Ubuntu Manpage: password-agent - Run Mandos client as a systemd password agent.

name
synopsis
description
purpose
options
overview
exit status
environment
files
bugs
example
security
see also
copyright
notes

Provided by: mandos-client_1.8.9-2_amd64

NAME

       password-agent - Run Mandos client as a systemd password agent.

SYNOPSIS

       password-agent [--agent-directory=DIRECTORY]
                      [--helper-directory=DIRECTORY]
                      [--user=USERID]
                      [--group=GROUPID]
                      [--] [MANDOS_CLIENT [OPTIONS...]]

       password-agent --test

       password-agent {--help | -?}

       password-agent --usage

       password-agent {--version | -V}

DESCRIPTION

       password-agent is a program which is meant to be a systemd(1) “Password Agent” (See Password Agents[1]).
       The aim of this program is therefore to acquire and then send a password to some other program which will
       use the password to unlock the encrypted root disk.

       This program is not meant to be invoked directly, but can be in order to test it.

PURPOSE

       The purpose of this is to enable remote and unattended rebooting of client host computer with an
       encrypted root file system. See the section called “OVERVIEW” for details.

OPTIONS

--agent-directory DIRECTORY
Specify a different agent directory. The default is “/run/systemd/ask-password” as per the Password
Agents[1] specification.

--helper-directory DIRECTORY
Specify a different helper directory. The default is “/lib/mandos/plugin-helpers”, which will exist
in the initial RAM disk environment. (This will simply be passed to the MANDOS_CLIENT program via the
MANDOSPLUGINHELPERDIR environment variable. See mandos-client(8mandos).)

--user USERID
Change real user ID to USERID when running MANDOS_CLIENT. The default is 65534. Note: This must be a
number, not a name.

--group GROUPID
Change real group ID to GROUPID when running MANDOS_CLIENT. The default is 65534. Note: This must be
a number, not a name.

MANDOS_CLIENT
This specifies the file name for mandos-client(8mandos). If the “--” option is given, any following
options are passed to the MANDOS_CLIENT program. The default is “/lib/mandos/plugins.d/mandos-client”
(which is the correct location for the initial RAM disk environment) without any options.

--help, -?
Gives a help message about options and their meanings.

--test
Ignore normal operation; instead only run self-tests. Adding the --help option may show more options
possible in combination with --test.

--usage
Gives a short usage message.

--version, -V
Prints the program version.

OVERVIEW

This is part of the Mandos system for allowing computers to have encrypted root file systems and at the
same time be capable of remote and/or unattended reboots. The computers run a small client program in the
initial RAM disk environment which will communicate with a server over a network. All network
communication is encrypted using TLS. The clients are identified by the server using a TLS key; each
client has one unique to it. The server sends the clients an encrypted password. The encrypted password
is decrypted by the clients using a separate OpenPGP key, and the password is then used to unlock the
root file system, whereupon the computers can continue booting normally.

This program, password-agent, will run on the client side in the initial RAM disk environment, and is
responsible for getting a password from the Mandos client program itself, and to send that password to
whatever is currently asking for a password using the systemd Password Agents[1] mechanism.

To accomplish this, password-agent runs the mandos-client program (which is the actual client program
communicating with the Mandos server) or, alternatively, any executable file specified as MANDOS_CLIENT,
and, as soon as a password is acquired from the MANDOS_CLIENT program, sends that password (as per the
Password Agents[1] specification) to all currently unanswered password questions.

This program should be started (normally as a systemd service, which in turn is normally started by a
systemd.path(5) file) as a reaction to files named “ask.xxxx” appearing in the agent directory
“/run/systemd/ask-password” (or the directory specified by --agent-directory).

EXIT STATUS

       Exit status of this program is zero if no errors were encountered, and otherwise not.

ENVIRONMENT

       This program does not use any environment variables itself, it only passes on its environment to
       MANDOS_CLIENT. Also, the --helper-directory option will affect the environment variable
       MANDOSPLUGINHELPERDIR for MANDOS_CLIENT.

FILES

       /run/systemd/ask-password
           The default directory to watch for password questions as per the Password Agents[1] specification;
           can be changed by the --agent-directory option.

       /lib/mandos/plugin-helpers
           The helper directory as supplied to MANDOS_CLIENT via the MANDOSPLUGINHELPERDIR environment variable;
           can be changed by the --helper-directory option.

BUGS

       Please report bugs to the Mandos development mailing list: <mandos-dev@recompile.se> (subscription
       required). Note that this list is public. The developers can be reached privately at
       <mandos@recompile.se> (OpenPGP key fingerprint 153A 37F1 0BBA 0435 987F 2C4A 7223 2973 CA34 C2C4 for
       encrypted mail).

EXAMPLE

       Normal invocation needs no options:

       password-agent

       Run an alternative MANDOS_CLIENT program::

       password-agent /usr/local/sbin/alternate

       Use alternative locations for the helper directory and the Mandos client, and add extra options suitable
       for running in the normal file system:

       password-agent --helper-directory=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mandos/plugin-helpers --
       /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mandos/plugins.d/mandos-client --pubkey=/etc/keys/mandos/pubkey.txt
       --seckey=/etc/keys/mandos/seckey.txt --tls-pubkey=/etc/keys/mandos/tls-pubkey.pem
       --tls-privkey=/etc/keys/mandos/tls-privkey.pem

       Use the default location for mandos-client(8mandos), but add many options to it:

       password-agent -- /lib/mandos/mandos-client --pubkey=/etc/mandos/keys/pubkey.txt
       --seckey=/etc/mandos/keys/seckey.txt --tls-pubkey=/etc/mandos/keys/tls-pubkey.pem
       --tls-privkey=/etc/mandos/keys/tls-privkey.pem

       Only run the self-tests:

       password-agent --test

SECURITY

       This program will need to run as the root user in order to read the agent directory and the “ask.xxxx”
       files there, and will, when starting the Mandos client program, require the ability to set the “real”
       user and group ids to another user, by default user and group 65534, which are assumed to be
       non-privileged. This is done in order to match the expectations of mandos-client(8mandos), which assumes
       that its executable file is owned by the root user and also has the set-user-ID bit set (see execve(2)).

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2019 Teddy Hogeborn, Björn Påhlsson

       This manual page is part of Mandos.

       Mandos is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
       Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your
       option) any later version.

       Mandos is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
       implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
       License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Mandos. If not, see
       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

NOTES

        1. Password Agents
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PasswordAgents/