in
some other way.
If the destination keyring already contains a key that matches the specified type and
description, then, if the key type supports it, that key will be updated rather than a new
key being created; if not, a new key (with a different ID) will be created and it will
displace the link to the extant key from the keyring.
The destination keyring serial number may be that of a valid keyring for which the caller
has write permission. Alternatively, it may be one of the following special keyring IDs:
KEY_SPEC_THREAD_KEYRING
This specifies the caller's thread-specific keyring (thread-keyring(7)).
KEY_SPEC_PROCESS_KEYRING
This specifies the caller's process-specific keyring (process-keyring(7)).
KEY_SPEC_SESSION_KEYRING
This specifies the caller's session-specific keyring (session-keyring(7)).
KEY_SPEC_USER_KEYRING
This specifies the caller's UID-specific keyring (user-keyring(7)).
KEY_SPEC_USER_SESSION_KEYRING
This specifies the caller's UID-session keyring (user-session-keyring(7)).
Key types
The key type is a string that specifies the key's type. Internally, the kernel defines a
number of key types that are available in the core key management code. Among the types
that are available for user-space use and can be specified as the type argument to
add_key() are the following:
"keyring"
Keyrings are special key types that may contain links to sequences of other keys of
any type. If this interface is used to create a keyring, then payload should be
NULL and plen should be zero.
"user" This is a general purpose key type whose payload may be read and updated by user-
space applications. The key is kept entirely within kernel memory. The payload
for keys of this type is a blob of arbitrary data of up to 32,767 bytes.
"logon" (since Linux 3.3)
This key type is essentially the same as "user", but it does not permit the key to
read. This is suitable for storing payloads that you do not want to be readable
from user space.
This key type vets the description to ensure that it is qualified by a "service" prefix,
by checking to ensure that the description contains a ':' that is preceded by other
characters.
"big_key" (since Linux 3.13)
This key type is similar to "user", but may hold a payload of up to 1 MiB. If the
key payload is large enough, then it may be stored encrypted in tmpfs (which can be
swapped out) rather than kernel memory.
For further details on these key types, see keyrings(7).
RETURN VALUE
On success, add_key() returns the serial number of the key it created or updated. On
error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the cause of the error.
ERRORS
EACCES The keyring wasn't available for modification by the user.
EDQUOT The key quota for this user would be exceeded by creating this key or linking it to
the keyring.
EFAULT One or more of type, description, and payload points outside process's accessible
address space.
EINVAL The size of the string (including the terminating null byte) specified in type or
description exceeded the limit (32 bytes and 4096 bytes respectively).
EINVAL The payload data was invalid.
EINVAL type was "logon" and the description was not qualified with a prefix string of the
form "service:".
EKEYEXPIRED
The keyring has expired.
EKEYREVOKED
The keyring has been revoked.
ENOKEY The keyring doesn't exist.
ENOMEM Insufficient memory to create a key.
EPERM The type started with a period ('.'). Key types that begin with a period are
reserved to the implementation.
EPERM type was "keyring" and the description started with a period ('.'). Keyrings with
descriptions (names) that begin with a period are reserved to the implementation.
VERSIONS
This system call first appeared in Linux 2.6.10.
CONFORMING TO
This system call is a nonstandard Linux extension.
NOTES
No wrapper for this system call is provided in glibc. A wrapper is provided in the
libkeyutils package. When employing the wrapper in that library, link with -lkeyutils.
EXAMPLE
The program below creates a key with the type, description, and payload specified in its
command-line arguments, and links that key into the session keyring. The following shell
session demonstrates the use of the program:
$ ./a.out user mykey "Some payload"
Key ID is 64a4dca
$ grep '64a4dca' /proc/keys
064a4dca I--Q--- 1 perm 3f010000 1000 1000 user mykey: 12
Program source
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <keyutils.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
key_serial_t key;
if (argc != 4) {
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s type description payload\n",
argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
key = add_key(argv[1], argv[2], argv[3], strlen(argv[3]),
KEY_SPEC_SESSION_KEYRING);
if (key == -1) {
perror("add_key");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("Key ID is %lx\n", (long) key);
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
SEE ALSO
keyctl(1), keyctl(2), request_key(2), keyctl(3), keyrings(7), keyutils(7),
persistent-keyring(7), process-keyring(7), session-keyring(7), thread-keyring(7),
user-keyring(7), user-session-keyring(7)
The kernel source files Documentation/security/keys/core.rst and
Documentation/keys/request-key.rst (or, before Linux 4.13, in the files
Documentation/security/keys.txt and Documentation/security/keys-request-key.txt).
COLOPHON
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project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.